Who is Coach Pat Dye

From Coach Dye...

I'm not capable of telling you, the Auburn Family, how much this honor means to me. I was raised on a farm in Georgia. We worked the land, lived off the land, put our heart and soul into it, our sweat and blood too. It's been the same way with this piece of land. For most of a hundred years, Auburn People, especially players and coaches, Coach Jordan and others, have put their hearts and souls in this piece of land to make it a place of victory, pride and honor for Auburn and for the Auburn People.

Other things come and go, but land, this piece of earth, will be here forever, and it will be special to Auburn People forever. For Auburn and Auburn People to put my name here means more than words. It's a heart and soul feeling, something deep inside you where words can never go. That's how I feel in trying to express my feelings and appreciation. Word's just don't go there. Those who know understand. Those who don't - I'm not sure they will ever understand how I feel about this and how I feel about Auburn. I'm not sure they will ever understand Auburn.

My name may be on this field, but this is not an "I" or "me" thing. It is the culmination of a lot of hard work and a lot of dreams by a lot of Auburn People. I have to thank Dr. Funderburk, the Search Committee and the Board of Trustees for believing in me and giving me a chance back in 1981. I appreciate the support of the Presidents I worked for and for the Board of Trustees the entire time I was head football coach and athletic director. I appreciate, more than they will ever know, more than they could ever know, the hard work and sacrifice of our coaches, our players (especially the players), every manager and trainer, every athletic staff member, every member of the faculty and the University staff and every student. All of us working together made some good things happen at Auburn. We were, all of us, fortunate to be a part of it. It was a special time and a special feeling.

I was hungry to be a good football coach in the Southeastern Conference and Auburn was hungry to have a good football program like it used to have. The players were hungry. You could see it in their eyes and everywhere you went. You could sense it everywhere you went, every time you were around Auburn alumni and Auburn People. The success of the football program coincided with one of the most successful times for all of Auburn University. I like to think they were interrelated. I believe they were.

I had heard about the Auburn Spirit before I came, but I didn't know much about it. Now I do. It's real, it's alive. It changed my life and the life of my family forever.

To have my name on this field links me to Auburn forever. There is no higher honor, for me or for anyone. I believe in Auburn and I will always love it.

Pat Dye,
Head Football Coach, 1981-92

When the definitive history of Auburn Football is written, the Pat Dye years will be ranked among the best in Auburn history. His Auburn teams have won 94 games, four Southeastern Conference Championships, including three straight from 1987 through 1989, and played in nine bowl games.

Put another way, every player who has played four years for Pat Dye has played on an SEC Championship team and played in the Sugar Bowl.

When Dye came to Auburn in 1981, the Tigers had not won an SEC Championship in 24 years and had won 10 games only twice in 24 years. Auburn won the SEC Championship in Dye's third year, 1983 and the Tigers had hour 10-win seasons in his 11 years as head coach. Auburn had not beaten Alabama, its cross-state rival, in nine years prior to Dye's coming, but the Tigers hold the upper hand in the series since Dye's arrival in 1981.

In short, Pat Dye has made the Auburn football program one of the nation's best and most successful coaches.

His winning percentage of .718 in 18 years as a head coach is the fifth-best among active coaches. His winning percentage at Auburn is even better, .729.

He has an overall record of 148-57-7, and an Auburn record of 94-34-3. His Auburn teams have averaged almost nine wins a year.

In the 48 years prior to Dye's arrival, Auburn had won one SEC Championship. Under his leadership, Auburn has won four of the last nine SEC titles.

Dye joins Gen. R.R. Neyland of Tennessee, Bear Bryant of Alabama and Vince Dooley of Georgia, all Southern football legends, as the only coaches to win three SEC titles in a row.

He wins through a belief in hard work and preparation. "We might not be the most talented team in the country," he said on coming to Auburn,"but there is no reason why we can't be the best prepared, the most disciplined, and the best conditioned team in the country." Those qualities have become hallmarks of the Dye tradition at Auburn.

Dye goes into the 1992 season as the winningest coach in the Southeastern Conference by percentage of victories (.718). Only Tennessee's johnny Majors has more career victories (168) than Dye (148) and Majors has been a head coach six years longer than Dye.

Dye's Auburn teams have appeared in nine bowl games in his 11 years at Auburn, five of them on New Year's Day.

He has coached 21 All-Americans, 68 All-SEC players, and 48 Academic All-SEC players. he is averaging two All-Americans, six All-SEC players, and four academic All-SEC players a year. He is one of only seven coaches in college football history to have coached a Heisman Trophy winner, an Outland Trophy winner and a Lombardi Award winner.

Seven of his former players or assistants have become head coaches. Six of them are still active: Bobby Wallace at North Alabama, Tim Stowers at Georgia Southern, Larry Blakeney at Troy State, Jack Crowe at Arkansas, Jackie Sherrill at Mississippi State and Pat Sullivan at TCU.

Dye's success can be traced directly back to his strong belief in work ethnic, a belief that goes back to his days as a farm boy in Georgia when he got got up before dawn to do his chores so he could walk to school and practice football at Richmond Academy in Augusta.

The 1992 season will mark Dye's 28th year in coaching and Paul "Bear" Bryant, the winningest Division 1A football coach in history, said of Dye, "He's a winner." In their battles, Dye and Bryant were 1-1, Bryant winning the first game in 1981, Dye the second in 1982.

In 27 seasons as a college coach, Dye has been a part of 231 wins, only 77 losses and seven ties for a winning percentage of .744. He has been a part of nine SEC championships and three national championships.

Dye has been named SEC Coach of the Year three times by his fellow head coaches - in 1983, 1987 and 1998. He was National Coach of the Year in 1983 after his third Auburn team defeated Michigan 9-7 in the Sugar Bowl and finished with an 11-1 record.

Dye has shown the ability to succeed in one of the toughest, most competitive conferences in the nation, the Southeastern Conference. Although he has been at Auburn only 12 years, he is already second in longevity among SEC coaches among SEC coaches. Johnny Majors, Dyes close personal friend, will be beginning his 16th year at Tennessee.

When he came to Auburn in 1981, Dye promised nothing more than a well-conditioned, well-prepared team that would play hard and complete for championships. Eleven years, four SEC championships, nine bowl games and 94 victories later, there can be no doubt that he has lived up to that promise.

Because of the success Dye's teams have enjoyed, Auburn sells 60,000 to 70,000 season tickets a year, reaching an all-time high of 75,000 in 1989.

Dye served as Auburn's athletic director from May of 1981 until June of 1992 when he voluntarily stepped down to concentrate his efforts on Auburn Football.

Auburn's athletic program experienced unprecedented growth during his 11-year tenure as athletic director. Wilbur Hutsell track was renovated, a $10 million swim center was built, a $7.2 million athletic complex for football and administrative office was constructed, and more than 13,000 seats, including 71 luxury skyboxes, were added to Jordan-hare Stadium, and plans for a new baseball facility at Plainsman Park got underway.

The Pat Dye years are already among the most successful in Auburn history, but Dye like all Auburn men, is aware that while he owes much to his past, his greater debt, and Auburn greater debt, is ever to the future.

As he says, "The best is yet to come..."
Coach Pat Dye

"I would rather have my name on the field than the stadium itself or any facility on campus. Coming from a rural background and having a piece of earth named for me means more."

Pat Dye needed Auburn and Auburn needed Pat Dye.

He dreamed of being a head football coach in the Southeastern Conference., a good coach and possibly a great coach. Auburn dreamed of having a good football program again, one like it to have, when it wasn't a matter of "if" Auburn was going to be good, but a matter of "how" good was Auburn going to be.

He wasn't Auburn's first choice (Favorite son Vince Dooley was), but he was auburn's best choice.

The search committee got an early look at vintage Pat Dye when he was asked during the interview process, "How long will it take you to beat Alabama?"

"Sixty minutes," Dye replied, meaning that good teams from good programs are seldom beaten with anything less than 60-minute effort. Not 45 minutes, not 50, not 55, 56 or 57. A full 60 minutes.

But the search committee looked at it another way - that it wouldn't be long Auburn would be on top again. They were both right.

Auburn's first chance against Alabama came on Nov. 28, 1981, the day Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant was going after his 315th and record-breaking career victory. Alabama, under Bryant, had beaten Auburn eight years in a row and 18 times out of 22 games. Clearly, from an Auburn perspective, something had to change.

Dye headed straight for Bryant, his respected mentor and former boss, during pre-game warmups. "We're coming after your butt," he said.

A startled Bryant looked at Dye, then grinned and said, "What are you trying to do, boy, Scare me?"

Dye responded: "I'm not trying to scare you, Coach. I just want you to know that we aren't scared of you anymore..."

Let the games begin!

Alabama and the Bear won that first one, 28-17, but had to overcome an Auburn lead in the fourth quarter to do it. It was his last victory over Auburn.

The next year, it was Bo-Over-The-Top, Auburn 23-Alabama 22. Dye became one of a very few former Bryant coaches to beat the Master. Less than a month later, Bryant retired.

Dye went on to beat Alabama six times, including four in a row from 1986 through 1989, and win three straight SEC championships, 1987-88-89, four overall. His teams won 99 games, went to nine bowls, three of them Sugar Bowls. He would coach 21 All-America players at Auburn, 74 All-SEC players, 55 Academic All-Conference Players, a Heisman Trophy winner, an Outland Award winner and a Lombardi Award winner. He would have a Hall of Fame career at Auburn.

But it all began with Alabama, that day at Legion Field in Birmingham, and his "We're not scared of you anymore..."

That phrase, more than anything else, symbolizes Pat Dyes greatest contribution to Auburn, more important than all the championships, all the bowls and all the games won. He changed Auburn's way of thinking.

Eighteen losses in 22 games had affected the Auburn psyche. Auburn expected to lose to Alabama, it found ways to lose. Instead of playing to win against Alabama, Auburn was playing "not-to-lose," a sure fire way to lose virtually every time. Pat Dye changed all of that.

Instead of thinking about what was going to go wrong, who was out to get us, and what's going on in Tuscaloosa, Dye convinced Auburn and Auburn people to think positive thoughts about what they could do to make Auburn better. To think about things over which they had some control instead of things over which they had no control.

Pat Dye gave Auburn people the greatest thing in the world. He gave them hope.

And he got after Bear Bryant's butt.

Things have been different ever since.

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