UNIVERSITY PARK – The Auburn Tigers of today are too young to remember anything about their school's only other trip to the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Day 1986.
"I was 2," laughed wide receiver Courtney Taylor.
But they do know Bo, of course.
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AT&T Cotton Bowl
Nebraska vs. Auburn
10:30 a.m. Jan. 1 (Ch. 4)
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Bo Jackson, the Heisman Trophy winner and eventual two-sport professional star, was the headliner in the Tigers' 36-16 loss to Texas A&M the last time Auburn played in Fair Park.
Auburn doesn't have a player of that mega-watt caliber for this year's pairing vs. Nebraska. But the Tigers of the Southeastern Conference aren't exactly slouches.
Consider this: Auburn, ranked ninth in the final BCS standings, is the highest-ranked team not playing in the Bowl Championship Series. The Tigers (10-2) are the only team in the nation to have defeated two BCS teams during the regular season. The Tigers beat Florida, 27-17, and LSU, 7-3.
Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said that of course the Tigers, who went 13-0 in the 2004 season but didn't play for the national championship, strive for the BCS. But he said the Cotton Bowl is not a disappointment.
"To go undefeated is so hard," Tuberville said. "Ten wins was a very good year for us.
"But we would love to go back and say what would have happened if we had beat Arkansas and beat Georgia, or beat one of them, to see where we would've ended up."
Tuberville said the Cotton Bowl provides a chance for Auburn to do something he doesn't think it has done all year: play a "great game from top to bottom."
This is a rare trip to Texas for Auburn. All of its bowls since 1986 have been in Florida, Louisiana, Georgia or Tennessee.
"We still feel like we're one of the best teams in the nation," Taylor said. "Just to come here to Dallas and experience the city, it's great."
The Tigers are 3-3 in bowls in eight seasons under Tuberville, including a 24-10 loss to Wisconsin in last season's Capital One Bowl.
Losing is what former Auburn coach Pat Dye remembers from the Tigers' previous trip to Dallas.
The bowl was supposed to be a showcase for Jackson, an Alabama native who had been named the 50th Heisman Trophy winner before playing in the 50th Cotton Bowl.
He didn't disappoint – rushing for 129 yards and a touchdown and turning a simple screen pass into the game's most spectacular play, a 73-yard touchdown. He was named offensive MVP.
But the turning point came with Auburn trailing 21-16 with 12:54 left. A&M's Basil Jackson and Larry Kelm dropped Jackson for a one-yard loss on fourth-and-goal from A&M's 2.
A&M stuffed Jackson for a loss again on fourth down from the Aggies' 27.
"At least," Dye said, thinking about the stops with humor earned after 20 years, "we had sense enough to give it to him."
The current Tigers have the chance to write a better Cotton Bowl history New Year's Day. That, they'll remember.
E-mail khairopoulos@dallasnews.com
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