2003 Auburn Tigers football team

NCAATeamFootballSeason
Year=2003
Team=Auburn Tigers


ImageSize=104
Conference=Southeastern Conference
Division=West
ShortConference=SEC
Record=8-5
ConfRecord=5-3
HeadCoach=Tommy Tuberville
OffCoach=Hugh Nall
DefCoach=Gene Chizik
StadiumArena=Jordan-Hare Stadium (86,047)
Champion=
BowlTourney=Music City Bowl
BowlTourneyResult=Auburn 28, Wisconsin 14

The 2003 Auburn Tigers football team began the season with high expectations, but stumbled out of the gate before finishing the season with a disappointing 8-5 record, including a 5-3 record in the SEC, good for third place in the conference’s Western Division. The Tigers, coached by Tommy Tuberville, began the season ranked #6 in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll, but began the season with consecutive losses to Southern California and Georgia Tech, dropping out of both polls.

The Tigers won their next four games, but remained unranked in either poll until the week after pulling a 10-3 upset win over Arkansas in Fayetteville on October 11, when they re-entered the AP poll ranked #19 and the coaches poll as the #25 team. Following a victory over Mississippi State the following week, the Tigers climbed to #17 and #21 in the two polls, but after a 31-7 loss to eventual national champion LSU on October 25, the Tigers did not appear in either poll for the remainder of the 2003 season. However, several computer rating systems did include Auburn in their final rankings, finishing #17 in the original BCS participating [http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/sports/NCAA-RANKINGS.html New York Times system] , #18 in [http://sports.sw-tech.com/r03 Entropy] and #19 by [http://www.collegetop25.com/?s=ranks2003 CollegeTop25.com] .

After consecutive losses to Ole Miss, led by Eli Manning, and Georgia, the Tigers concluded a disappointing season by defeating arch rival Alabama 28-23, then coming from behind to defeat Wisconsin 28-14 in the Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tennessee.

The disappointment of the season led University President William Walker, Athletic Director David Housel, and other trustees to take a plane owned by trustee Bobby Lowder to have a secret meeting with Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino about replacing Tuberville as head coach. This occurred prior to the Alabama game, but newspapers in Montgomery and Louisville discovered the flight and broke the news. The visit caused controversy and Tuberville was ultimately retained.

eason Results

All-Time Team Captains

Related Pages

*Auburn Tigers football
*Auburn Tigers
*Auburn University
*Southeastern Conference