Auburn football’s all-time record vs. Mountain West teams
As the days continue to dwindle down to the opening day of the College Football season, Auburn Wire will take a look at each nonconference opponent that Auburn football will face this season and break down its’ history against teams in their opponents’ home conference.
This edition takes a look at the Mountain West Conference, home of Auburn’s second nonconference foe, San Jose State.
Auburn will face the Spartans at 6:30 p.m. CDT on Sept. 10 at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The game has been scheduled to take place since 2019, when Auburn agreed to pay San Jose State a cool $1.85 million to travel across the country to play.
The next meeting between the Tigers and Spartans will be the third meeting all-time between these two squads, all three being played on the Plains.
Auburn welcomed San Jose State to town for the first time in the school’s history on Sept. 10, 2014, as the second game on the schedule.
Auburn had just come off of a national championship appearance in 2013 and opened the season with a convincing 45-21 win over the Arkansas Razorbacks a week prior. Auburn struck first when Nick Marshall completed a four-yard touchdown pass to Ricardo Louis to give Auburn the 7-0 lead with 8:15 remaining in the opening quarter.
San Jose State quickly answered when Blake Jurich found Tyler Ervin 75-yards downfield to tie the game at 7-7 just 12 seconds after Auburn got on the board.
Auburn scored 28 unanswered points before the Spartans struck for another touchdown in the first half, and would go on to score three more times in the second half to win, 59-13.
The result of the second-ever meeting between these two squads one year later was a little too close to comfort for Auburn.
Auburn entered the game feeling tons of pressure after squeaking by FCS’ Jacksonville State at home and losing two straight games to LSU and Mississippi State in three consecutive weeks. Auburn really needed a dominating win to rebuild confidence in the program heading into the rest of the season.
Peyton barber led the way for Auburn offensively by rushing for 151 yards and all five of Auburn’s touchdowns in the Tigers’ 35-21 win over San Jose State. Auburn jumped out to a 21-7 halftime lead, but did not see a surge in the second half to run away and put the blowout into effect.
Although brief, Auburn does have a history against teams currently affiliated with the Mountain West Conference, sporting a perfect 5-0 record all-time against the conference. Here is a look at Auburn Football’s history against the Mountain West:
Air Force
Troy Babbitt-USA TODAY Sports
All-time record: Never Met
Boise State
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
All-time record: Never Met
Colorado State
Troy Babbitt-USA TODAY Sports
All-time record: Never Met
Fresno State
Troy Babbitt-USA TODAY Sports
All-time record: Auburn leads, 1-0
Last game: Auburn 62 Fresno State 0 (1996)
Auburn began the 1996 season on a strong note by outscoring their first two opponents, UAB and Fresno State, by a score of 91-0.
Quarterback Dameyune Craig threw two touchdown passes while running back Markeith Cooper rushed for 110 yards and a touchdown in Auburn’s 62-0 win over the Bulldogs to move to 2-0 on the season.
Although he did not get a snap at quarterback in the game, current Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin was a member of Fresno State’s roster for the game. He recorded one tackle in the loss.
Hawaii
Troy Babbitt-USA TODAY Sports
All-time record: Never Met
Nevada
Peter Aiken/Getty Images
All-time record: Never Met
New Mexico
Troy Babbitt-UW Media-Athletics
All-time record: Never Met
San Diego State
Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
All-time record: Never met
San Jose State
John Reed-USA TODAY Sports
All-time record: Auburn leads, 2-0
Last meeting: Auburn 35 San Jose State 21 (2015)
Nevada- Las Vegas
Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports
All-time record: Never met
Utah State
John Reed-USA TODAY Sports
All-time record: Auburn leads, 1-0
Last meeting: Auburn 42 Utah State 38 (2011)
Well, it’s safe to say that Utah State will not get a call from Auburn in regards to playing a football game anytime soon.
The season-opener following Auburn’s National Championship season was nerve-racking, as Utah State came to Jordan-Hare Stadium to play the spoiler role and did so almost perfectly.
The Aggies had a 21-14 lead at halftime and led 38-28 with 3:38 remaining in the game. However, Auburn scored two late touchdowns to avoid the loss. Barrett Trotter threw a touchdown pass to Philip Lutzenkirchen from 15 yards away to trim the lead to 38-35. Auburn then recovered an onside kick which set up a Michael Dyer touchdown rush with 30 seconds to go to take the 42-38 lead, erasing the upset bid by Utah State.
Wyoming
Troy Babbitt-UW Media-Athletics
All-time record: Auburn leads, 1-0
Last meeting: Auburn 35 Wyoming 21 (2000)
The first and only meeting between Auburn and Wyoming happened in 2000 due to several scheduling conflicts and a joke that was taken way too seriously.
[autotag]Rudi Johnson[/autotag] rushed for 174 yards and three touchdowns, while [autotag]Ben Leard[/autotag] threw touchdown passes of 66 and 15 yards to defeat the Cowboys, 35-21 to kick off year two of the Tommy Tuberville era. Auburn would go on to with nine games during the 2000 season and would compete against Florida in the SEC Championship game.
