Even more appropriate than usual. Photo by Kevin Strickland.
When I was putting together my SEC Power Poll ballot this morning and trying to come up with a witty, one-sentence encapsulation of how rare and special the WVU win was for the weekly compilation post, I realized something: I can’t remember the last time Auburn beat a nonconference team this good in the regular season.
So I pulled out my ESPN College Football Encyclopedia and started doing some research, and it turns out the reason I couldn’t think of the last time Auburn beat a bowl-bound, power-conference, non-league opponent like West Virginia was because it happened when I was 12 years old.
As commenter Gabe has already noted, the year was 1990 and Pat Dye was still on the home sidelines when No. 5 Auburn hosted No. 7 Florida St. The Tigers came away with a 20-17 victory* as the ‘Noles headed towards the inaugural Blockbuster Bowl. That was almost 19 years ago, now, but yes Virginia, that was the last time Auburn beat a major conference team outside the SEC that finished its season in a bowl.
How has it been that long? This is how:
Weak scheduling. For the most part I think Auburn’s nonconference schedules under Tommy Tuberville and Terry Bowden were up to par, but Auburn never had the best sense of timing. Bowden’s nonconference opponents in his famous 20-game streak? Samford, Southern Miss, New Mexico St., UL-Monroe, East Tennessee St., East Carolina.
I don’t have to tell you about the 2004 slate, but Tubby also faced Wyoming, Northern Illinois, and La. Tech in his division-winning 2000 season.
Whiffs. Auburn played several quality nonconference opponents in the Tuberville era: Dwight Freeney’s Syracuse team in ’01, USC and Georgia Tech in mid-decade home-and-homes, surprising South Florida in ’07. Too bad Auburn lost every one of those games.
Bowden had far fewer opportunities, but did kick off the ’98 season by getting shut out by a 9-3 Virginia team.
Unpleasant surprises. Over the course of the Bowden and Tubby tenures Auburn beat several big- (or at least, medium-) name teams that wound up having weaker-than-expected seasons. ’02 Syracuse, ’06 Washington St., and ’07 Kansas State all had off-years by then-current program standards, and even Dye’s last nonconference victory of note–14-10 over Texas in Week 3 1991–came over a Longhorns squad that would finish 5-6 after going 10-2 the season before.
There’s also the strange case of ’96 Virginia, who Bowden defeated 28-17 in the season opener. The Cavs would go on to a 7-4 record–but still get left out in the cold come bowl season.
So: assuming West Virginia plays up to their potential–or, really, anywhere close to it–and qualifies for a bowl bid, Auburn fans will have seen something last Saturday that they won’t have seen for nearly two decades. And I’m not even talking about the rain.
*As I’m sure any seasoned Auburn fan could tell you, it was two weeks later 6-0-1 Auburn would head to Gainesville as the No. 4 team in the country and come back with a 48-7 woodshedding at the hands of new Gators coach Steve Spurrier. Dye would go 10-11-1 the next two years and that was that–making the Florida St. win not just Auburn’s last great in-season nonconference moment, but the last great moment in Dye’s career. Worth noting.
And while we’re here, that game in the Swamp has to be one of the defining moments in SEC history, doesn’t it? It’s not often where you see the baton being directly passed from the guy who dominated the previous decade to the guy who would go on to dominate the next one, right?
Great stuff! I think this may go a long way toward explaining the depth of the euphoria over the WVU win. It’s not just last season’s misery, or the misery of the loss at WVU, it also is the (mostly unrecognized but still felt) misery of failing against out-of-conference contenders for so long.
Wow there is a walk down memory lane. In 1990 I was a junior at Auburn and that was definitely the biggest win of the year. One of the classic moments in Jordan Hare history was the entire stadium joining in on the “tomahawk chop” chant at the end of the game. The other classic moment was the FSU QB stumbling and stumbling and then falling down for a really big sack. You are also right on in your footnote about the “baton being passed”. Definitely a defining moment in SEC history.
Great Insight.. Thanks
TWELVE?!? I was a freaking SENIOR (not counting my, er, redshirt year). I’m in the damn REPLAY when it runs on ESPNC (now removed from the regular DirecTV lineup, CURSE IT). TWELVE?!?!? NOBODY was TWELVE in 1990.
Damn kids…
Okay, what you can’t hear on that replay (because ESPN turned off the mics near the student section after the first rendition) was the “modified” war chant: “Theeeere’s a Seminooooole, comin’ ouuuuut my asshooooole!” Went on all night, and trust me, it was loud-and-clear in the stadium.
And yes, I was in Gainesville that year. We do not speak of it.
Jerry,
Dang…I can’t believe it’s been that long since a quality OOC victory. Don’t worry, I was twelve too, but I remember that game like it was yesterday. My wife and I were at the game last weekend, and I haven’t sensed the sort of optimism and passion that’s currently down on The Plains in a long, long time (sans 2004). I feel that we may in for a special time.
Anyways, keep up the good work. WDE.
Yeah Jerry, nobody was 12. I was 13!
…I was 9
i was a 21-year old senior on that glorious night. i remember the stadium being full of tomahawk choppers for about an hour after the game ended. you would have thought it was halftime, and we were waiting for more foosball. good, good times.
dammit – that was supposed to say 21-year old “freshman”. i didn’t make senior till i was about 27. sue me, i’m a late bloomer…
Will, I was almost 11–Fort Benning, October, ’78.
Thanks for the kind words, everyone, and Dr. Jolley, I agree–those losses to Tech and USC, in particular, left a nasty taste in the mouth this helps wash out a bit.
That 1990 victory over FSU was especially sweet for several reasons. In case some of you young’uns have forgotten, FSU beat us in the 1989 Sugar Bowl. That was one of the most exciting games I’ve ever been to, if only the ending had turned out better. Needing a TD to win and with less than four minutes left in the game, we started on our own four yard line for the final drive of the game. It’s hard to remember now (New Years in the Big Easy and all) but we converted on at least three consecutive 4th downs to keep the drive alive. Talk about gut wrenching. What you will not see in the box scores is that at the end of that drive Slack threw one into the end zone and Deion Sanders, who hadn’t done a thing all game, absolutely mugged the receiver….. NO FLAG! It would have given Auburn a first and goal but NO FLAG! I remember they showed the replay on the jumbotron over and over. What a bunch of #$%#%! Then came the rip your heart out moment of the game when Deion picked off Slack in the end zone to clench the win for FSU. That loss was the start of my hate for FSU. To add insult to injury, we went down to Tallahassee with a shot at redemption the next season (1989)… only to come up short again.
So the 1990 FSU victory was payback for both of those loses. I was in the student section at the game in Jordan-Hare that day. I proudly admit to taking part in the modified chant, “Theeeere’s a Seminooooole, comin’ ouuuuut my asshooooole!” My recollection of the actual game is somewhat fuzzy. Something to do with bourbon, coke and stadium cups. But I do remember the game through VCR replays (Thanks Will!). It is a victory I will always cherish.
If it helps, I was 5…
I missed that FSU game b/c it ran past my bed-time. I was extremely upset about this as I recall. To the point that I didn’t miss another home game until the App. State game in 1999 (including the “home” game at legion field against bama in 1991).
UVa win was in 1997, not 1996 though. Game started ominously, with a 15 yard loss on a bad snap on the season’s first play, then a blocked punt that Holmes somehow recovered for a safety.
I have both these games on tape. I’m a nerd. WDE
I think Clemson next year could keep this whole “beating a bowl team” thing going.
Thank you, Xavier for chiming in. This gives me the excuse to tell “the rest of the story” on you.
Xavier (another Enterprise High survivor) was in the next section over from me during that season. Since it was the student section, everybody was standing on their seats for the duration. Every time Auburn had a big play, I’d be startled by this 5′-2″ lunatic–X–running over and screaming something unintelligible, giving me a high-five, then running back to his own “seat.”
So the next day, my roommates and I are minding our own business in our apartment, when the door bursts open. It’s Xavier, and he bellows, “WILL–DID YOU TAPE THE GAME? DID YOU TAPE THE GAME?!? DID YOU TAPE IT?!?!?!”
The rest of us exchanged glances, and finally I replied, “Uh… yes.”
“LEMMIE BORROW IT!! LEMMIE BORROW THE TAPE!! I GOTTA BORROW IT!”
“….Why?” I asked. “It was, like, twelve hours ago.”
“I DON’T REMEMBER IT!”
Wasn’t that the fumblerooskie game?
Yes Will, thank you for sharing.
In my defense, aIl I can say is that I’m actually 5’4″. get your facts straight will ya… geez
WDE
Evan,
That was the fumblerooski. Crazy play, horrible call. It was the turning point in the game. Fyffe’s call was the best:
Fyffe: Weldon…left it on the inside handoff…
Trotman: That’s the…that’s the guard rooskie!
Fyffe: the guard rooskie and Auburn I believe has recovered
Trotman: That is the guard rooskie and Auburn may have recovered
Both: THEY DID!
Fyffe: Auburn sniffed that one out! They tried that fancy, funny, crazy play where they leave it with the guard and
Both: Walter Tate!
Fyffe: would have none of that.
That led to the tying TD run by Stacey Danley.
Rub it in guys. I missed that game. I was stationed at Fort Benning for six years (1984-1989) and the FSU game in 1989 was the last home game I was to see for 10 years.
By the time 1990 game rolled around I was sitting in an undisclosed location doing some undisclosed things involving undisclosed people with a huge desert as a backdrop,… and no TV. I didn’t hear anything about the game except via snail mail some three months after the fact.
Sullivan013
Heh. I’ll never forget Phil Snow’s interview of Walter Tate after that game. Tate recovered the “fumblerooskie,” and Snow exclaimed, “You jumped on that ball like it was a big ‘ol plate of barbecue!”
Phil was (and is) the very best. I miss seeing him every week. The way he was treated by Mike Hubbard was just inexcusable.
Great stuff here, guys. I actually remember that Sugar Bowl vs. Deion and the ‘Noles pretty vividly–can still see the ball coming towards our receiver (don’t recall who, though) and his head being violently knocked forward a good two seconds before it gets there. No flag. Ass.
As for the ’90 game, the trip in the backfield on 4th down was what sticks out. Good, good times.
I was also 12 and I think that was the game that made me a believer. I had been going to the games since I was 4 but it was at that game that I really “got it.” War Eagle.
Freddie Weygand, IIRC.
I think he clobbered Weygand, then intercepted in front of Tillman.
My Dad STILL hates “Pee-on Deion Sanders”