One Iron Bowl experience is all it takes to get hooked, no matter the background.
Najee Harris was the nation's No. 1 running back in the 2017 recruiting class and signed with Alabama, which meant leaving California and quickly encountering the most riveting rivalry college football has to offer.
"I didn't really know anything about any of the rivalries, especially in the South," Harris said this week. "The only one I knew was USC-UCLA, but when I came here, I started hearing about the Iron Bowl, and I knew nothing about it. Experiencing my first Iron Bowl my freshman year, the environment was crazy. It's a huge game that people out here take very seriously.
"Since they take it seriously, I have to take it seriously. I lost my first Iron Bowl, and they stormed the field."
For the past generation and then some, no rivalry has contained the fervor, the national impact and the back-and-forth competition of Alabama-Auburn, which resumes Saturday afternoon when the No. 1 Crimson Tide (7-0) - minus coach Nick Saban due to a positive COVID-19 test - host Gus Malzahn's No. 22 Tigers (5-2) inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alabama holds a 46-37-1 advantage in a series that began in 1893 but was halted in 1907 due to a $34 contract dispute and didn't resume until 1948.
Alabama seized control of the rivalry under Paul "Bear" Bryant with nine consecutive wins from 1973-81, but former Bryant assistant Pat Dye reinvigorated the fortunes for Auburn, which has a 20-18 series record since freshman tailback Bo Jackson led the Tigers to a 23-22 comeback victory in 1982. Tommy Tuberville coached the Tigers to six straight wins from 2002-07, which is the second-longest streak of success in the series.
Auburn's 17-10 win in 2007 came at the expense of Saban's first Tide team, but Alabama exacted revenge with a 36-0 blanking in 2008. Saban takes an 8-5 series record into this Iron Bowl, which he'll watch from home.
"It's one of the great rivalries in college football," Saban said. "It certainly means a lot to a lot of people in this state and all over the country. As always, we're playing a very, very good team."
Alabama's whipping of the Tigers in 2008 resulted in Tuberville's resignation and Auburn's hiring of Gene Chizik as coach and Malzahn as offensive coordinator, and what followed were two Iron Bowl classics.
A 4-yard touchdown pass from Greg McElroy to Roy Upchurch with 1:24 remaining capped Alabama's 26-21 comeback win in Jordan-Hare Stadium and helped catapult the Tide to the 2009 national championship. The next year in Tuscaloosa, Cam Newton rallied the Tigers from a 24-0 deficit to a 28-27 triumph on their way to the 2010 national crown.
"This isn't a normal game. This is the Iron Bowl," Malzahn said. "Before I coached in this game for the first time in 2009, people would tell me what it is like, but you've got to experience it to fully understand it and get a grasp of it. It changes you, because I know after that first year that it changed me."
In Malzahn's first season as head coach in 2013, Auburn defeated Alabama 34-28 in the memorable "Kick Six" thriller to provide a fifth consecutive Iron Bowl in which the winner went on to play for the national championship. Four years later, Alabama lost state bragging rights for the first time since 2013 with a 26-14 setback in Jordan-Hare but wound up winning the fifth national title of the Saban era.
"I knew there was something special based on the anticipation for the game," said Alabama cornerback Patrick Surtain II, a junior from the Miami area. "It's the most anticipated rivalry in college football, and I expect it to be that way again."
Of course, those who were raised in Alabama learn about the Iron Bowl not long after birth, and they endure some 365-day stretches that are much more enjoyable than others.
"You play as hard as you've ever played in a game in your life because of how much it means," said Auburn sophomore quarterback Bo Nix, who guided the Tigers to a 48-45 triumph last year. "It's the biggest rivalry in college football and one of the biggest in sports. You've got to play extremely hard and refuse to lose."
Said Alabama redshirt junior left guard Deonte Brown: "Any kid who plays football in Alabama dreams of this game."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.