2008 Auburn Tigers football team

The 2008 Auburn Tigers football team represented Auburn University during 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Tommy Tuberville served his tenth and final season as head coach at Auburn. He was joined by a new defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads and new offensive coordinator Tony Franklin, who attempted to implement Tuberville’s new without the proper players suited for the spread offense in a failed effort to correct the Tigers' offensive struggles in 2007. Tuberville fired Franklin six games into the season.

2008 Auburn Tigers football
Conference	Southeastern Conference
Division	Western Division
Record	5–7 (2–6 SEC)
Head coach	Tommy Tuberville (10th season)
Offensive coordinator	Tony Franklin (1st season; first six games) Steve Ensminger (interim)
Offensive scheme	Air Raid
Defensive coordinator	Paul Rhoads (1st season)
Base defense	4–3
Home stadium	Jordan–Hare Stadium
Seasons ← 2007 2009 →

2008 Southeastern Conference football standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
Eastern Division
No. 1 Florida x$#		7	–	1					13	–	1
No. 13 Georgia		6	–	2					10	–	3
Vanderbilt		4	–	4					7	–	6
South Carolina		4	–	4					7	–	6
Tennessee		3	–	5					5	–	7
Kentucky		2	–	6					7	–	6
Western Division
No. 6 Alabama x%		8	–	0					12	–	2
No. 14 Ole Miss		5	–	3					9	–	4
LSU		3	–	5					8	–	5
Arkansas		2	–	6					5	–	7
Auburn		2	–	6					5	–	7
Mississippi State		2	–	6					4	–	8
Championship: Florida 31, Alabama 20
# – BCS National Champion $ – BCS representative as conference champion % – BCS at-large representative x – Division champion/co-champions Rankings from AP Poll

Auburn played a seven-game home schedule at Jordan–Hare Stadium, while traveling to Mountaineer Field in Morgantown, West Virginia for the Tigers' first ever meeting with the West Virginia Mountaineers.^[1] The Tennessee Volunteers returned to the Tigers' schedule for the first time since Auburn defeated Tennessee twice in AU's undefeated 2004 season. LSU, Arkansas, and Georgia rounded out Auburn's home conference schedule.

Pre-season

Rankings

The Tigers entered the season with high expectations, ranked highly by multiple polls in the preseason. The Associated Press Poll placed Auburn at #10^[2] while the USA Today Coaches' Poll, a component of the Bowl Championship Series rankings, had Auburn at #11.^[3] Other rankings include:

# 7 – Rivals.com^[4]
# 8 – Athlon^[5]
# 9 – Sports Illustrated^[6]
# 9 – CollegeTop25 Consensus^[7]
# 10 – ESPN^[8]
# 13 – Lindy's^[9]
# 14 – CollegeFootballNews/Scout.com^[10]

Watchlists and honors

• Walter Camp Award watchlist – Sen'Derrick Marks(DT)^[11]
• Bronko Nagurski Trophy watchlist – Antonio Coleman(DE) and Sen'Derrick Marks^[12]
• Outland Trophy watchlist – Sen'Derrick Marks^[11]
• Dave Rimington Trophy watchlist – Jason Bosley(C)^[13]
• Playboy All-American – Sen'Derrick Marks^[11]

Pre-season All-SEC Teams

Coaches All-SEC 1st Team – DT Sen’Derrick Marks & P Ryan Shoemaker
Coaches All-SEC 2nd Team – RB Ben Tate, OL Tyronne Green, LB Tray Blackmon & DB Jerraud Powers
Coaches All-SEC 3rd Team – DE Antonio Coleman

Schedule

Auburn's schedule consisted of eight Southeastern Conference opponents (four home, four away) and four non-conference opponents. AU meets Tennessee-Martin and West Virginia for the first time. The WVU game, a mid-season inter-conference Thursday night matchup, is the first of a two-game home-and-home series between the two teams. Of the remaining ten opponents that the Tigers have previously faced, Auburn holds the all-time series lead against all but Alabama and LSU. Four opponents — #1 Georgia, LSU, West Virginia and Tennessee — were ranked in both the preseason USA Today and AP Polls. Alabama was also ranked in the AP Poll. Tennessee dropped out of the polls before playing Auburn; however, Vanderbilt would enter the polls by the time the Commodores played Auburn.

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 30	6:00 pm	Louisiana–Monroe*	No. 10	Jordan–Hare Stadium Auburn, AL	PPV	W 34–0	87,451
September 6	11:30 am	Southern Miss*	No. 9	Jordan–Hare Stadium Auburn, AL	Raycom	W 27–13	87,451
September 13	6:00 pm	at Mississippi State	No. 9	Davis Wade Stadium Starkville, MS	ESPN2^[14]	W 3–2	52,911
September 20	6:45 pm	No. 6 LSU	No. 10	Jordan–Hare Stadium Auburn, AL (Tiger Bowl) (College GameDay)	ESPN^[14]	L 21–26	87,451
September 27	2:30 pm	Tennessee	No. 15	Jordan–Hare Stadium Auburn, AL (rivalry)	CBS	W 14–12	87,451
October 4	5:00 pm	at No. 19 Vanderbilt	No. 13	Vanderbilt Stadium Nashville, TN (College GameDay)	ESPN	L 13–14	39,773
October 11	4:00 pm	Arkansas	No. 20	Jordan–Hare Stadium Auburn, AL	PPV	L 22–25	85,782
October 23	6:30 pm	at West Virginia*		Mountaineer Field Morgantown, WV	ESPN^[14]	L 17–34	60,765
November 1	11:30 am	at Ole Miss		Vaught–Hemingway Stadium Oxford, MS (rivalry)	Raycom	L 7–17	57,324
November 8	1:30 pm	Tennessee–Martin*		Jordan–Hare Stadium Auburn, AL		W 37–20	85,365
November 15	11:30 am	No. 13 Georgia		Jordan–Hare Stadium Auburn, AL (Deep South's Oldest Rivalry)	Raycom	L 13–17	87,451
November 29	2:30 pm	at No. 1 Alabama		Bryant–Denny Stadium Tuscaloosa, AL (Iron Bowl)	CBS	L 0–36	92,138
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Central time

Game summaries

Louisiana-Monroe

Auburn's first possession only picked up 1 first down, but the punt put UL-Monroe in bad field position. On the first play, Auburn Defensive End Antonio Coleman made a huge hit on UL-Monroe's quarterback, forcing a fumble on the UL-Monroe 9-yard line, and the Defense picked it up and took it back for the Auburn Tigers' first touchdown. A few possessions later, Auburn Receiver and Punt Returner Robert Dunn returned a UL-Monroe punt for a TD with 0:04 left in the 1st Quarter. At halftime, Auburn had a 17–0 lead after a Wes Byrum field goal. On the opening kickoff of the 3rd quarter, UL-Monroe fumbled the ball and Auburn recovered, leading to a TD run from Brad Lester. Another field goal from Byrum would make the score 27–0 going into the 4th Quarter. Kodi Burns had left the game with a cut in his leg, so Chris Todd played the rest of the game. Later in the 4th, Todd would lead Auburn down the field with an excellent and suddenly effective passing game, ending in a 3-yard Touchdown pass to Chris Slaughter to seal the victory. It was the first shutout for Auburn since a 27–0 wins over Arkansas State on November 4, 2006. It was also the first time Auburn had scored on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams since the 2003 73–7 beating of UL-Monroe. Auburn finished with 406 yards of offense, 321 Rushing yards and 85 passing yards. Auburn picked up 19 first downs while UL-Monroe picked up 12.

	1	2	3	4	Total
LA-Monroe	0	0	0	0	0
Auburn	14	3	10	7	34

Southern Miss

Southern Miss returned to the Plains for the first time since the 1993 perfect season. Prior to that meeting, the Tigers had lost consecutive 1-point losses to Southern Miss, then quarterbacked by Brett Favre.

Despite impressive offensive numbers in their opening game where Southern Mississippi put up 633 yards (427 rushing) in a 51–21 win over Louisiana-Lafayette, Larry Fedora's team did not have an answer for Auburn's tough defense. The Tigers won 27–13, improving their lead in the series all-time to 17–5.^[15]

	1	2	3	4	Total
Southern Miss	0	0	6	7	13
Auburn	0	14	10	3	27

Mississippi State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Auburn	0	3	0	0	3
Mississippi State	0	0	0	2	2

LSU

	1	2	3	4	Total
LSU	3	0	14	9	26
Auburn	0	14	0	7	21

Tennessee

	1	2	3	4	Total
Tennessee	0	6	0	6	12
Auburn	7	7	0	0	14

Vanderbilt

	1	2	3	4	Total
Auburn	13	0	0	0	13
Vanderbilt	0	7	7	0	14

Arkansas

	1	2	3	4	Total
Arkansas	3	7	6	9	25
Auburn	7	6	7	2	22

West Virginia

	1	2	3	4	Total
Auburn	3	14	0	0	17
West Virginia	0	10	10	14	34

Ole Miss

	1	2	3	4	Total
Auburn	0	0	7	0	7
Ole Miss	0	10	0	7	17

Tennessee-Martin

	1	2	3	4	Total
Tennessee-Martin	7	6	7	0	20
Auburn	13	7	7	10	37

Georgia

	1	2	3	4	Total
Georgia	0	7	3	7	17
Auburn	6	0	0	7	13

Alabama

	1	2	3	4	Total
Auburn	0	0	0	0	0
Alabama	3	7	19	7	36

Coaching staff

Name	Position	Years at AU*	Alma mater (Year)	Note
Tommy Tuberville	Head coach	9	Southern Arkansas University (1976)	Resigned following the season. Replaced Mike Leach as Texas Tech head coach following 2009 season
Tony Franklin	Offensive coordinator, Quarterbacks	0	Murray State University (1979; M.S., 1989)	Fired after week 6 of the season
Hugh Nall	Offensive line	9	University of Georgia (1983)
Eddie Gran	Running backs, Special teams	9	California Lutheran (1987)
Steve Ensminger	Tight ends	5	Louisiana State University (1982)	Became Offensive Coordinator after week 6 of the season
Greg Knox	Wide receivers, Recruiting Coordinator	9	Northeastern State (1986), Northeastern State (1990)
Paul Rhoads	Defensive coordinator, secondary	0	Missouri Western (1989), Utah State (1991)	Became Iowa State head coach following the season.
Don Dunn	Defensive tackles	9	East Tennessee State (1976), Union College (1980)
Terry Price	Defensive ends	9	Texas A&M (1992)	Joined Rhoads at Iowa State initially, but was hired by Ole Miss before 2009 season began.
James Willis	Linebackers	2	Auburn University (2003)

*Entering season

Depth chart

Starters and backups.^[16]

Defense FS Mike McNeil Jonathan Vickers ⋅ WLB MLB SLB ⋅ Tray Blackmon ⋅ Merrill Johnson Josh Bynes ⋅ Courtney Harden Adam Herring ⋅ SS Zac Etheridge Mike Slade ⋅ CB Jerraud Powers Ryan Williams ⋅ DE DT DT DE Michael Goggans Sen'Derrick Marks Jake Ricks Antonio Coleman A.J. Greene Mike Blanc Zach Clayton Antoine Carter Raven Gray Darrell Roseman Luke Farmer ⋅ CB Aairon Savage Walter McFadden ⋅ Offense WR James Swinton Chris Slaughter Charles Olatunji WR Robert Dunn Terrell Zachery ⋅ LT LG C RG RT Lee Ziemba Tyronne Green Jason Bosley Chaz Ramsey Ryan Pugh Jared Cooper Kyle Coulahan Ryan Pugh Byron Isom Mike Berry Andrew McCain ⋅ Bart Eddins Bart Eddins ⋅ WR Rodgeriqus Smith Montez Billings Quindarius Carr WR Tim Hawthorne Mario Fannin ⋅ QB Chris Todd Kodi Burns Neil Caudle RB Ben Tate Brad Lester Tristan Davis Special teams PK Wes Byrum PK Morgan Hull P Ryan Shoemaker P Clinton Durst KR Tristan Davis PR Robert Dunn

Rankings

See also: 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football rankings

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
— = Not ranked

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Final
AP	10	9	9	10	15	13	20	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Coaches	11	10	9	9	16	14	23	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Harris	Not released					13	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Not released
BCS	Not released							—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Not released

Statistics

Team

Team Opp Scoring 208 216   Points per Game 17.3 18.0 First Downs 198 204   Rushing 102 85   Passing 82 101   Penalty 14 18 Total Offense 3635 3813   Total Plays 810 777   Avg per Play 4.5 4.9   Avg per Game 302.9 317.8 Fumbles-Lost 23–13 20–7 Penalties-Yards 74–568 59–500   Avg per Game 47.3 41.7

Team Opp Punts-Yards 78-3212 81-3264   Avg per Punt 41.2 40.3 Time of Possession/Game 30:12 29:48 3rd Down Conversions 65/189 49/171 4th Down Conversions 5/12 8/17 Touchdowns Scored 25 27 Field Goals-Attempts 11–20 11–20 PAT-Attempts 23–25 19–22 Attendance 608,402 301,911   Games/Avg per Game 7/86,915 5/60,382

Scores by quarter

1 2 3 4 Total Auburn 63 68 41 36 208 Opponents 16 60 72 68 216

Offense

Rushing

Name	GP-GS	Att	Gain	Loss	Net	Avg	TD	Long	Avg/G
Ben Tate	12–2	159	718	54	664	4.2	3	49	55.3
Kodi Burns	10–7	98	532	121	411	4.2	5	58	41.1
Brad Lester	11–8	80	314	25	289	3.6	2	19	26.3
Mario Fannin	12–3	54	255	17	238	4.4	1	35	19.8
Eric Smith	12–1	21	98	15	83	4.0	0	19	6.9
Tristan Davis	10–4	8	44	0	44	5.5	1	13	4.4
Neil Caudle	2–0	1	4	0	4	4.0	0	4	2.0
Tim Hawthorne	12–1	1	3	0	3	3.0	0	3	0.2
Robert Dunn	12–4	3	6	7	−1	−0.3	0	6	−0.1
Montez Billings	11–11	2	0	7	−7	−3.5	0	0	−0.6
TEAM	7-	9	0	15	−15	−1.7	0	0	−2.1
Chris Todd	7–5	33	47	110	−63	−1.9	0	12	−9.0
Total	12	469	2021	371	1650	3.5	12	58	137.5
Opponents	12	408	1962	295	1667	4.1	7	63	138.9

Passing

Name	GP-GS	Effic	Cmp-Att-Int	Pct	Yds	TD	Lng	Avg/G
Kodi Burns	10–7	97.65	94–179–7	52.5	1050	2	52	105.0
Chris Todd	7–5	106.64	86–156–6	55.1	903	5	58	129.0
Neil Caudle	2–0	133.76	4–5–0	80.0	32	0	16	16.0
TEAM	7-	0.00	0–1–0	0.0	0	0	0	0.0
Robert Dunn	12–4	0.00	0-0-0	0.0	0	0	0	0.0
Total	12	102.01	184–341–13	54.0	1985	7	58	165.4
Opponents	12	113.81	199–369–11	53.9	2146	19	44	178.8

Receiving

Name	GP-GS	No.	Yds	Avg	TD	Long	Avg/G
R. Smith	12–9	30	332	11.1	1	33	27.7
Montez Billings	11–11	24	277	11.5	0	31	25.2
Mario Fannin	12–3	20	223	11.1	2	52	18.6
Tommy Trott	11–2	20	201	10.1	0	33	18.3
Robert Dunn	12–4	18	193	10.7	2	29	16.1
Chris Slaughter	8–1	15	179	11.9	1	42	22.4
Ben Tate	12–2	15	90	6.0	0	27	7.5
Tim Hawthorne	12–1	8	203	25.4	0	58	16.9
Brad Lester	11–8	7	37	5.3	1	16	3.4
Quindarius Carr	11–0	6	63	10.5	0	28	5.7
Derek Winter	8–0	4	27	6.8	0	11	3.4
Gabe McKenzie	12–1	3	33	11.0	0	21	2.8
Darvin Adams	10–0	3	18	6.0	0	9	1.8
Tristan Davis	10–4	2	42	21.0	0	22	4.2
Terrell Zachery	12–0	2	24	12.0	0	17	2.0
C. Olatunji	2–0	2	23	11.5	0	16	11.5
James Swinton	9–1	2	14	7.0	0	10	1.6
Eric Smith	12–1	2	3	1.5	0	2	0.2
John Douglas	3–1	1	3	3.0	0	3	1.0
Total	12	184	1985	10.8	7	58	165.4
Opponents	12	199	2146	10.8	19	44	178.8

Defense

Name	GP-GS	Tackles				Sacks	Pass Defense			Fumbles		Blkd Kick	Saf
		Solo	Ast	Total	TFL-Yds	No-Yds	Int-Yds	BrUp	QBH	Rcv-Yds	FF
Jerraud Powers	2–2	9	5	14			1–0	1	1
Antonio Coleman	2–2	6	5	11	3.0–15	2.0–13			3		1
Merrill Johnson	2–2	5	4	9	1.0–6	1.0–6			1		1
Neiko Thorpe	2–0	6	2	8				2			1
Zac Etheridge	2–2	4	4	8			1–0
Craig Stevens	2–2	5	2	7				1		1–6
Chris Evans	2–0	3	4	7				3
Josh Bynes	2–0	1	6	7
Mike McNeil	2–2	2	4	6
S. Marks	2–2	5	1	6	3.5–10				1
Michael Goggans	2–2	5	1	6	1.0–2				1	1–9
Tray Blackmon	2–2	3	2	5	1.0–2	1.0–2			1
Courtney Harden	2–0		5	5				1
Walter McFadden	2–2	4	1	5	1.0–5			1
Mike Blanc	2–2	2	2	4	0.5–0
D'Antoine Hood	2–0	2	2	4
Gabe McKenzie	2–0	3	1	4
Zach Clayton	2–0	3		3	3.0–10	1.0–6
Mike Slade	2–0		3	3
Tez Doolittle	2–0	2	1	3	1.0–4
Drew Cole	2–0	1	2	3
Antoine Carter	2–0	2	1	3					1
Jake Ricks	2–0	1	1	2	1.0–4
Darvin Adams	2–0	1	1	2
Kodi Burns	2–1	1		1
Spencer Pybus	1–0	1		1						1–0
Eric Smith	2–1	1		1
Robert Shiver	2–0	1		1
R. Smith	2–1	1		1
Total	2	80	60	140	16–58	5–27	2–0	9	9	3–15	3
Opponents	2	84	64	148	10–31	2–8	2–17	5	13	3–0	4

Special teams

Name	Punting								Kickoffs
	No.	Yds	Avg	Long	TB	FC	I20	Blkd	No.	Yds	Avg	TB	OB
Clinton Durst	70	2947	42.1	58	4	22	18	1
Ryan Shoemaker	7	248	35.4	51	0	1	2	0
Wes Byrum									26	1681	64.7	1	3
Morgan Hull									22	1377	62.6	3	2
Total	78	3212	41.2	58	4	23	20	1	48	3058	63.7	4	5
Opponents	81	3264	40.3	59	7	24	25	0	50	3087	61.7	7	3

Name	Punt Returns					Kick Returns
	No.	Yds	Avg	TD	Long	No.	Yds	Avg	TD	Long
Robert Dunn	7	171	24.4	1	66
Marion Fannin						1	24	24.0	0	24
P. Pierre-Louis						1	18	18.0	0	18
Tristan Davis						1	14	14.0	0	14
Total	7	171	24.4	1	66	3	56	18.7	0	24
Opponents	4	17	4.2	0	9	10	212	21.2	0	30

^[17]

References

1. . Auburn Athletic Department. Archived from the original on November 28, 2007. Retrieved December 14, 2007.
2. "2008 NCAA Football Rankings – Preseason". AP. August 16, 2008. from the original on August 19, 2008. Retrieved August 17, 2008.
3. "2008 NCAA Football Rankings – Preseason". USA Today. August 1, 2008. Retrieved August 17, 2008.
4. "Rivals.com 2008 Preseason Top 120 Countdown". rivals.com. from the original on September 13, 2008. Retrieved August 23, 2008.
5. . Athlon Sports. Archived from the original on August 4, 2008. Retrieved August 23, 2008.
6. Mandel, Stewart (May 1, 2008). "College Football Power Rankings". Sports Illustrated. from the original on September 17, 2008. Retrieved August 23, 2008.
7. "Consensus 2008 Pre-Season Rankings". CollegeTop25.com. Retrieved August 23, 2008.
8. Schlabach, Mark (June 25, 2008). "Bulldogs back at No. 1 in updated Top 25". ESPN. from the original on September 14, 2008. Retrieved August 23, 2008.
9. . Lindy's Sports. May 30, 2008. Archived from the original on September 15, 2008. Retrieved August 23, 2008.
10. . CollegeFootballNews. January 15, 2008. Archived from the original on August 12, 2008. Retrieved August 23, 2008.
11. "Sen'Derrick Marks Named To Walter Camp Award Watch List". Auburn Athletic Department. August 18, 2008. from the original on September 29, 2008. Retrieved August 22, 2008.
12. "Antonio Coleman And Sen'Derrick Marks Named To Bronko Nagurski Trophy Watch List". Auburn Athletic Department. May 12, 2008. from the original on September 29, 2008. Retrieved August 22, 2008.
13. "Jason Bosley Named To Rimington Trophy Watch List". Auburn Athletic Department. May 7, 2008. from the original on September 29, 2008. Retrieved August 22, 2008.
14. "2008 Major College Football National TV Schedule". Associated Press. August 1, 2008. Retrieved August 17, 2008.
15. . Archived from the original on May 25, 2011. Retrieved February 13, 2009.
16. . April 11, 2008. Archived from the original on March 20, 2012. Retrieved August 1, 2011.
17. "Auburn Cumulative Season Statistics". Auburn Athletic Department. from the original on September 14, 2008. Retrieved September 7, 2008.