Auburn Football: Pat Dye’s 3 biggest accomplishments
3. Inducted to three Hall of Fames
Pat Dye was not only a legend to Auburn, he was a legend to the sport of college football. Before the arrival of Dye at Auburn, the Tigers were looking for some form of consistency on the field. In his 12 seasons there, he accounted for a 99-39-4 record (48-27-3 in SEC play) with an overall win percentage of .711.
Nine of the 12 seasons at Auburn came with a winning record with seven of them coming with nine or more wins. In his second season in 1982, the Tigers finished with a 9-3 record as well as finishing No. 14 in the AP poll. This included a 16-7 victory over the USC Trojans in the Tangerine Bowl (now Citrus Bowl), which is the 13th time in program history that the Tigers appeared in a postseason game.
It was in his third season in 1983 where coach Dye would bring the Tigers to an elite level.
The Tigers, under the stellar performance of sophomore running back Bo Jackson, would create an offense that was so efficient and difficult to stop. They would finish with an 11-1 record that includes a record of 6-1 versus ranked opponents. Their lone loss was against No. 3 Texas early in the season. They finished the season in a five-game streak against ranked opponents including a 13-7 victory at No. 4 Georgia. Auburn finished the season third in the nation in the AP poll.
Dye accomplished four seasons with an SEC title (1983, 1987, 1988 and 1989), he was named SEC Coach of the Year for 1983, 1987 and 1988, he has the most bowl wins by a head coach for Auburn with six and he also had five top-five ranked teams at the end of the season.
Dye and legendary Georgia head coach Vince Dooley had incredible matchups. There were eight matchups from 1981 to Dooley’s last season in 1988. Dye won five of the matchups while Dooley won three.
The former Auburn coach was enshrined into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in the class of 1990. In his six seasons at East Carolina, he accumulated a record of 48-18-1. He got his Pirates to a Southern Conference title in 1976 with a 9-2 record. The Pirates inducted Dye to the ECU Athletics Hall of Fame in the class of 2006. A year before, he was enshrined into the College Football Hall of Fame.