AUBURN, Ala. (AP) - One of the most unforgettable moments of Quentin Riggins’ Auburn football career actually came before he ever suited up for the Tigers. It was Sept. 7, 1985, during his senior year at Robert E. Lee High School, when the Montgomery native was still a recruit hoping to earn a chance to suit up for the home-state power.
Auburn was hosting Southwestern Louisiana. Coach Pat Dye invited Riggins to the game. His father told the head coach that they couldn’t stay for all of it - Riggins had a shift at McDonald’s that started at 5 p.m. So they left at halftime.
“Little did I know that’s what struck his interest in me, that on a Saturday you can come to a football game, meet Bo Jackson and have an excuse to miss work, but leave at halftime to go to work,” Riggins said. “He’s told that story numerous times.”
Riggins probably has hundreds of stories he could tell about Dye, who died Monday (June 1) at the age of 80 after a battle with kidney problems. The linebacker played for the legendary football coach from 1986-89. He was part of the Tigers’ run of three consecutive SEC championships, as well as the first Iron Bowl ever held at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
But the heights Dye led Auburn to on the football field from 1981-92 - 99 wins, nine winning seasons, six bowl victories and four conference titles - are only part of the legacy he leaves behind. He continued to have an impact on the program long after his coaching and administrative career ended.
That was evidenced Monday by the reaction of players such as Derrick Brown, Marlon Davidson, Bo Nix, K.J. Britt, Big Kat Bryant, Deshaun Davis, Kerryon Johnson and Josh Holsey, among others, who all took to social media to mourn the loss of Dye. None were alive when he was patrolling the sideline on a field that now bears his name, but all of them were able to form a relationship with him during their own playing careers more than 20 years later.
Johnson said he “enjoyed every moment he came to practice” and “will appreciate every time I saw him and every word he spoke.” Holsey said he made it a point to acknowledge Dye every time he saw him, because “just to be around you was an honor.” Brown said he “won’t ever forget all you did for me and the wisdom you gave me from our talks.” Bryant said Dye was “one of the reasons I came to Auburn.”
Davis started three years for the Tigers and totaled a team-leading 116 tackles during an All-SEC senior season. He described Dye telling him “It’s really heartwarming to watch you play football” after Auburn’s 2018 game against LSU the “highest praise knowing the LEGEND he was.”
“That’s what made him special; the way he could connect with you as an individual no matter what age they were,” Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn said Tuesday. “Whether it was a coach or a player from this past year’s team or a player from his first team here at Auburn, he had that ability. He had wisdom.”
It’s not unique for a coach to stick around Auburn following his tenure. Wesley McGriff and his wife began looking for their “forever home” in town even before he rejoined the staff as a defensive backs coach. Gene Chizik’s family stayed here when he took a job at North Carolina, and he came back to watch his oldest son, Cally, finish his prep football career at Auburn High. Tommy Tuberville was born in Arkansas but is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama.
But Dye wasn’t just close to town, whether that be running Crooked Oaks Hunting Preserve and Quail Hollow Gardens Japanese Maple Farm & Nursery in Notasulga or hosting “The Coach Pat Dye Show” on radio, which he had done since 2013 - he stayed very close to the program, too.
Malzahn can recall thinking “Wow, that’s Pat Dye,” every time Dye visited his office when he first arrived at Auburn as the offensive coordinator in 2009, an awe he said it took him a few years to get over. Dye would often wander the halls of the athletics complex or stop by practice, and “he always had the right thing to say.”
“‘Keep your head up. You’re doing the right thing. We’re close. You’ve got a good football team.’ Just those things that probably only head coach to head coach you can truly understand exactly what to say, but the encouragement was always there and always consistent,” Malzahn continued.
“Then on the other end, after you win a big game. After you win the Iron Bowl the words that he would tell me one-on-one confidentially, it would make me feel very special.”
And even though Dye is gone, his direct connection football to the program will live on in more ways than just legacy and influence - defensive line coach Rodney Garner was an All-SEC player under Dye in 1988 and spent three seasons on his coaching staff in the early 1990s. He attended the small burial service on Dye’s farm in Notasulga on Monday, along with Dye’s family, trustee Jimmy Rane, Heisman Trophy-winner Bo Jackson, and longtime linebackers coach Joe Whitt Sr.
Garner said “a lot of my ideology and my personality comes through the foundation I was raised with from Coach Dye and that staff.”
“I know I wouldn’t be the man I am today if it wasn’t for the things I went through here with Coach Dye. He played a very pivotal part in my life, and I owe him so much just for what I accomplished,” the defensive line coach continued during an interview last year. “He taught us how to fight. That’s what I stress to my guys; that’s all I need to see you do. I just need to see you fight. We’ll fix the fundamentals. We’ll clean up the hand placement, the pad levels. We’ll clean up that stuff. We’ll fix the fundamentals, but we got to get that fight in you.”
Riggins, who has remained close to the program first as a radio sideline reporter and now as a member of the Board of Trustees, has little doubt that fight will continue.
“I got a chance to talk to Coach about two weeks ago, to hear his voice and tell him I loved him. Hearing him talk was special to me. His toughness, his opening press conference when he said how long it was going to take to beat Alabama, Tiger Walk, and winning the fourth quarter,” Riggins said, “those are just a few of the marks he left on Auburn. Nobody can take that away from him. He left such an incredible, indelible mark. Players and fans of today are benefiting from his contributions to Auburn.”
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