Can you imagine getting put on NCAA probation and being banned from TV?
Like, your games aren’t available on TV as part of your punishment?
That happened to Auburn in 1993, when Terry Bowden – Bobby Bowden’s son, now coach at Louisiana Monroe – was leading the Tigers and Patrick Nix (you might know his son, Bo) was their quarterback.
The Tigers were coming off a dreadful year in 1992, having to watch longtime head coach Pat Dye step down, a cancer battle; on the field wasn’t good at all; and for the first time since the late 1970s, archrival Alabama was the reigning national champions going into the 1993 season. And if you don’t think that stings, you’ve never driven THROUGH the state of Alabama, let alone lived IN it.
Kyle Kensing has written an excellent piece here (‘The greatest team on radio’ – Remembering Auburn’s undefeated, unseen 1993 season) on what the 1993 Auburn team went through that year, and whether you like Auburn, hate ‘em, are indifferent, or don’t even know where Auburn is, you should give it a read.
