Coming in at No. 4 in our series is the 2004 Auburn Tigers. After an eventful offseason, Tommy Tuberville and the Tigers had a lot to prove on the field. Their tenacity and focus led to one of the best seasons in Auburn history.
Setting the Stage for 2004 Auburn:
Coming into his sixth season as the head coach at Auburn, Tommy Tuberville had a lot to prove. Auburn’s botched attempt at hiring Bobby Petrino had fell through. Although Tuberville beat Alabama three of the past four years, he was unable to coach Auburn to the precipice of a title. Up to that point, Tubberville’s best regular season record was 9-3, which was in his second year. In 2003, Auburn started the year ranked No. 6 in the AP Poll, which gave fans hope. But this hope vanquished after the first two weeks, as the Tigers started 0-2 and stumbled to a 8-5 season.
Heading into the 2004 season, Auburn was thought to be a good team, but not necessarily great. They were ranked No. 17 in the preseason AP Poll coming into the year. QB Jason Campbell was coming back for his senior year, along with RBs Carnell ‘Cadillac’ Williams and Ronnie Brown.
Campbell had a solid but unspectacular year in 2003. He threw just 10 TDs to 8 INTs and his completion percentage was just a hair over 60%.
Meanwhile, Williams had just come off a season where he accumulated 1300 yards rushing. Ronnie Brown put up just shy of 450 yards on the ground.
2004 Auburn:
After handily defeating Louisiana Monroe and Mississippi State, Auburn’s first test came against No. 5 LSU at home. With Auburn down 9-3 in the fourth quarter, with 1: 15 remaining, Campbell hit WR Courtney Taylor for a clutch TD. The Tigers went on to win the game 10-9 in perhaps their toughest game of the season.
Later, Auburn went on to play No. 8 Tennessee in Neyland Stadium. With College Gameday setting up shop, all eyes were on Auburn and Tennessee. In a nationally watched game, the Tigers stomped the Volunteers 34-10, putting them in the thick of the national title hunt.
The last true regular season test for Auburn came against Georgia in mid-November. Auburn once again trampled a top-ten ranked team, defeating the Bulldogs 24-6.
Before the participants in the title game would be announced, Auburn once again got the chance to beat a ranked team. This time they took on Tennessee again in the conference championship. Auburn once again won comfortably 38-28.
One of the reasons the team performed better in 2004 than the previous year is QB Jason Campbell. Campbell improved his number across the board, including completion percentage, TD-INT ratio, and passing yards. His play in 2004 landed him in the first round of the 2005 NFL draft.
The tandem of Williams and Brown performed even better this season, combining for over 2000 yards and 20 TDs.
But the offense did not steal the show. The defense only allowed 11.3 points per game, just under two TDs per game. It also ranked eighth in the country in yards per game, giving up only 287 yards per game.
The combination of an elite defense and ground game, along with a solid decision maker at QB, brought the Tigers immense success in 2004.
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The Controversy:
The BCS had overhauled its system after the 2003 split championship debacle. The BCS formula now gave more preference to human polls over computer polls. Also, Quality Wins and Strength of Schedule components were now purged from the formula.
However, these changes did not solve the problem of deserving teams getting left out of the championship race. Since the AP and Coaches polls had USC and Oklahoma ranked higher than Auburn throughout the year, Auburn was left out.
USC was one of two national champions in the 2003 season. Meanwhile, Oklahoma played LSU in the other championship game. This “incumbency” status may have caused voters to rank USC and Oklahoma above Auburn throughout the season.
Another likely reason is that voters were enamored by the dynamic passing games of USC and Oklahoma. USC had the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner, Matt Leinart, commanding the offense. Meanwhile, Oklahoma had 2003 Heisman Winner Jason White.
Legacy:
While it may shock many that an undefeated SEC school didn’t compete in the championship, times were different. The SEC was not as respected as it is now. During the 2004 season, only one other team was ranked in the SEC West (LSU). Moreover, Auburn only play two ranked teams in their regular season schedule.
But beyond conference prestige, the 2004 Auburn Tigers may have led to the eventual demise of the BCS. Their inability to play for a championship caused many analysts to doubt the validity of the BCS. Some even started calling for a playoff to be established, which would occur a decade later.
Click here to read about the current state of the Auburn program.