11. Pat Dye
Pat Dye is iconic in Auburn Tigers football history. He goes down as the best college football coach in the SEC to have not won a national championship. That’s not to discount the monumental impact he made down on The Plains for War Eagle Nation.
Dye had spent six years prior coaching the East Carolina Pirates and the Wyoming Cowboys before landing the Auburn gig in 1981. He had a difficult task to come in and beat his former mentor in Paul “Bear” Bryant’s Alabama Crimson Tide. Dye had originally served as Alabama’s linebackers coach from 1965 to 1975.
With the help of star players like linebacker Kevin Greene, defensive tackle Tracy Rocker and 1985 Heisman Trophy winning running back Bo Jackson, Dye would turn the Tide on its back and begin to dominate the SEC in the 1980s.
In 12 years coaching Auburn, Dye went 99-39-4 overall, 48-27-3 in the SEC, won four SEC Championships and went 6-2-1 in bowl games. Auburn isn’t a national program without the great coaching from Dye in the 1980s. His rise to prominence helped make The Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn the best rivalry in the SEC.