Where I Come From: My All-Time Favorite Auburn Team

was really awesome to me. It almost came out of nowhere. I remember watching Bobby Bowden and Lou Holtz make thier cases for the NC at the end of the year (both teams had a loss). Only one team didn’t.

The best college football team I’ve ever seen in person (never got a chance to see those mid-90s Nebraska teams live, haha)

Without a doubt.
First time I experienced the media bias against Auburn. Until then I had no idea how bad the bias truly was.

Texas, FSU, GaTech, and Maryland all in one year in addition to USM, who at least isn’t the Citadel. I can’t imagine a year where we play two of those four teams in the same year, much less all four.
FWIW, Miami’s schedule included such powerhouses as Duke (3-8), Houston (4-7), Louisville (3-8), Cincinnati (4-6), & East Carolina (8-3), in addition to shared opponents MSU and UF (whom they lost to). Seriously? That is some BS right there.

Everybody seems to remember ‘83, ’93, and 2004 but 1986 was another near miss at a National Championship. Auburn lost 2 games by 5 pts. one was Fla. 18-17. The other was the Ga. game. I was at the game. It was the water hose event. Brent Fulwood had a touchdown called back due to an early whistle and the refs urh I mean Ga.beat us 20-16. Ga. fans stormed the field, tearing up turf and the hedges and Ga. fans in the stands threw bottles at the security on the field.
Anyway, this team had the best offensive stats for any Auburn team up to that point, the most yards per game, and averaged 35 pts a game. They beat Ala. 21-17 on Lawyer Tilman’s reverse. My family and I were sitting in the living room listening to Jim Fife make the call. I can still hear it now, it was one of his greatest moments, and one of Auburn’s, and one of mine.
Auburn went on to beat So Cal in

….came my favorite Auburn team. Coming into the season, one starting defensive end wasis a walkon. There were two starting linebackers who were true freshmen the previous season, and the number thee linebacker was a walkon. All three second-team linebackers were true freshmen. One starting corner was a true sophomore, and the team has to move down a safety to man the other spot. New starting strong safety was a converted running back with no experience in the secondary, and the starting free safety was a sophomore with no experience. Think 2009 Auburn was thin on defense? My favorite Auburn team gave up only 17 points per game.

…..On offense, you did have bookend senior tackles, but had two sophomores and two freshmen splitting time inside. The top two tight ends were true sophomores noted more for blocking than anything else. The receiving corp lost its best player after a spring dispute. You had two letter-men returning at wide receiver, one of whom was returning from a broken jaw, the other from back trouble. Number 3 and 4 receiver slots would be filled by a walk-on and a true freshman. None of the receivers a year ago could catch a cold, as Auburn likely led the SEC in dropped balls. As is typical when teams don’t win, the senior quarterback was everyone’s whipping boy for the failures of the past two seasons, and he was coming off knee surgery. The Auburn head coach at the time was privately aiming for a 6-5 record, figuring that mark would constitute wild success.

……Instead, the 1993 Auburn Tigers refused to lose! When the Tigers ran out of players in spots, walk-ons and freshmen stepped up. Who can forget walk-on Ace Atkins sacking Danny Wuerffel twice? Walkon Jason Miska leading the charge and helping hold off Vandy on the goal line for a 14-10 win? We got quality minutes out of freshmen linebackers Derrick Robinson and Marcellus Mostella. True freshman Willie Gosha put in valuable minutes in the receiving corps. True freshman Willie Anderson solidified the interior line. Every time an Auburn starter went down, someone stepped up.

…..Trailing defending national champion Alabama 14-5 late in the 3rd quarter, 4-year starting quarterback Stan White went down. It was 4th and 15, and Patrick Nix came off the bench cold. Nix heaved a 35-yard TD pass to Frank Sanders, and Auburn was back in it! James Bostic’s mind-bending, runaway freight train 70-yard TD explosion finished Bama off, and Auburn finished 11-0, the nation’s ONLY unbeaten, untied team!

Seriously…3 TIMES!!! lol

My favorate all time Auburn team is probably a tie between the 1983 team and the 1989 teams. I have an attachment to both for diffrent reasons.

1983: Bo Jackson, Lional Little Train, all those fantastic players and coach Pat Dye, we were the REAL1983 National Champs, not Thug U.

1989: Dec. 2nd 1989, Alabama @ Auburn, we spoiled Alabama’s hopes a national title, theres nothing better then ruining Alabama’s season!

was a fun team to watch, especially Damyune Craig. The SEC CG against Tennessee is still the best Auburn game I’ve ever seen that resulted in a loss.

1993 was the best blue-collar team I ever saw—twice that year, in JHS for Florida and in Athens for GA.

2004 had to be the BEST team.

 I still where a tattered and stained sweatshirt with a ticket to Jordan-Hare on it once a year for the Iron Bowl. Beating Bama the first time in our house will stay with me forever!!! Regardless of how our overall season was, being at that game will forever endear me to that team…my last year on campus…and a sweet victory for the ages!
the 2004 team gave me the opportunity to sell my Texas Tech buddies on my Tigers!!! Every week I would stand in the doorway to a buddies garage watching Auburn on the living room tv while the other folks gathered in the garage watched the Red Raiders. Many times everyone would wind up in the living room watching Auburn take someone else down! Bcs screwing but just proof that you should NEVER ignore the Tigers!!!
WDE!!!
I expect another surprise to the country this year!!! Maybe from both schools!

Everyone has their favorites. Some read this and think 1963? – you gotta be kidding. But as one grows older you realize that your perception is colored by the prism of memory; which in time becomes your reality.

My reality is that in 1963 one of Auburn’s greatest quarterbacks, All American Jimmy Sidle and Auburn’s " Player of the Century " Tucker Frederickson led the Tigers to one of the best seasons in school history. Auburn’s lone stain came with a last second field goal by MSU, an upset that left their record at 9 – 1. The last second field goal kept Auburn from playing for a national championship.

However, the Tigers had a thrilling come from behind victory over Tennessee in Knoxville 23 – 19, shut out Florida 19 – 0, shut out Georgia 14 – 0, beat Fla. State 21 – 15, and broke a 4 game losing streak against Bama beating the Tide 10 – 8 in the Iron Bowl. A great year for the Tigers and great memory for a ninth grade Auburn fan !

They were the most complete AU squad that I have ever seen and that is going back to 1969 when I went to my first AU games. The 1983 team was the next favorite followed by the ’93 squad.

I was still 3 years away from being born in 1983, and I was a little kid living in Michigan in 1993 (although we still flew our AU flag in our front yard up there), and since 2004 was my freshman year at Auburn, I have to say my favorite team is the 2004 squad. After that crazy 10-9 win over LSU, you would go into games and you just knew Auburn was going to win. Something just told you it was going to happen. Watching Cadillac and Ronnie Brown in Knoxville as AU was up 31-3 at halftime was amazing. Even when we were down 6-0 to UAT at halftime, I just knew we weren’t going to lose that ball game. It sure was a bittersweet way to end the season though… Leaving New Orleans it felt like the job wasn’t quite finished.

I can’t believe no one mentioned the 72 squad, the old three yards and a cloud of dust team. It was my sophomore year at Auburn and we had a super defense to go along with an offense that did just what it had to do, except for the LSU game that year. I believe we were in the top ten when the iron bowl came up, and Bama was number 2. They were 16 point favorites and thats how far down we were when we blocked those 2 punts at the end of the game to win 17-16. Right after that year was when the nine game losing streak occurred.
I ended up going to 8 straight iron bowls and that was the only game I ever saw us win in person. It was almost worth losing all those games in a row watching the Bear try to block our punts all those years.
Honorary mention goes to 1969 and 1970, Sullivan to Beasley years.