The 2008 Auburn Tigers football team represented Auburn University during 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Tommy Tuberville served his tenth and final season as head coach at Auburn. He was joined by a new defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads and new offensive coordinator Tony Franklin, who attempted to implement TubervilleâÂÂs new offense without the proper players suited for the spread offense in a failed effort to correct the Tigers' offensive struggles in 2007. Tuberville fired Franklin six games into the season.
Auburn played a seven-game home schedule at JordanâÂÂHare Stadium, while traveling to Mountaineer Field in Morgantown, West Virginia for the Tigers' first ever meeting with the West Virginia Mountaineers. The Tennessee Volunteers returned to the Tigers' schedule for the first time since Auburn defeated Tennessee twice in AU's undefeated 2004 season. LSU, Arkansas, and Georgia rounded out Auburn's home conference schedule.
The Tigers entered the season with high expectations, ranked highly by multiple polls in the preseason. The Associated Press Poll placed Auburn at #10 while the USA Today Coaches' Poll, a component of the Bowl Championship Series rankings, had Auburn at #11. Other rankings include:
<nowiki>#</nowiki> 7 â Rivals.com<br><nowiki>#</nowiki> 8 â Athlon<br><nowiki>#</nowiki> 9 â Sports Illustrated<br><nowiki>#</nowiki> 9 â CollegeTop25 Consensus<br><nowiki>#</nowiki> 10 â ESPN<br><nowiki>#</nowiki> 13 â Lindy's<br><nowiki>#</nowiki> 14 â CollegeFootballNews/Scout.com
Coaches All-SEC 1st Team â DT Sen'Derrick Marks & P Ryan Shoemaker<br>Coaches All-SEC 2nd Team â RB Ben Tate, OL Tyronne Green, LB Tray Blackmon & DB Jerraud Powers<br>Coaches All-SEC 3rd Team â DE Antonio Coleman
Auburn's schedule consisted of eight Southeastern Conference opponents (four home, four away) and four non-conference opponents. AU meets Tennessee-Martin and West Virginia for the first time. The WVU game, a mid-season inter-conference Thursday night matchup, is the first of a two-game home-and-home series between the two teams. Of the remaining ten opponents that the Tigers have previously faced, Auburn holds the all-time series lead against all but Alabama and LSU. Four opponents â #1 Georgia, LSU, West Virginia and Tennessee â were ranked in both the preseason USA Today and AP Polls. Alabama was also ranked in the AP Poll. Tennessee dropped out of the polls before playing Auburn; however, Vanderbilt would enter the polls by the time the Commodores played Auburn.
<small><nowiki>*Entering season</nowiki></small>
Starters and backups.