1983 Auburn Tigers football team

1983 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 1983 Auburn Tigers football team represented

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		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

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

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)

^[17]

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

^[18]

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: 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

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]

1 2 3 4 Total Michigan 7 0 0 0 7 • Auburn 0 0 3 6 9 Date: January 1 Location: 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

^[20]