Division Western Division Head coach Tommy Tuberville | 2008 record 5–7 (2–6 SEC) Offensive scheme Air Raid | |
Conference Southeastern Conference Offensive coordinator Tony Franklin
Steve Ensminger (Interim) | ||
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 his spread offense in a failed effort to correct the Tigers' offensive struggles in 2007. Tuberville fired Franklin six games into the season.
Contents
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. 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.
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 while the USA Today Coaches' Poll, a component of the Bowl Championship Series rankings, had Auburn at #11. Other rankings include:
# 7 – Rivals.com
# 8 – Athlon
# 9 – Sports Illustrated
# 9 – CollegeTop25 Consensus
# 10 – ESPN
# 13 – Lindy's
# 14 – CollegeFootballNews/Scout.com
Watchlists and honors
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.
Coaching staff
*Entering season
Depth chart
Starters and backups.