Saturdays to Remember... 1986 to 1989 - "Building a Dynasty"

Coach Pat Dye came to Auburn and completely turned around the program in the early 80s as I covered in my previous posts.  He led Auburn to the mountaintop in 1983, only two years after he arrived at Auburn and then helped produce Auburn's second Heisman winner in 1985. However the program slipped in 1984 and 1985 including two heartbreaking losses in the Iron Bowl. Auburn was at a crossroads on January 1, 1986. Texas A&M had just beaten Auburn 36-16 in the Cotton Bowl closing a disappointing season other than Bo's Heisman run.  In the locker room after the game Coach Pat Dye asked the players coming back to believe in him and the staff and promised that they were going to build the program back to where it had been.

This would include Coach Dye making the first major changes to his coaching staff and his offensive philosophy. He brought in Heisman winner Pat Sullivan to coach the quarterbacks and help instill a better passing game and he promoted coach Wayne Hall to defensive coordinator. These two changes would yield huge dividends down the road as Sullivan would help groom two championship quarterbacks and Hall would help build some truly great defensive players and units. Coach Dye made a lot of good decisions at Auburn but making these two moves in his coaching staff were two of his best. Wayne Hall is another coach that takes a lot of grief mostly because of his long running severance package he received when he was removed as defensive coordinator in 1995. I do not know, he may deserve it and may have done some things wrong. However the man also did some things right and is still probably the best defensive coordinator ever at Auburn and that is saying something. I digress though, let us return back to that locker room on New Years Day 1986 and Coach Dye promising to build the program back to where it had been...

The coaches and the players would fulfill that commitment over the next four seasons and then some. As I stated in a previous post, those who poke fun and disrespect Coach Dye now would do well to look at his amazing accomplishments. Most good coaches have one good run and help produce one or maybe two great teams and championships. Coach Dye built a great team and then built it back even better and won even more. He would even build it back one more time before he was done but that is for a later post. Pat Dye was a great coach, one of the greatest in the history of the Southeastern Conference. From 1986 through 1989 no SEC team was even close to Auburn. Auburn would go 39-8-2 over these four years winning three SEC championships and produce one of the greatest defenses in the history of college football in 1988.

Personally, it was time for me I will never forget. I started at Auburn in the fall of 1987 and still feel so fortunate enough to have been a student at Auburn during the best three years in Auburn football history. It was an amazing time and an unbelievable run. To be in the student section for so many great games and big wins was incredible. Auburn would only lose one game at home in those three years. However this post actually starts in the fall of 1986 when I was a senior in high school and my parents were Auburn season ticket holders. They had started ordering tickets in 1983 and we did not miss many home games. Going to Auburn had become a big part of my life while I was in high school and one of our favorite things to do as a family. We had sat in section 45 in the end zone at Jordan Hare since we started getting tickets and this would be our last year before moving to the new upper deck in 1987. We would be glad we would still be in those seats one more year because I got to witness one of the most memorable incidents in Auburn history at close range. It was all a part of the season in 1986 which I will cover in my next post...