It’s been a while since Auburn won a game like it did on Saturday.

The Tigers last defeated a ranked opponent on October 30, 2021, when they defeated Ole Miss at home.

Combine that with the fact that Auburn is coming off the worst five-year stretch of football in the modern era, and there was no way they could keep the fans off the field after Auburn defeated No. 15 Texas A&M 43-41 in quadruple overtime.

The last time Auburn stormed the field was after the 2019 Iron Bowl, so none of the current students or players got to see Pat Dye Field teeming with fans like it was Saturday night.

It was something Jarquez Hunter has been waiting for for a long time, and he finally got it in his final game at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

“Oh, I was hoping we would win so I could get my first experience rushing the field,” Hunter said after the game. “I mean, it was such an exciting experience with all the fans there just cheering us on.”

Big games are nothing new for Keandre Lambert-Smith.

The senior receiver played four years at Penn State, and in his final collegiate home game, all he wanted was a memorable way to go out.

“I put on my (Instagram) story and said, ‘Last one at Jordan-Hare. Let’s make it memorable,'” Lambert-Smith said after the game. “And that’s something I definitely won’t forget. I was crowd surfing; it felt like a movie, I swear to God. I felt like it was a great way to send out the seniors, the guys who have been here for four years.” I’m glad I’m the one who can do it.’

Jalen McLeod, like every Auburn player, has never been part of a field rush, so when it happened, he went back to his natural instincts.

“I was scared for a moment,” McLeod said after the game. “He dropped it. Oh man. So I went to the sidelines and started talking nonsense. That was my first instinct.’

Payton Thorne has had quite the rollercoaster of a career at Auburn.

This season alone, he has been benched for a game and a half and has been blamed for many of Auburn’s shortcomings, fairly or unfairly.

In his final game at Jordan-Hare Stadium, Thorne led Auburn to 31 regulation points, including the final drive of the game that ended in a field goal, sending the game to overtime.

And like everyone else at Jordan-Hare Stadium, it’s a game Thorne will never forget.

“To complete it the right way and get that experience, it’s something to look back on when you’re 90 years old, if you’re lucky enough to make it to 90,” Thorne said afterwards.