Whitt hopes history won't repeat
Assistant recalls last time AU got shut out from title
Sunday, November 28, 2004
By PHILLIP MARSHALL
Times Sports Staff pmarsh9485@msn.com AUBURN - On the night of Jan. 1, 1984, Joe Whitt was feeling good. He was eagerly awaiting the morning, when he was sure he would hear Auburn had won the national championship.
On a remarkable day, everything had fallen into place. No. 2 Texas had lost to Georgia in the Cotton Bowl in the afternoon. No. 5 Miami had knocked off No. 1 Nebraska, the nation's only unbeaten team, in the Orange Bowl. That seemed to clear the path for No. 3 Auburn. The Tigers beat No. 8 Michigan 9-7 in the Sugar Bowl to finish off Pat Dye's third season as coach with an 11-1 record. It was their 10th consecutive victory and fifth over a team ranked in the top 10.
"Without question, I thought we had won it," said Whitt, who coached Auburn's defensive ends. "We had done everything we could have done and should have done. We won our bowl game and the team that beat us (Texas) got beat by a team we beat (Georgia). The No. 1 team had gotten beat. There was just no way, in my way of thinking, that we wouldn't be the national champions."
Auburn had played, by far, the nation's toughest schedule. In a three-week stretch, it had beaten No. 5 Florida, No. 7 Maryland and No. 4 Georgia.
"That's the real reason I was sure we would be national champions," Whitt said. "I feel to this day we were and still are national champions. We just weren't awarded the trophy."
Instead, Miami, which had not beaten a top 10 team in the regular season and had narrowly averted losses to East Carolina and Florida State in its final two regular season games, jumped all the way to No. 1. Nebraska dropped to No. 2. Auburn remained No. 3.
Whitt got the news shortly after he awoke on Jan. 2.
"When I woke up the next day and found out we were not national champions," he said, "it was the biggest letdown of my athletic career."
Twenty-one years later, Whitt is still at Auburn, coaching linebackers for Tommy Tuberville. And the Tigers are flirting again with the national championship and again with being jilted.
The Tigers finished an 11-0 regular season last Saturday with a 21-13 victory at Alabama. They returned to practice Saturday after a week off and play Tennessee next Saturday in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
If they win, they will have to wait nervously until Sunday to learn if they will have an opportunity to play for the championship.
Going into the weekend, Southern California was ranked No. 1 and Oklahoma No. 2 in the Associated Press and coaches' polls and in the Bowl Championship Series standings. The top two teams in the final BCS standings will play for the title in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 4.
Whitt refuses to believe it will happen to Auburn again.
"I just believe we are going to prevail," Whitt said. "I really do. If we win out, I think we are going to be national champions. I just don't see any way that won't happen. It would be a very sad thing to play in this league, play through it undefeated, win your bowl game and not win a national championship."
But first there is the matter of the SEC championship. The Tigers beat Tennessee 34-10 in Knoxville on Sept. 18, but they'll have to win again to be champions.
Whitt says there should be no concern about the Tigers not being focused on the Vols.
"You have to take everything in progression," Whitt said. "We can't go to the national championship, regardless, until we play the SEC Championship Game. If we don't win that, nothing else matters."
Regardless of what happens in the weeks ahead, Whitt says the 2004 Auburn team ranks with the best of which he has been a part. He was part of another 11-0 season in 1993 and four SEC champions.
"This team, the 1993 team and the 1983 team have a lot in common," Whitt said. "They all were very, very close to each other. They came together in summer workouts or early in the year. They all had some players that were overachievers, but at the same time had some great players.
"Right now, I feel like we are the best team in the country. The important thing is playing these two games like we have played all season and winning."
