The 2020 Auburn Tigers football team represented
Auburn University in the
2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season
The 2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the 151st season of college football games in the United States. Organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at its highest level of competition, the Football Bowl Subdivisio ...
. The Tigers played their home games at
Jordan–Hare Stadium
Jordan–Hare Stadium (properly pronounced n central Alabama dialectas ) is an American football stadium in Auburn, Alabama on the campus Auburn University. It primarily serves as the home venue of the Auburn Tigers football team. The stadium ...
in
Auburn, Alabama
Auburn is a city in Lee County, Alabama, United States. It is the largest city in eastern Alabama, with a 2020 population of 76,143. It is a principal city of the Auburn-Opelika Metropolitan Area. The Auburn-Opelika, AL MSA with a population ...
, and competed in the Western Division of the
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...
(SEC). They were led by eighth-year head coach
Gus Malzahn
Arthur Gustavo Malzahn III (; born October 28, 1965) is an American football coach. He is currently the head coach at the University of Central Florida ( UCF). He was the head football coach at Auburn University from 2013 to 2020. During the 20 ...
until his dismissal at the end of the regular season. The team's spring game, originally intended to be played on April 11, 2020, was canceled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
. The Tiger's regular-season schedule was also impacted as all non-conference games were canceled and the SEC allowed teams to play 10 in-conference games only.
On December 13, 2020, head coach Gus Malzahn was fired after eight years. After reaching the
2014 BCS National Championship Game
The 2014 Vizio BCS National Championship Game was the national championship game of the 2013 college football season, which took place on Monday, January 6, 2014. The game featured the Auburn Tigers and Florida State Seminoles. It was the 16t ...
at the end of the 2013 season, Auburn won at least 10 games under Malzahn only once more, in 2017.
Kevin Steele
Kevin Steele (born March 17, 1958) is an American football coach and former player, currently serving as the defensive coordinator at the University of Miami. Steele has previously worked as defensive coordinator at Auburn, LSU, Clemson, and c ...
, defensive coordinator, was designated to serve as the Tigers' interim coach for the
Citrus Bowl.
In December 2020,
Bryan Harsin
Bryan Dale Harsin (born November 1, 1976) is an American football coach and former player who was most recently the head coach at Auburn University. Prior to leading the Auburn Tigers, he coached the Boise State University Broncos from the 2014 ...
was hired as head coach.
SEC Media Days
In the preseason media poll, Auburn was predicted to finish in third place in the West Division.
Schedule
Auburn announced its 2020 football schedule on August 7, 2019.
The 2020 schedule originally consisted of 7 home, 4 away, and 1 neutral game in the regular season.
The Tigers had games scheduled against
Alcorn State,
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
,
Southern Miss
The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a public research university with its main campus located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, ma ...
, and
UMass, which were canceled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
. In July, the SEC announced the non-conference games would be canceled and only ten conference games would only be played.
:
The game between Auburn and Mississippi State was postponed due to an outbreak of
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...
on the Mississippi State team. The game was originally scheduled for November 14.
:Schedule Source:
Game summaries
Kentucky
at Georgia
Arkansas
at South Carolina
at Ole Miss
LSU
Tennessee
at Alabama
Texas A&M
at Mississippi State
vs. Northwestern (Citrus Bowl)
Rankings
Players drafted into the NFL
References
{{Auburn Tigers football navbox
Auburn
Auburn Tigers football seasons
Auburn Tigers football
The Auburn Tigers football program represents Auburn University in the sport of American college football. Auburn competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Western Division ...