Auburn Football: Pat Dye’s 3 biggest accomplishments

2. The great players he coached

Pat Dye was a great recruiter and developer of some of college football’s best talent. In his first coaching destination at Alabama as the linebackers coach, he developed and coached three different All-American linebackers.

As a head coach at East Carolina, Dye brought in some high-caliber talent at a smaller school. Running back Tony Collins was a star in the first three seasons with him as the head coach. Collins was eventually a second-round selection in the 1981 NFL Draft and then a 1983 NFL Pro Bowl selection.

It was at Auburn where he fulfilled the potential of coaching great high-caliber talent. In his 12 seasons at Auburn, he would coach 21 players who be named All-Americans with 10 of them being consensus and five as unanimous selections.

Dye developed two of their most dominant Tigers in the 1980s in defensive tackle Tracy Rocker and running back Bo Jackson. Both Rocker and Jackson were two-time All-American selections for the Tigers as they were national award winners.

Rocker was an All-American selection in 1987 and 1988 as well as the Outland Award and Lombardi Award in 1988. He finished his career at Auburn with 354 total tackles, 48 tackles for loss and 21 sacks.

Jackson is regarded as one of the most outstanding athletes in the sport of college football. He was named as a consensus All-American in 1983 and 1985 as well as the winner of the Heisman Trophy in 1985. In the 11 games he played that season, Jackson rushed for 1,786 yards and 17 touchdowns on 278 carries.

In his career as head coach of the Tigers, Dye had 63 players that were selected in NFL drafts. Five of these players were selected in the first round. Jackson was the first overall pick in the 1986 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Aundray Bruce was the first overall pick in the 1988 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons. Bruce is one of three sole position linebackers first overall in the NFL Draft.