I know I might take flame for this but I honestly want to know because I didn't start to watch football until 91. I was talking to some Auburn friends who said the best coaches to coach at Auburn where Jordan and Dye. I asked why not Tubberville and they said he didn't do anything as significant as the other two. So I looked and noticed Tubberville has a better winning percentage than Dye, an undefeated season (and some can argue a national champion claim), and a 7-3 record against Bama. all I see is Dye ended the 9 year streak, had more SEC titles, and put Auburn on probation with a 6-6 record against us. Tubbs also won games he probably shouldn't against us in 02,05, and 07. Don't get me wrong Im a die hard bama fan RTR!!!,I just don't get why they put Dye so head and shoulders over Tubberville.
OK, you have to have some historical perspective (and what I say should in no way be taken as talking down to you, just a learning experience). I don't know about the off-the-field stuff because I didn't live in Alabama during the 1980s when it happened.
The Iron Bowl was not played for about a 42-year span. It started over again in 1949, and Alabama roared right out of the gate with a blasting win. Even with that win, Auburn led the series, 7-5-1. After the teams split the next two games. Auburn hired Shug Jordan as head football coach. Alabama won three in a row but then hired J.B. "Ears" Whitworth and promptly won only four games in three years and went 0-3 against Auburn.
At that very time, Auburn won the national championship. Keep in mind that since our recognition of older titles did not occur until the early 1980s, Auburn was actually perceived at the time as having won something we never had (until 1983, it was generally considered that Bryant won our first national title in 1961). And btw - Auburn was on probation at the time, which worked a little different then and didn't quite carry the stigma it does today. Auburn, in fact, was on probation for playing players in 1957 when they got hit again in 1958 with the first-ever "triple" probation - a three-year TV and an three-year bowl ban.
So we went and hired Coach Bryant right as Auburn was the national champion. In four years, he resurrected the program to our own national title. And after losing the first two to Auburn while he built his time, Bryant then went on an absolutely unreal run against Auburn, winning 19 of the next 26 game (and losing one in the infamous Punt Bama Punt game, where we outplayed them for all but two plays).
Alabama was THE dominant program in college football from 1960-1966 and again from 1971-1981. Shug Jordan - who was very good, mind you - simply couldn't beat the guy. Of course, neither could anyone else, but this drove the Auburn fan base absolutely nuts. After all, they were on top of the world when Bryant showed up. So they convinced themselves of all kinds of things - Bryant was paying players, Bryant was cheating, the NCAA was afraid of Bryant because he has sued "The Saturday Evening Post" into bankruptcy (which wasn't true but has long been believed by most ignorant observers). They weren't getting beat on the football field, they were only losing because Bryant cheated (in their minds).
When Jordan retired, he was replaced by a completely unqualified empty suit by the name of Doug Barfield. What promptly happened was that in 1979, BOTH Auburn's basketball and football programs got hit with sanctions for - wait for it - paying players!!! And Auburn fans, showing how rational they are, blamed the entire thing on Coach Bryant since, as we all know, he really needed help winning all those BASKETBALL games. To make it worse, violations not disclosed were later discovered in the 1979 sanctions and another year was added. And, of course, the Auburn logic said that Coach Bryant was behind the whole thing, what with all that spare time on his hands.
In 1980, it was decided that Barfield needed to be thrown overboard. Auburn had their eyes on a former Auburn player who just happened to be coaching the team that was about to win the national championship, Vince Dooley of Georgia. Dooley contemplated leaving Athens for Opelika but after sobering up, he stayed at the hedges. So Auburn hired Pat Dye, who had compiled a pretty decent record under the circumstances at East Carolina and Wyoming.
Dye came to town and had a great plan. He ran to every high school in the state that he possibly could and informed the football players that Coach Bryant was going to have to retire after the 1983 season, due to the state's mandatory retirement law. (It wound up not mattering but Dye used it for all it was worth). In his first year, he had the misfortune of being a guest of honor at Bryant's coronation as the winningest coach in college history.
But after that Dye did a lot of stuff that Tuberville could never match:
1) He beat Coach Bryant in the legend's last regular season game - one of the most childish reactions ever came when Dye sent Auburn's players back out onto Legion Field to "thank ah people" for their support. Auburn fans were tearing down goalposts and running around like rednecks in a John Deere store. When he was later asked if that wasn't somewhat rubbing it in on Bryant, Dye (who had coached as an assistant here in the 60s) said he meant no disrespect but that it was that kind of attitude that would one day win Auburn a national championship.
Yes, a guy whose team had been bludgeoned by Nebraska by forty points was suggesting his team was going to win a national title.
2) He took Auburn to AND WON a Sugar Bowl, something they'd never done.
So his second year he beats Alabama and his third year he beats Alabama, wins the SEC, wins the Sugar Bowl and - SHOULD have won a national championship. In only three years, Dye had become the king and Alabama was in free fall.
3) He got them to a number one ranking.
Auburn began the 1984 season ranked number one. They started 0-2 (so much for that) but Dye had actually for one week had them at the top. In 1985, Auburn started at number two then moved up to number one after a couple of decent wins while OU had not yet begun their season.
And then they got blown out by Tennessee and ended that dream.
4) By the late 1980s, Auburn was THE cream of the crop in the SEC.
Auburn won SEC titles in 1987-88-89 (shared), won the Iron Bowl all three years, and just fwiw, Bo Jackson won the Heisman in 1985.
The bottom line is this - Auburn judges success based on how they compare against Alabama. Dye owned us in the 1980s, beating three different coaches in the Iron Bowl and going 6-3 overall. He won six of eight after his initial loss and BOTH of his losses were due to some strange occurrences (the goal line stand in 1984, where Dye outcoached himself, and Tiffin's kick in 1985).
Dye built a very solid program that won a lot of games and won 4 SEC titles in seven seasons. Keep in mind that during the 1980s, no other school won (or shared) more than 2 SEC titles. He won a Sugar Bowl, had a Heisman winner, and got robbed of the 1983 national championship.
Tuberville, on the other hand, inherited a team that - while bad in 1998 - had just won the division in 1997. And unlike Dye, whose early losses were to teams much better than his (none of Dye's losses in 1982 or 1983 were upsets and his only real upset loss in 1984 was to Alabama), Tuberville specialized in blowing game after game after game.
Here are a few examples:
1999 Mississippi State - leading 16-3 with less than three minutes left, MSU scores, Auburn then took a safety, and then MSU ran the punt most of the way back before hitting the winning TD pass with 19 seconds left. Keep in mind MSU was playing with a backup QB.
2000 Mississippi State - Tubs inexplicably called for a fake punt deep in his own territory early in the game and never got the momentum back in a 17-10, not as close as it looks final score.
2001 Alabama - playing a 4-5 underdog, Auburn implodes and not only loses, they get blown out 31-7.
2001 LSU - this loss cost Tubs a second straight division title
You have to remember something else - they got stuck with Tubs after the infamous Jetgate. It was put into his contract that if they ever pulled anything like that again he got a $10 million buyout. So they were stuck with him. He only hung around as long as he did because Alabama was on probation.
And I would note this: even with a probation riddled Alabama, the scores of those games are hardly testaments to Auburn dominance. Only the 2005 game was a real blowout post-2002.
There's another thing with Dye that ought to make everyone suspicious: he was the AD at a time when Auburn's basketball, tennis, and football teams were ALL put on probation for PAYING PLAYERS!!! The most well-known was Eric Ramsey. Dye was actually banned from Auburn in the NCAA ruling for about three years.
And the moment it was over....right back he comes. Most schools don't want such people on their campuses ever again.
Well I've rambled and there's more but that's an overview.
