2003 Auburn Tigers football team

The 2003 Auburn Tigers football team represented Auburn University in the 2003 NCAA Division I-A football season. Auburn 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 AP Poll and the Coaches' Poll, but opened with consecutive losses to Southern California and Georgia Tech, dropping out of both polls.

2003 Auburn Tigers football
Music City Bowl champion
Music City Bowl, W 28–14 vs. Wisconsin
Conference	Southeastern Conference
	Western Division
2003 record	8–5 (5–3 SEC)
Head coach	Tommy Tuberville (5th season)
Offensive coordinator	Hugh Nall (1st season)
Defensive coordinator	Gene Chizik (2nd season)
Home stadium	Jordan–Hare Stadium (Capacity: 86,063)

2003 Southeastern Conference football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
Eastern Division
No. 7 Georgia xy		6	–	2					11	–	3
No. 15 Tennessee x		6	–	2					10	–	3
No. 24 Florida x		6	–	2					8	–	5
South Carolina		2	–	6					5	–	7
Vanderbilt		1	–	7					2	–	10
Kentucky		1	–	7					4	–	8
Western Division
No. 2 LSU xy$#		7	–	1					13	–	1
No. 13 Ole Miss x		7	–	1					10	–	3
Auburn		5	–	3					8	–	5
Arkansas		4	–	4					9	–	4
Alabama		2	–	6					4	–	9
Mississippi State		1	–	7					2	–	10
Championship: LSU 34, Georgia 13
– BCS National Champion $ – BCS representative as conference champion x – Division champion/co-champions y – Championship game participant Rankings from AP Poll

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 at #19 and the Coaches' Poll at #25. 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 season. However, several computer rating systems did include Auburn in their final rankings. The Tigers were ranked #17 by the BCS participating system of The New York Times,[1] #18 by Entropy,[2] and #19 consensus ranking by CollegeTop25.com.[3]

After consecutive losses to Ole Miss, led by Eli Manning, and Georgia, the Tigers concluded a disappointing regular season by defeating arch rival Alabama, 28–23. In the postseason, Auburn knocked off 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 meet in secret with Louisville Cardinals head coach Bobby Petrino about replacing Tuberville. 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.

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 30	2:30 pm	No. 8 USC*	No. 6	Jordan–Hare Stadium Auburn, Alabama	CBS	L 0–23	86,063
September 6	2:30 pm	at Georgia Tech*	No. 17	Bobby Dodd Stadium Atlanta (rivalry)	ABC	L 3–17	55,000
September 13	11:30 am	at Vanderbilt		Vanderbilt Stadium Nashville, Tennessee	JPS	W 45–7	37,703
September 27	4:00 pm	Western Kentucky*		Jordan–Hare Stadium Auburn, Alabama	PPV	W 48–3	85,046
October 4	6:45 pm	No. 7 Tennessee		Jordan–Hare Stadium Auburn, Alabama (rivalry)	ESPN	W 28–21	86,063
October 11	11:30 am	at No. 7 Arkansas		Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium Fayetteville, Arkansas	JPS	W 10–3	74,026
October 18	1:30 pm	Mississippi State	No. 19	Jordan–Hare Stadium Auburn, Alabama	PPV	W 45–13	86,063
October 25	6:45 pm	at No. 9 LSU	No. 17	Tiger Stadium Baton Rouge, Louisiana (Tiger Bowl)	ESPN	L 7–31	92,085
November 1	1:30 pm	Louisiana–Monroe*		Jordan–Hare Stadium Auburn, Alabama		W 73–7	81,061
November 8	2:30 pm	No. 20 Ole Miss		Jordan–Hare Stadium Auburn, Alabama (rivalry)	CBS	L 20–24	86,063
November 15	2:30 pm	at No. 7 Georgia		Sanford Stadium Athens, Georgia (Deep South's Oldest Rivalry)	CBS	L 7–26	92,058
November 22	6:45 pm	Alabama		Jordan–Hare Stadium Auburn, Alabama (Iron Bowl)	ESPN	W 28–23	86,063
December 31	11:00 am	vs. Wisconsin*		The Coliseum Nashville, Tennessee (Music City Bowl)	ESPN	W 28–14	55,109
*Non-conference game Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Central time

Roster

2003 Auburn Tigers football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class WR 1 Devin Aromashodu So RB 23 Ronnie Brown Jr QB 17 Jason Campbell Jr WR 81 Jeris McIntyre Sr T 73 Marcus McNeill So WR 2 Ben Obomanu So RB 24 Carnell Williams Jr	Defense Pos. # Name Class LB 11 Karlos Dansby Sr DE 83 Jay Ratliff Jr CB 14 Carlos Rogers Jr LB 54 Dontarrious Thomas Sr DE 82 Reggie Torbor Sr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class	Head coach Tommy Tuberville Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

Captains

Position	Player
LB	Karlos Dansby
WR	Jeris McIntyre
LB	Dontarrious Thomas

References

1. https://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/sports/NCAA-RANKINGS.html
2. http://sports.sw-tech.com/r03
3. http://www.collegetop25.com/?s=ranks2003