2007 Auburn Tigers football team

In a game that would see the Tigers turn the ball over five times, and their starting quarterback benched in favor of a true freshman, Auburn fell to the Bulldogs despite outgaining them by 110 yards. Mississippi State last won at Auburn in 1999 as Auburn leads the series at home 25-5 and 56-22-2 overall.

New Mexico State

The Tigers scored touchdowns on their first three possessions of the game and led 28-0 at halftime while coasting to an easy 35-7 victory over the visiting Commodores. Sophomore running back Ben Tate led the Tigers with 96 rushing yards, while Brad Lester, seeing his first game action since the 2006 Iron Bowl victory over Alabama, scored two touchdowns and rushed for 77 yards. Quarterback Brandon Cox completed 14 of 17 passing attempts for 165 yards for the Tigers, who improved to 2-1 in conference play and 4-2 overall. The Commodores rotated back onto Auburn's schedule for the first meeting since 2003. After the victory, Auburn's all-time record against Vanderbilt is now 20-19-1. While the win marked the Tigers first lead in the series in 113 years, Auburn has not lost to the Commodores since 1955 when they met in the Gator Bowl. Auburn wore all-white uniforms at home for this game and removed the traditional AU logo from their helmets to honor the 50th anniversary of the 1957 National Championship team. The win marked Tommy Tuberville's 100th career win. [http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=272790002]

Arkansas

Ole Miss has only beaten the Tigers in Auburn twice, in 1999 and in 2003; Auburn leads the series 24-8 after the 17-3 victory.
*SEC Defensive Lineman Of The Week: Antonio Coleman

Tennessee Tech

Auburn won the game 17-10, bringing the current winning streak to 6 (the longest in school history). Though this in-state rivalry known as the Iron Bowl is considered one of the most bitter and intense in all of sports with 72 matchups over the years, this was only the ninth meeting at Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium and the first meeting at JHS on Thanksgiving weekend.
*SEC Defensive Lineman Of The Week: Josh Thompson

Post-season

Auburn's 8-win regular season qualified a post-season bowl and the Tigers were selected by the Chick-fil-A Bowl to face the ACC's Clemson Tigers, with both teams' defenses being ranked in the top 10. Auburn last played in the then Peach Bowl versus North Carolina in 2001 in a losing effort but Auburn had previously met Clemson in the 1997 Peach Bowl for a 21–17 victory. The 23-20 victory in 2007 was the first Peach Bowl to require overtime and Auburn now has a 3-1 record in the bowl. This bowl appearance marked Auburn's eighth consecutive appearance; the second longest streak in school history behind the 9-year stretch from 1982-1990.

National awards

*Broyles Award Finalist - Will Muschamp (DC)

Freshman All-Americans

Conference awards

*Associated Press All-SEC Team
**First Team - Pat Sims (DT)
**Second Team - Quentin Groves (DE), Ryan Shoemaker (P), Patrick Lee (CB)
*Coaches' All-SEC
**First Team - Quentin Groves (DE)
**Second Team - Ryan Shoemaker (P)
*Coaches' All-SEC Freshman Team - Ryan Pugh (OL), Chaz Ramsey (OL), Lee Ziemba (OL), Antoine Carter (DE), Zac Etheridge (S), Ryan Shoemaker (P)

Coaching changes

Following the close of the regular season, head coach Tommy Tuberville was offered a two-year contract extension that was verbally accepted on December 4, 2007. One week later, offensive coordinator Al Borges announced his resignation following a meeting late the previous week with Tuberville. On December 12, Auburn announced Tony Franklin, the offensive coordinator for the Troy Trojans, as Borges' replacement. With only 8 days of practice prior to the bowl, the new spread offense proved quite effective as Auburn posted 423 yards of offense (233 passing / 190 rushing), besting their season average in all offensive categories despite playing against the #6 defense in the nation.

Days following the Chick-fil-A Bowl, defensive coordinator Will Muschamp interviewed for and accepted the vacant defensive coordinator position with the Texas Longhorns. On January 17, 2008, Auburn named Pittsburgh's Paul Rhoads as the new defensive coordinator.

Related pages

*Auburn Tigers football
*Auburn Tigers
*Auburn University
*Southeastern Conference
*2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season
*2007 NCAA Division I FBS football rankings

External links

* [http://www.auburntigers.com/ Auburn Tigers Official website]

References