Auburn rumbles to Music City Bowl victory

Auburn's Tommy Tuberville, right, raises the Music City Bowl trophy for Auburn giving the SEC its first ever Music City Bowl championship. Photo by Mike Strasinger.

Posted: December 31, 4:41 p.m. CST
Because Jason Campbell had a happy birthday, the Auburn Tigers said happy trails to the Southeastern Conference's drought in the Music City Bowl. Campbell, the Tigers' junior quarterback who turned 22 Wednesday, passed for 138 yards and scampered for 67 more as Auburn beat back Wisconsin 28-14 in the sixth annual Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl presented by Bridgestone. The victory was the first by an SEC team in the short history of the bowl.

"It's probably the best birthday I've ever had out of 22 years of them," said Campbell, who earned Most Valuable Player honors for his efforts. Carnell Williams and Ronnie Brown each scored two touchdowns as Auburn's vaunted running game flexed its muscle for almost 200 yards on the day. The announced attendance of 55,109 was the second largest in Music City Bowl history. The Syracuse-Kentucky match-up in 1999 attracted 59,221 fans to the

Coliseum.

The Tigers broke a 14-14 deadlock with a six-play, 87-yard fourth-quarter drive capped by Brown's 2-yard touchdown run with 3:30 to play. On that backbreaking drive, Campbell completed a 51-yard catch-and-run to Jeris McIntyre and a 27-yarder to Silas Daniels on consecutive plays to bail Auburn out of a desperate situation deep in their own territory.

"That's what you look for in a quarterback - to make plays and win games," said Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez. "That's what he did."

Auburn's tenacious defense locked the game up when seniors Reggie Torbor and Karlos Dansby sacked Badger quarterback Jim Sorgi and forced a fumble that was recovered by teammate T.J. Jackson at the Wisconsin 6. Williams plunged in from the 1 to account for the final margin.

The Tigers sacked Sorgi and his late-game replacement John Stocco a total of six times. Torbor piled up four tackles for loss, accounting for 16 negative yards, and had 2.5 sacks. Dansby led Auburn with 10 total tackles, registered 1.5 sacks and forced two fumbles.

"They tried to stretch our defense, but we were able to run them down," said Torbor. "They didn't have an answer for us. People think we just have speed, but we have speed and power."

"When you single-block Reggie, he's a good enough athlete to get by one-on-one blocking," added Dansby, "and I know I'm a good enough athlete to get by it." Wisconsin had tied the game at 14 after Lee Evans snared a spectacular 12-yard TD pass from Sorgi and Owen Daniels reeled in the two-point conversion with less than nine minutes left. The Badgers had the ball with the game tied after an Auburn punt, but Carlos Rogers tipped Sorgi's pass intended for Evans into the hands of Will Herring for an interception to set up Auburn's game-winning drive.

Williams (68 yards), Campbell (67) and Brown (62) combined for all of Auburn's 197 rushing yards. Anthony Davis netted 77 yards for Wisconsin, but the Badgers only had 58 net yards on the ground due to sacks and tackles for loss. Sorgi was 13-of-22 for 169 yards and the TD to Evans. Campbell completed 10-of-22 throws and had one interception.

After a scoreless first quarter, Wisconsin struck first. Sorgi completed five of six passes on a 14-play, 65-yard drive that resulted in a 20-yard field goal by Mike Allen for a 3-0 Badger lead.

On the ensuing possession, Auburn decided to think Brown - the junior carried six times for 43 yards, including the penultimate 1-yard scoring plunge, during a 79-yard, 10-play drive that gave the Tigers a 7-3 lead.

The Badgers ripped off 54 yards on their next two plays from scrimmage, but stalled again in the red zone. Allen's 35-yard field goal narrowed the gap to 7-6 with 2:42 left in the half.

Auburn got to midfield in the two-minute drill, but Campbell was intercepted by Jim Leonhard with eight seconds left in the second quarter. It was Leonhard's 18th career interception, tying him for second on Wisconsin's all-time list.

Very little separated the two teams at intermission. Auburn outgained the Badgers 176-154 in total offense, holding a 109-48 edge in rushing yards thanks to Brown and Williams. Conversely, Sorgi was 8-of-13 for 106 yards to give the Badgers the air advantage.

Thanks to Campbell's feet and two fortuitous non-fumble calls, Auburn stretched the lead to 14-6 late in the third quarter. Campbell rushed for 49 yards during a 16-play, 80-yard march ending in Williams' 1-yard TD run. However, Williams appeared to have fumbled on first-and-goal from the Badger 7, only to have the officials blow the play dead. On the very next play, Campbell lost the ball on a bootleg, but the officials ruled his momentum had been stopped before the fumble.

"I see the replay, the ball comes out and then the guy goes down," said Alvarez of the Campbell rush. "I believe that is a fumble." For Tigers head coach Tommy Tuberville, the victory proved validation for a tumultuous month during which his future at Auburn was in serious question.

"Our seniors took this bowl game over back when we started practice after finals," said Tuberville. "I thought they did a good job of explaining to other players what a tough situation our university was in, and the best way to get a positive light on the situation we had was to win this football game."