2003 Auburn Tigers football team

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2003 Auburn Tigers football
Music City Bowl, Auburn 28, Wisconsin 14
Conference SEC West
2003 Record 8-5 (5-3 SEC)
Head Coach Tommy Tuberville
Offensive Coordinator Hugh Nall
Defensive Coordinator Gene Chizik

Home Stadium

 Jordan-Hare Stadium (86,047)
Seasons
« 2002 2004 »

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.

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.

[edit] Season Results

Date Team Location PF PA Result Television Coverage
8/30 USC Auburn 0 23 L CBS
9/6 at Georgia Tech Atlanta, GA 3 17 L ABC
9/13 at Vanderbilt Nashville, TN 45 7 W Jefferson Pilot Sports (JPS)
9/27 Western Kentucky Auburn 48 3 W
10/4 Tennessee Auburn 28 21 W ESPN
10/11 at Arkansas Fayetteville, AR 10 3 W JPS
10/18 Mississippi State Auburn 45 13 W
10/25 at LSU Baton Rouge, LA 7 31 L ESPN
11/1 Louisiana-Monroe Auburn 73 7 W
11/8 Ole Miss Auburn 20 24 L CBS
11/15 at Georgia Athens, GA 7 26 L CBS
11/22 Alabama Auburn 28 23 W ESPN
12/31 Wisconsin Nashville, TN (Music City Bowl) 28 14 W ESPN
342 212 8-5

[edit] All-Time Team Captains

Position Player
LB Karlos Dansby
WR Jeris McIntyre
LB Dontarrious Thomas

[edit] Related Pages

Preceded by
2002 Auburn Tigers football team		 Auburn Tigers football
2003		 Succeeded by
2004 Auburn Tigers football team
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