The 20 most overhyped college football teams of the last 20 years

2008: Auburn Tigers

Several blueblood programs struggled in 2008. The defending national champion LSU Tigers began the season No. 7 and rose to No. 3 before falling outside the Top 25 and finishing with an 8-5 record. A 3-3 start for preseason No. 9 Clemson led to Tommy Bowden’s exit and the beginning of the Dabo Swinney era for the Tigers. We already discussed the ugly 5-7 season that marked Phil Fulmer’s tenure at Tennessee. And, though the team was unranked at the beginning of the season, no one expected Michigan to fall to 3-9 in Rich Rodriguez’s first season as head coach of the Wolverines.

But arguably the most overhyped team of 2008 was the Auburn Tigers. Coming off a 9-4 2007 season and a win in the Chick-fil-A Bowl, Auburn entered the ’08 campaign No. 10 in the preseason AP poll. The Tigers jumped out to a 3-0 start, though the now infamous 3-2 win at Mississippi State at Week 3 foreshadowed what would be an incredibly frustrating fall.

No. 10 Auburn travelled to LSU Sept. 20 and lost 26-21, but responded with a 14-12 victory at home against Tennessee. An upstart Vanderbilt team, ranked No. 19 at the time, beat No. 13 Auburn 14-13 in Nashville, and the Tigers dropped out of the polls for good after losing to Arkansas at home the following week.

Road trips to West Virginia and Ole Miss were unsuccessful, and only a 37-20 win over Tennessee-Martin broke up a string of six straight losses to FBS opponents and seven losses in eight contests against FBS schools. The nail in the coffin of Tommy Tuberville’s tenure on the Plains was a 36-0 loss to No. 1 Alabama in the Iron Bowl, which gave Auburn a 5-7 record and forced the Tigers to stay home for bowl season.