Welcome everyone to the latest game preview for the LSU Tigers! This week, we take a look at LSU’s matchup against Auburn.
Last Week: LSU managed to come away with a narrow victory over the Florida Gators after a missed extra point from Pineiro. Auburn had a little easier path to victory last weekend against Ole Miss as they came away with a 43-22 victory.
Last Meeting: The last time these two teams met, it wound up becoming the end of an era as Les Miles wound up being fired after the longtime head coach had a bad case of clock mismanagement in a 18-13 loss to Auburn. LSU does lead the overall series 28-22-1 and has won four of the last six meetings between the two.
Storylines to Watch:
LSU Offense Needs Boost: While last week’s victory was refreshing for several fans of the purple and gold, LSU needs to continue to improve this week. The most important thing for LSU is how many carries Derrius Guice will have. He started to get a lot more carries after having last week off with 17 carries for 50 yards.
However, LSU will need to see the junior running back get back to his old self if this offense wants to keep up with a pretty high-powered offense like Auburn’s. LSU has had issues this season putting points on the board, averaging 25.3 points per game. When you compare that to what Auburn has done this season with Jarrett Stidham, something is wrong.
Home-Field Advantage: While the statement home-field advantage doesn’t mean much in the world of college football these days, LSU does hold an edge against Auburn, currently 8-0 inside of Tiger Stadium since 2000. It’s an amazing stat that could be a deciding factor in this matchup regardless of what time the game is.
Key Continuing to Progress: LSU’s defense has looked okay as the season has progressed. After shutting out BYU, it started to look like an entirely different defense from 2016. After allowing 37 points against Mississippi State, the defense has started to become a little more stingy and have committed less penalties.
However, one player has made fans wonder what is going on with him and that’s Arden Key. He seems to not be playing with the same energy that he did last season and that has hurt LSU’s defense along with not having Rashard Lawrence for much of the start of the season. According to head coach Ed Orgeron, the junior has started to play a little bit better every week and has lost quite a bit of weight as the season has progressed. If that’s true, we could see a big game from Key inside of Tiger Stadium.
LSU Will Win If:
LSU can get a huge win if their offense doesn’t only revolve around the jet sweep. It worked really well last week, but Auburn has looked at the film and is going to see it coming when they do use it. If Guice is feeling better this weekend, then maybe the jet sweep will be used sparingly and we will possibly see the wide receivers be wide receivers.
Auburn Will Win If:
Auburn can get the win if Kerryon Johnson has a game similar to what Leonard Fournette did in 2015. Last week against Ole Miss, he got 211 yards on the ground and three touchdowns on the afternoon. He does that, it’ll be a long day for the LSU front seven.
-Clint Domingue