< Previous20 STATS COMPARISONS AUBURNTIGERS.COM AUBURN STATS LEADERS RUSHING ATT NET AVG TD LONG AVG/G Jackson Arnold 16 137 8.6 2 27 137.0 Damari Alston 16 84 5.3 1 11 84.0 Jeremiah Cobb 16 74 4.6 1 9 74.0 PASSING CMP-ATT-INT PCT YDS TD AVG/G Jackson Arnold 11-17-0 64.7 108 0 108.0 RECEIVING NO. YDS AVG TD LONG AVG/G Malcolm Simmons 1 26 26.0 0 26 26.0 Cam Coleman 1 23 23.0 0 23 23.0 Eric Singleton Jr. 3 20 6.7 0 9 20.0 DEFENSE UA A TOT TFL-YDS SACKS-YDS Keyron Crawford 4 3 7 1.0-8 1.0-8 Xavier Atkins 4 1 5 0.0-0 0.0-0 Keldric Faulk 4 0 4 1.0-6 1.0-6 BALL STATE STATS LEADERS RUSHING ATT NET AVG TD LONG AVG/G Kiael Kelly 22 63 2.9 0 12 63.0 Qua Ashley 10 45 4.5 9 21 45.0 Elijah Jackson 1 7 7.0 0 7 7.0 PASSING CMP-ATT-INT PCT YDS TD AVG/G Kiael Kelly 10-16-0 62.5 87 9 87.0 RECEIVING NO. YDS AVG TD LONG AVG/G Elijah Jackson 1 37 37.0 0 37 37.0 TJ Horton 1 14 14.0 0 14 14.0 Maximus Webster 1 13 13.0 0 13 13.0 DEFENSE UA A TOT TFL-YDS SACKS-YDS Joey Stemler 5 0 5 0.0-0 0.0-0 Nathan Voorhis 3 1 4 1.0-9 1.0-9 Alfred Chea 2 2 4 0.0-0 0.0-0 Here is a quick look at the top team statistics for the Tigers and Cardinals. Quick Look n Total Touchdowns 50 n Rushing Yards 307116 n Passing Yards 10887 STATS COMPARISONS22 COVER FEATURE AUBURNTIGERS.COM As an All-American two-way player at Georgia, Pat Dye’s first encounter with Auburn came when he competed against the Tigers in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry from 1958-60. Twenty years after his playing career ended, Dye, then coaching at the University of Wyoming, returned to the Southeastern Conference when Auburn offered him its head coaching job after the 1980 season. Looking back four decades later, Dye said he knew he was the right fit when he read the famous words written by Auburn’s first football coach, George Petrie. “When I picked up the Auburn Creed and read it, I didn’t know anything about Auburn,” Dye recalled in 2019. “I said, ‘Damn, this is me. This is what I believe. I believe in hard work.’ “And I got on down there a little further and the line in there that resonates the loudest with me – ‘having a spirit that is unafraid,’ – now you think about that. Having a spirit that is unafraid. I said, ‘This is me.’ And it kind of took off from there.” At the 30th anniversary of the 1989 Iron Bowl, Dye reminisced with the players he coached on his fourth and final SEC championship team. “There’s not a morning or a day goes by, every day, I think how I have been blessed by my experience and being part of this institution, and I didn’t have anything to do with building it and making it like it is,” Dye said on the eve of the 2019 Iron Bowl. “I just bought into what they already believed.” More than 250 of Dye’s former players will return to the Plains this weekend for the Pat Dye Reunion Game when Auburn hosts Ball State. Dye’s Auburn teams were 99-39-4 from 1981-92, including the 1983 national championship and SEC championships in ‘83, 1987, 1988 and 1989. COVER FEATURE BY: JEFF SHEARER ‘SIMPLY A LEGEND’: AUBURN HOSTS PAT DYE REUNION GAME24 COVER FEATURE AUBURNTIGERS.COM “Pat Dye revolutionized Auburn Athletics,” said Auburn University Board of Trustees member Jimmy Rane, the founder and CEO of Great Southern Wood Preserving, Inc. Friends and business associates for 40 years, Rane attended Dye’s introductory news conference in 1991. “He left no doubt about what he was about and what he intended to do. The reporter asked him, ‘Coach, how long is it going to take you to beat Alabama?’ “With a cold-eyed, steel look, he looked at him and said, ‘Sixty minutes.’ You knew damn well he meant business. From that day forward until he stopped coaching, that’s the attitude and grit he brought to Auburn’s program.” Auburn named its playing surface after Dye in 2005, the same year the legendary coach was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. “His players loved him and the fans loved him because you knew he was tough, but you knew he also loved you and he loved Auburn,” Rane said. “For my people my age, Coach Dye put this program on the map of what it could become,” Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said. “The way he led men and the stories you hear from his players, he developed Auburn men. He’s simply a legend.” Dye served as Auburn’s athletic director from 1981-91 and was instrumental in bringing the Iron Bowl to Auburn for the first time in 1989, a 30- 20 victory considered one of the most important events in program history. After that epic triumph, Dye told the victorious Tigers, “Tonight’s what our program’s all about. Ain’t no easy way in life, and it wasn’t easy out there tonight, but you were prepared for the task.” Six months before he passed away on June 1, 2020, at the age of 80, Dye reminisced with the players on Auburn’s 1989 team. “We weren’t the favorites,” Dye said at the team’s 30-year reunion on Nov. 29, 2019. “We might have been the underdogs. But that’s all right. Every morning I woke up all my life I’ve been an underdog. I had two older brothers, one of them two years older than me and one of them four years older than me. I got my (tail) whipped every day. I never liked it. “Failing won’t hurt you. You don’t like it. It hurts you, but if you’ve got the right kind of stuff in you it’ll make you work a little harder next time. And that’s what we’re made out of.” It was, in a sense, Coach Dye’s last team meeting. One more opportunity to motivate, to encourage, to share his love for Auburn. “Have you ever heard any of our opponents say, ‘Auburn outsmarted us?’” Dye asked. “You never heard of Auburn outsmarting anybody while I was coaching, but we beat their (tail) to a pulp. “Not only that, you could bet against them the next week and you’d win your money because they wouldn’t be able to get them all on the field.” Quentin Riggins, a senior captain on Auburn’s 1989 team, recalled the scene in the locker room after the Tigers defeated Alabama by 10 points on Dec. 2, 1989, the culmination of Dye’s decade-long fight to bring the Iron Bowl to the Plains from Legion Field in Birmingham. “He had no problem letting us see his emotion as we exceeded his expectation and that was a beautiful thing,” Riggins remembered. “Coaches have to push you. They have to push you beyond what you think you can do, and he did that a lot. “He used to say to us, ‘Leave it all out on the field.’ To me, that’s how he lived life. He left it out on the field. That’s going out there every day and putting it on the line and working and sweating. And it’s okay if you have some tears along the way because celebration will come.” Dye recalled recruiting the players 35 years earlier, when these men in their 50s were still teenagers. “The guys who came through this program and the mamas and daddies that let me in their homes to recruit the kids to become a part of this institution, I’m grateful for them,” he said. “Because I knew every time I went through the front door that I was going to present them with a chance to have a better life, if they stayed and played and went to school here. “That’s true with all of the students, that’s not just football players and athletics. Be proud of the fact that you’ve got an Auburn background. The right kind of kids are coming to Auburn, and it didn’t surprise me at all to see Auburn’s student body is the happiest student body in America.” Members of the 1989 team wiped away tears as their coach continued, perhaps reflecting on the bonds they’d formed in their youth, back when preseason camp consisted of four-a-days. “There’s a lot of love in this room,” Dye said. “Not just me to the players or players to me. It’s players to each other. The love that you’ve got for Auburn University. Nothing that you could give me means any more than how much you care about this institution and what It’s meant for all of us and meant to all of us.” Now it wasn’t just the players who were crying. Through tears, the coach who had given so much to his school somehow still felt indebted. “I could live another 80 years,” Dye said, “and I could never do for Auburn what Auburn has done for me.” COVER FEATUREOFFICIAL INTERCOLLEGIATE SPORTS MEDICINE PROVIDER OF AUBURN TIGERS ATHLETICS WE ARE HERE FOR L TO R: Michael Goodlett, MD, FAAFP- Team Physician Benton A. Emblom, MD - Team Orthopaedic Surgeon Jos Edison, DO - Associate Team Physician At Andrews Sports Medicine & Orthopaedic Center, we’re here for the competitor in all of us — from rookies chasing their dreams to legends who never quit. We’re here for the believers, the driven, the passionate. We’re here for the ones who rise, again and again. We’re here for the Auburn Tigers. To schedule an appointment, call us at 205-939-3699 Locations: Birmingham | Cullman | Gardendale | Hoover | Pelham | Trussville ORTHOPAEDIC SURGEONS Christopher M. Beaumont, MD E. Lyle Cain, Jr., MD Andrew M. Cordover, MD Jeff rey C. Davis, MD Jeff rey R. Dugas, MD Benton A. Emblom, MD Christopher H. Garrett, MD Daniel C. Kim, MD Wayne McGough, Jr., MD Kathleen E. McKeon, MD K. David Moore, MD Charles C. Pitts, Jr., MD Marcus A. Rothermich, MD Norman E. Waldrop, III, MD NON-SURGICAL SPORTS MEDICINE PHYSICIANS Matthew B. Beidleman, MD Christopher S. Carter, MD Emily Bell Casey, MD Ricardo E. Colberg, MD Rachel G. Henderson, MD Monte M. Ketchum, DO JoséO.Ortega,MD T. Daniel Smith, MD Jay S. Umarvadia, MD PHYSICIAL MEDICINE & REHABILITATION Charles T. Carnel, MDY O U R T E A M S . Y O U R S T A T I O N S . WINGSFM.COMESPNAU.COM FOOTBALL/MEN’SBASKETBALL/WOMEN’SBASKETBALL/BASEBALL/TIGERTALK ALLPLAYHERE. Auburn-Opelika’sOfficialFlagshipStationsoftheAuburnTigersCOMPETITIVE COMPETITIVE THE COMPETITIVE EDGE EDGE EDGE HARBERT COLLEGE OF BUSINESS HARBERT.AUBURN.EDU At the hArbert college of business excellence goes beyond the classroom. From boardrooms to stadiums, our students lead with grit, purpose, and the Auburn spirit. WE’RE NOT JUST PREPARING BUSINESS LEADERS —WE’RE INSPIRING EXCELLENCE ON AND OFF THE FIELD. X Sophie is a senior Business Analytics major with a minor in Business Engineering Technology. She’s active in Women in Technology and Sports Analytics student organizations.28 HEAD COACH HUGH FREEZE AUBURNTIGERS.COM Hugh Freeze became the 31st head football coach in Auburn history in No- vember 2022. Freeze has more than three decades of continued coaching success, including head coaching ex- perience that has led to conference ti- tles, nationally ranked recruiting classes and bowl appearances at multiple stops during his highly decorated career. In Freeze’s first season at Auburn, despite a shorthanded roster, the 2023 Tigers posted a 6-7 record and earned a Music City Bowl berth. In 2024, the Tigers continued to build on and off the field. Every home game was sold out for the second consecutive season as fans embraced Freeze’s brand of football and Auburn garnered top 10 recruiting class- es for the 2024 and 2025 campaigns. Freeze came to Auburn from Liber- ty University, where he was head coach from 2019-22. Freeze led the Flames to four bowl games and a 34-15 record. Freeze experienced similar success at each of his head coaching stops prior to Liberty that include Lambuth Univer- sity (2008-09), Arkansas State (2011) and Ole Miss (2012-16). Freeze led each school to double-digit win seasons, while helping Ole Miss to a top 10 national fin- ish in 2015. His on-field coaching record in 14 seasons is 114-61. Liberty was just one of five FBS teams in the country to win a bowl game each season from 2019-21, joining Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky and Louisiana. It was the second team in NCAA history to win a bowl game during its first three full sea- sons at the FBS level, all coming under Freeze’s leadership. Freeze guided Liberty to a 10-1 overall record in 2020 and the team’s first-ever national ranking as it finished No. 17 in the country. That season, Liberty had the best start in program history (8-0), tied the program record for wins (10) and de- feated two Power 5 programs in Syracuse and Virginia Tech. For his efforts, Freeze was a finalist for the George Munger Col- legiate Coach of the Year Award. Known for his fast-paced offensive style, Freeze’s 2020 Liberty team set a school record for rushing yards in a season (2,776) and ranked No. 9 in the country in rushing offense. Liberty also ranked No. 15 nationally in total offense (482.7 yards per game) and No. 11 in to- tal defense (317.7 yards per game). The Flames were one of three teams in the country to rank in the top 20 in both total offense and total defense in 2020, join- ing Clemson and BYU. Spearheading Liberty’s outstand- ing offense in 2020 was former Auburn quarterback Malik Willis, who burst into the spotlight leading the nation in rushing yards (944) and touchdowns (14) by a FBS quarterback. Willis earned All-America honors, was named to the Davey O’Brien Award Quarterback Class of 2020 and was on the 2020 Maxwell Award watch list. The Flames posted an eight-win sea- son in 2021 after facing eight bowl-eli- gible teams during that campaign. Lib- erty’s defense finished the 2021 season ranked No. 7 nationally in passing yards allowed, No. 11 in total defense and No. 24 in scoring defense. Offensively, Lib- erty finished 2021 ranked No. 25 in the country in scoring offense and No. 8 in passing yards per completion. Leading the charge for the Flames in 2021 once again was Willis, who was a semifinalist for the Davey O’Brien Na- tional Quarterback Award and the Max- well Award and a top 10 candidate for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. Willis was a third-round draft pick of the Ten- nessee Titans in the 2022 NFL Draft. In 2022, Liberty finished the regu- lar season 8-4 with wins over Arkansas and BYU; three of the four losses came by a combined five points. The Flames earned a berth in the Boca Raton Bowl. While head coach at Ole Miss, Freeze took the Rebels to bowl games in three of his five seasons, including wins in the 2013 Music City and the 2016 Sugar bowls. Freeze’s time in Oxford was highlight- ed by a 10-3 campaign in 2015, the pro- gram’s first 10-win season since 2003. The Rebels won their first four games of the 2015 season, including a 43-37 road victory over No. 2 Alabama, Ole Miss’ first win in Tuscaloosa since 1988. The Rebels were ranked as high as No. 3 in the national polls in both 2014 and 2015 and finished in the national Top 10 for the first time since 1969 after the Sugar Bowl win. Ole Miss was ranked in the top 25 for 45 weeks over Freeze’s five-year tenure, including a string of 27 straight weeks in the polls for the first time since 1957-62. Freeze collected four nationally ranked recruiting classes at Ole Miss. In 2013 and 2016, his recruiting classes ranked in the top five nationally, the best in program history. Freeze and his staff developed 20 players who earned all-SEC honors, in- cluding All-Americans Cody Prewitt, Senquez Golson, Robert Nkemdiche, Laremy Tunsil, Evan Engram, Laquon Treadwell and Trae Elston. HUGH FREEZE HEAD COACHNext >