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Better believe Auburn's fully capable of beating Florida State
By Kevin Scarbinsky
kscarbinsky@al.com AL.com


One day after putting up the most points in SEC Championship Game history, the Auburn Tigers got shut out.



Story of their season.



Underrated and overlooked. Still. All evidence to the contrary.



Not a single one of the 62 coaches who vote in the USA Today put the Tigers on the top of his final ballot. Florida State was a unanimous No. 1, and Auburn, while a strong runner-up, wasn't unanimous at the No. 2 spot.



Michigan State's Mark Dantonio and West Virginia's Dana Holgorsen both put Auburn at No. 3 behind Michigan State.



Gus Malzahn didn't have a vote.



Coaches aren't the only ones that like the Seminoles over the Tigers. Oddsmakers have installed Florida State as a touchdown or so favorite in the Jan. 6 BCS Championship Game.



You know what means. Auburn has the Seminoles right where it wants them.



No one has challenged Florida State for close to 60 minutes all season. FSU's offensive players haven't started a single possession this season knowing that if they didn't score, they wouldn't win. FSU's defensive players haven't started a single drive this year knowing that if they didn't get a stop, they'd lose.



The Seminoles haven't trailed for a single second in the second half all season. They haven't trailed at any point in a game since the second quarter against Boston College on Sept. 28. That was 571 minutes of football ago.



You know what that means. Florida State hasn't been tested.



Auburn played a much tougher schedule to get to 12-1 than FSU did to reach 13-0. The Tigers went 4-1 against teams in the top 25 of the final BCS rankings. The Seminoles went 2-0.



Auburn's biggest wins came over current No. 3 Alabama and No. 7 Missouri in its last two games in the span of eight days. Florida State' biggest victories were against No. 12 Clemson and No. 24 Duke.



Auburn was the only team to beat Missouri in regulation, and the Tigers did it with authority Saturday 59-42. Auburn was the only team to beat Alabama, period, and the Tigers did that by outscoring the Tide 27-7 over the last two quarters and two minutes.



Jimbo Fisher has done an outstanding job at Florida State taking over for Bobby Bowden and turning the Seminoles back into a national power. Fisher is 44-10 in four years as the head coach in Tallahassee, and he's 3-0 in bowl games, but he's about to face his most difficult test.



He has to convince his players that Auburn isn't Clemson without a lake.



Fisher understands Auburn football. He spent six years as an assistant there under Terry Bowden. ESPN's Rece Davis asked Fisher Sunday night what he stood out to him from his time at Auburn.



"The commitment to football," Fisher said. "The commitment to excellence."



One example: Auburn has won more SEC championships than anyone else the last 10 years. The Tigers have three (2004, 2010 and 2013) under three different head coaches.



Outsiders tend to focus on the negatives when they look at the Tigers, and a lot of analysts and experts will do the same between now and Jan. 6. Fisher knows better.



Auburn isn't just capable of challenging Florida State. Auburn is fully capable of beating FSU. The Tigers have defied the odds, the oddsmakers and other coaches all season in their memorable rise from worst to first.



Why stop now?