Does this Alabama football team have the pride to take Auburn smack talk personally?

It's Iron Bowl week. Nothing else matters. It doesn't matter that Alabama fell flat on its face in Norman last week and saw its SEC Championship and likely College Football Playoff hopes fly out of the window. It doesn't matter that Auburn is 5-6 and staring a fourth straight losing season in the face. It doesn't matter that Alabama is on a four-game Iron Bowl winning streak.

Throw it all out the window. The Iron Bowl is a season of its own. There's no love lost between either team.

On Monday, the opening salvo was lobbed. Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze, freshman LB DeMarcus Riddick, and freshman WR Cam Coleman all threw out some quotes that should fire up the Alabama Crimson Tide and provide bulletin board material.

When a dynasty is falling, vultures start circling to pick the bones. Alabama has proven to be mortal this season. After a decade and a half of avoiding susceptibility to big upsets, they've lost twice this season as two-touchdown or more favorites. Now, even also-ran programs in the same state that haven't seen an eight-win season in five years are emboldened to open their mouths.

Hugh Freeze started it off today with two quotes:

Freeze is comfortable talking about the inconsistency of Jalen Milroe. He's also comfortable essentially saying Alabama ain't what it used to be. The first quote should piss Milroe off. The second should piss the whole team off. Everybody's yapping that Alabama has fallen off. Are you ready to accept that?

Of the players on this team I'm convinced are a dog, Ryan Williams is one of them. He won't take a quote like that lying down. He'll be ready on Saturday afternoon to respond.

Riddick is calling his shot that he's going unbeaten against Alabama in his three or four years on campus. There's not a player left on Auburn's roster that knows what it feels like to win against Alabama.

Riddick also went on to say he's never lost to a rival program in his career, completely ignoring that Auburn already lost to Georgia this season in a matchup that has its own rivalry name. Riddick made the right choice going to Auburn; his delusion fits right in with the rest of that campus.

You'll have to forgive me if I'm unsure what Auburn's revenge tour consisted of considering they are 5-6. I guess the revenge tour started with Texas A&M last week? Only Auburn can delude themselves into thinking a 5-6 season is something worthy of talking about.

And that's the difference between these two programs in a nutshell. Alabama fans are disheartened at being just 8-3 on the season. It's the worst record through 11 games since 2007 for the Crimson Tide. If Auburn wins the Iron Bowl, the Tigers will be delighted with a .500 season and will talk themselves into being title contenders next season. Frankly, they'll do that even with an Iron Bowl loss.

When you lose games you shouldn't, you open yourselves up to potshots from the peanut gallery. Programs that only wish they had 1/10th of your history feel emboldened to open up their mouths and start talking recklessly.

Little brother is chirping. Does Big Brother have the pride to respond and put Little Brother in its place? Or has this once proud program really fallen off? Will they allow Auburn players and coaches to mouth such disrespect without paying the price?

We'll find out on Saturday. Alabama might not have much of a shot at its ultimate goal this season, but beating Auburn and making them fear the thumb will have to do as a consolation prize.