Lane Kiffin got the kind of performance he had been waiting on, and LSU made sure Auburn had no answer for it.
Behind a balanced, clean afternoon at Jordan-Hare Stadium, LSU rolled past Auburn 38-17. The Tigers piled up 552 yards of total offense, held the ball for 33:41 and came after Auburn quarterback Byrum Brown and backup Tristan Ti'a relentlessly, finishing with six sacks on Brown and one on Ti'a.
For Kiffin, the outing looked a lot like the version of this team he expected when the roster was assembled.
"This is where we planned on being," Kiffin said. "Would have loved for it to be that way every game, but we just kind of -- probably realistically it was going to be a little bit slower with Sam missing all of spring and basically, outside of Trey'Dez, every skill player that plays is new.
"And so them just meshing together with Sam missing spring in the passing game and now you see them, a lot of receivers go in there and play and make plays and they mesh together really well."
Kiffin also pointed to the simple formula that made LSU so tough to beat on the Plains: avoiding the self-inflicted mistakes that can derail a game. Against Auburn, LSU didn’t turn it over, and that level of cleanliness was a major reason the afternoon got away from the home team.
On Auburn’s side, there wasn’t much to hang onto after what Alex Golesh called the worst loss of his tenure.
Golesh didn’t sugarcoat anything when he met with the media afterward.
"That was a really, really, really bad performance on both sides," Golesh said to the media in his postgame comments.
The frustration around the Auburn defense was immediate. Many fans quickly turned their attention to defensive coordinator DJ Durkin after LSU found room again and again, with the safeties leading the way in tackling because Leavitt and Dilin Jones kept breaking through the first and second levels. Leavitt had plenty of time to survey the field, a sign of how little pressure Auburn was able to generate.
The offensive side wasn’t any cleaner. Joel Gordon’s play-calling didn’t offer much comfort, and Auburn still hasn’t established a consistent run game. Brown was left to carry too much of the load behind an offensive line that is still searching for the right combination and also lost left tackle Jacob Strand to an injury against LSU.
With Halloween looming and a trip to Ole Miss next on the schedule, Auburn is staring at a short turnaround and a long list of problems. If bowl eligibility is the target, the path is narrow: the Tigers need one win against Ole Miss, Arkansas, Mississippi State or Alabama. Samford, meanwhile, should be an automatic win.
preach patience after upsetting UGA, after all.
In Other News...
Former Auburn Assistant Back In Spotlight After NCAA Tampering Findings
Wes Flanigan, a familiar name to Auburn fans from his time on the Tigers staff, is back in the spotlight after NCAA findings tied to his stint at Ole Miss. Now on Georgia Techs basketball staff, Flanigan was cited for violating tampering rules after impermissibly contacting a players advisor when that player was not in the transfer portal, a reminder of how closely the NCAA is still watching the gray areas around roster movement.
The case also brought penalties for Ole Miss, which was hit for failing to disassociate a booster connected to an earlier football infractions matter, leading to probation and a fine. Flanigans punishment included a two-game suspension, recruiting restrictions and a one-year show cause order, and he served that during the 2024-25 season. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Fans Need To Prepare For A Very Different LSU Gameday
Auburn is asking fans to brace for a noticeably different game-day feel when LSU comes to Jordan-Hare Stadium, with construction around the venue forcing the athletic department to rethink how people move in and out. Auburn Athletics has rolled out a set of operational changes aimed at improving pedestrian flow and easing congestion, including encouraging fans to use all available entry gates and follow specific routes around the stadium.
The biggest change for many longtime regulars is Tiger Walk, which has been moved to roughly 2.5 hours before kickoff as part of the adjusted pregame routine. The broader backdrop is the Jordan-Hare North Project, a major capital development that started in 2026 and is slated to run through spring 2029, so this is not a one-off inconvenience but the start of a longer stretch of temporary gameday tweaks. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn's Georgia Momentum Just Ran Into A Bigger SEC Concern
Auburn came out of its upset over Georgia looking like a team that had finally found some traction, but the mood shifted quickly at Jordan-Hare Stadium. LSU rolled to a 38-17 win and handed the Tigers their largest defeat since earlier in the 2023 season, a jarring setback after a stretch that had begun to suggest Auburn might be turning a corner in SEC play.
The biggest issue was the way LSU moved the ball, especially through the air, as quarterback Sam Leavitt threw for 387 yards and three touchdowns. Auburn had problems on both sides of the ball, struggling to slow the Tigers offense while also finding little rhythm in the run game, and the loss dropped Auburn to 4-3 overall and 2-3 in the SEC with more questions than answers than they had after the Georgia win. [Read more 🡒]