As Auburn prepares to hit the gridiron this Saturday against Penn State, it is time to take a look back at a memorable game in the series.
Auburn has a short history with this Big Ten foe, playing just three times in history. Last season’s meeting in State College, which ended in a 28-20 Penn State victory, was the first time that these two programs met on a home-field basis, as the two previous meetings took place in bowl games.
In today’s edition of the “Throwback Thursday” series, Auburn Wire time travels all the way back to New Year’s Day of 2003 to the Capital One Bowl in Orlando, where Auburn faced Joe Paterno’s Penn State Nittany Lions.
As co-champions of the SEC West, Auburn’s reward was getting to play in a respectable bowl game against a top 10 opponent in Penn State, who checked into the game as the No. 10 team in the country.
The game featured two of the strongest running games in the country. Penn State’s rush attack was led by Heisman Trophy candidate Larry Johnson, who ended the 2002 season by rushing for 2,087 yards and 20 touchdowns. For Auburn, the early years of Ronnie Brown, Carnell “Cadillac” Williams, and Tre Smith were unrolling before our eyes.
That season, Ronnie Brown was Auburn’s leading rusher with 1,008 yards and 13 touchdowns. He would also become the hero in Auburn’s 13-9 Capital One Bowl win over the Nittany Lions.
Penn State led the game 6-0 at halftime thanks to a pair of Robbie Gould field goals. Brown finally put his team on the board with 4:00 remaining in the third quarter on a one-yard touchdown rush. Damon Duvall’s extra point lifted Auburn to a 7-6 lead.
The Nittany Lions responded with another Gould field goal with 10:30 remaining in the game to retake the lead 9-7. Auburn’s final blow was delivered at the 3:00 mark in the game when Brown rushed for his second touchdown, this time from 17-yards away. Brown’s dive over the pylon returned the lead to Auburn and ultimately gave them the win.
Brown ended the game with 184 yards on 37 carries, while Johnson was limited to just 72 yards on 20 carries.
Here’s a look back at Auburn’s most recent win over Penn State: