1983 Auburn Tigers football team

The 1983 Auburn Tigers football team represented Auburn University in the 1983 NCAA Division I-A football season. Coached by Pat Dye, the team finished the season with an 11–1 record and won their first Southeastern Conference (SEC) title since 1957. The team was named national champion by NCAA-designated major selectors of Billingsley, College Football Researchers Association, and The New York Times, while named co-national champion by both Rothman and Sagarin.^[1]

1983 Auburn Tigers football
National champion (Billingsley, CFRA, The New York Times) Co-national champion (Rothman, Sagarin) SEC champion Sugar Bowl champion
Sugar Bowl, W 9–7 vs Michigan
Conference	Southeastern Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 3
AP	No. 3
Record	11–1 (6–0 SEC)
Head coach	Pat Dye (3rd season)
Offensive coordinator	Jack Crowe (2nd season)
Offensive scheme	Wishbone
Defensive coordinator	Frank Orgel (3rd season)
Base defense	5-2
Home stadium	Jordan-Hare Stadium
Seasons ← 1982 1984 →

1983 Southeastern Conference football standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 3 Auburn $	6	–	0	–	0			11	–	1	–	0
No. 4 Georgia	5	–	1	–	0			10	–	1	–	1
No. 6 Florida	4	–	2	–	0			9	–	2	–	1
Tennessee	4	–	2	–	0			9	–	3	–	0
No. 15 Alabama	4	–	2	–	0			8	–	4	–	0
Ole Miss	4	–	2	–	0			6	–	6	–	0
Kentucky	2	–	4	–	0			6	–	5	–	1
Mississippi State	1	–	5	–	0			3	–	8	–	0
LSU	0	–	6	–	0			4	–	7	–	0
Vanderbilt	0	–	6	–	0			2	–	9	–	0
$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

The squad featured several star players who went on to long professional careers including Bo Jackson, Randy Campbell, Tommie Agee, Lionel James, Donnie Humphrey, Steve Wallace and Al Del Greco. Prior to the season, Dye became the first coach in the SEC to require players to take blood and urine tests for drugs.^[2] Also prior to the season, fullback Greg Pratt collapsed after making his required time in running tests and died a short time later.

The team capped an 11–1 season, with a 9–7 victory handing 2-loss #8 Michigan its third loss in the Sugar Bowl. Despite having lost to Texas by 13 points at home the Tigers ended ranked third in the final AP and the UPI Coaches' poll ahead of the 1-loss Longhorns as Miami jumped from 5th from the AP and 4th from the UPI Coaches' poll to claim the AP/UPI Coaches' National Championship award.^[3] Auburn had played the toughest schedule in the nation, including nine bowl teams, eight of which were ranked in the top 20 (five in the top ten), and two teams Auburn faced would compete against each other in the 1983 Florida Citrus Bowl (Tennessee won the game against Maryland 30–23).

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance	Source
September 10		Southern Miss*	No. 4	Jordan-Hare Stadium Auburn, AL		W 24–3	73,500	[4]
September 17	11:30 am	No. 3 Texas*	No. 5	Jordan-Hare Stadium Auburn, AL	CBS	L 7–20	73,500	[5]
September 24		at Tennessee	No. 11	Neyland Stadium Knoxville, TN (rivalry)		W 37–14	95,185	[6]
October 1		Florida State*	No. 10	Jordan-Hare Stadium Auburn, AL		W 27–24	75,625	[7]
October 8		at Kentucky	No. 7	Commonwealth Stadium Lexington, KY		W 49–21	57,989	[8]
October 15		at Georgia Tech*	No. 5	Grant Field Atlanta, GA (rivalry)		W 31–13	55,112	[9]
October 22		Mississippi State	No. 5	Jordan-Hare Stadium Auburn, AL		W 28–13	71,500	[10]
October 29		No. 5 Florida	No. 4	Jordan-Hare Stadium Auburn, AL (rivalry)	CBS	W 28–21	75,700	[11]
November 5		No. 7 Maryland*	No. 3	Jordan-Hare Stadium Auburn, AL		W 35–23	75,600	[12]
November 12	2:50 pm	at No. 4 Georgia	No. 3	Sanford Stadium Athens, GA (rivalry)	ABC	W 13–7	82,122	[13]
December 3	2:50 pm	vs. No. 19 Alabama	No. 3	Legion Field Birmingham, AL (Iron Bowl)	ABC	W 23–20	77,310	[14]
January 2, 1984	7:00 pm	vs. No. 8 Michigan*	No. 3	Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, LA (Sugar Bowl)	ABC	W 9–7	77,893	[15][16]
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Central time

Roster

1983 Auburn Tigers football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class RB 30 Tommie Agee So OL 76 Pat Arrington Sr WR 11 Clayton Beauford Jr QB 14 Randy Campbell Sr RB 21 Ed Graham Jr RB 34 Bo Jackson So RB 6 Lionel James Sr OL 74 David Jordan Sr OL 66 Jeff Lott So QB 17 Mike Mann Jr C 55 Ben Tamburello Fr OL 78 Steve Wallace So TE 85 Ed West Sr WR 1 Chris Woods Sr	Defense Pos. # Name Class NT 61 Dowe Aughtman Sr FS 31 Vic Beasley Jr LB 54 Gregg Carr Jr DE 96 John Dailey Jr DE 90 Kevin Greene Jr DT 79 Donnie Humphrey Sr DT 88 John Prudhomme Sr LB 42 Jeff Jackson Sr CB 27 David King Jr SS 9 Tommy Powell Fr DE 95 Gerald Robinson So DL 99 Doug Smith Sr CB 45 Jimmie Warren So DL 93 Quency Williams Sr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class P 5 Lewis Colbert So K 3 Al Del Greco Sr	Head coach Pat Dye Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

Rankings

Further information: 1983 NCAA Division I-A football rankings

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
( ) = First-place votes

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Final
AP	5 (2)	4 (1)	5	11	10	7	5	5	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3 (7)
Coaches	3 (3)	3 (1)	4	14	10	10	8	5	5	3	3	3	3	3	3	3 (4)

Game summaries

Southern Miss

See also: Southern Miss Golden Eagles football

Texas

See also: 1983 Texas Longhorns football

Florida State

See also: 1983 Florida State Seminoles football team

Florida

See also: 1983 Florida Gators football team

^[17]

At Georgia

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
• No. 3 Auburn	7	6	0	0	13
No. 4 Georgia	0	0	0	7	7

• Date: November 12
• Location: Sanford Stadium
• Game attendance: 82,122
• Referee: Dick Burleson
• TV announcers (ABC): Keith Jackson and Frank Broyles

Scoring summary

1		AUB	James 4 yard run (Del Greco kick)	AUB 7–0
2		AUB	Del Greco 21 yard field goal	AUB 10–0
2		AUB	Del Greco 41 yard field goal	AUB 13–0
4		UGA	Archie 13 yard pass from Lastinger (Butler kick)	AUB 13–7

See also: 1983 Georgia Bulldogs football team and Deep South's Oldest Rivalry

^[18]

Vs. Alabama

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 19 Alabama	0	14	6	0	20
• No. 3 Auburn	0	10	13	0	23

• Date: December 3
• Location: Legion Field, Birmingham, Alabama
• Game attendance: 77,310
• Game weather: 62 °F (17 °C), Cloudy with rain, Wind SE 10 mph (16 km/h)
• Referee: Johnny Cook
• TV announcers (ABC): Keith Jackson, Frank Broyles

Scoring summary

2		AUB	Bo Jackson 69-yard run (Al Del Greco kick)	AUB 7–0
2	11:42	BAMA	Joey Jones 20-yard pass from Walter Lewis (Van Tiffin kick)	Tied 7–7
2	5:30	AUB	Del Greco 29-yard field goal	AUB 10–7
2	0:46	BAMA	Joe Carter 3-yard pass from Walter Lewis (Tiffin kick)	BAMA 14–10
3		AUB	Del Greco 26-yard field goal	BAMA 14–13
3		AUB	Del Greco 34-yard field goal	AUB 16–14
3	2:20	BAMA	Ricky Moore 57-yard run (conversion failed)	BAMA 20–16
4	2:03	AUB	Bo Jackson 71-yard run (Del Greco kick)	AUB 23–20

See also: 1983 Alabama Crimson Tide football and Iron Bowl

Sophomore Bo Jackson ran for 256 yards and 2 touchdowns as the Tigers won the SEC title outright. His long touchdown runs – 69 yards and 71 yards, respectively – bookended the day's scoring.^[19]

Vs. Michigan (Sugar Bowl)

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
Michigan	7	0	0	0	7
• Auburn	0	0	3	6	9

• Date: January 1
• Location: Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans
• Game attendance: 77,893
• Game weather: Indoors
• Referee: Dixon Holman (SWC)
• TV announcers (ABC): Keith Jackson, Frank Broyles

Scoring summary

1		MICH	Steve Smith 4-yard run (Bergeron kick)	MICH 7–0
3		AUB	Al Del Greco 31-yard field goal	MICH 7–3
4		AUB	Del Greco 32-yard field goal	MICH 7–6
4		AUB	Del Greco 19-yard field goal	AUB 9–7

Main article: 1984 Sugar Bowl

See also: 1983 Michigan Wolverines football team

^[20]