Auburn Reaches Goal in Improving to 6-0 : SEC: Tigers ensure themselves of first winning season since 1990 with 31-17 victory over Mississippi State.

No matter what happens the rest of the season, Auburn can finally call itself a winner again.

The No. 22-ranked Tigers remained unbeaten and ensured their first winning season since 1990 with a 31-17 victory Saturday over Mississippi State, setting up a showdown next weekend against No. 5 Florida.

“These players are winners and now they have a winning team,” said first-year Auburn Coach Terry Bowden. “They’ve waited two years for this and now they are 6-0.”

The Tigers, 4-0 in the Southeastern Conference, had lost two in a row to Mississippi State (1-4, 0-3), but this is a different Auburn team than the one that stumbled to records of 5-6 and 5-5-1 in the final two seasons of Pat Dye’s regime.

Stan White had three passes intercepted to become Auburn’s all-time leader with 48, but he also threw three touchdown passes.

White’s scoring passes went 57 yards to Frank Sanders, 35 to Steven Davis and seven to Tony Richardson. Richardson also ran for a touchdown as the Tigers had 278 yards rushing. Tailback James Bostic led with 141 yards in 20 carries and Davis, his backup, had 70 in 13.

The Tigers committed four turnovers in the first 18 minutes, but the Bulldogs couldn’t take advantage, getting only two field goals.

The momentum changed when the Bulldogs were penalized for running into Auburn punter Terry Daniel. The Tigers retained possession at their 43 and on the next play, White connected with Sanders to put Auburn ahead, 7-6, with 9:09 to play in the half. The Tigers scored two more touchdowns before halftime.