1983 Auburn Tigers football team

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

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]

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).

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

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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]

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