Lane Kiffin wasn’t shy about why Auburn had his attention last weekend.
After the Tigers pulled off a 27-24 upset of Georgia at Sanford Stadium, Kiffin said Monday that he was pulling for Auburn in the closing minutes because LSU is headed to Jordan-Hare Stadium this weekend.
“I was rooting for them at the end of the game to win, knowing we were playing them the next week, just because it makes it more challenging,” Kiffin said Monday during his first Auburn week media availability.
That result gave Kiffin exactly what he wanted: a more dangerous Auburn team entering the matchup, and a bigger game on the schedule. LSU is 5-2, Auburn is 4-2, and the trip to Jordan-Hare now carries even more energy.
Kiffin has also cooled on the trolling lately since hiring Alex Golesh. That was a different story back when he was at Ole Miss and Hugh Freeze was leading Auburn, when Kiffin had plenty of material to work with.
This time, though, he sounded more measured when talking about the place LSU is headed.
Kiffin also acknowledged the reputation Jordan-Hare Stadium has built over the years. He said Bruce Pearl told him all about it during the 2022 coaching cycle, when Kiffin was close to becoming Auburn’s football coach before backing out and staying in Oxford, Mississippi, for three more seasons.
He said he respects the challenge of playing on the road in the SEC, where, as he put it, the conference’s depth is unmatched by the Big Ten or anyone else.
There’s plenty riding on this one for Kiffin, too. LSU’s loss to Ole Miss was a major setback, especially given the offseason tension between the two programs. The loss to Kentucky only added to the pressure, showing both a weakness against the Wildcats and raising questions about whether LSU is ready to chase a championship in Kiffin’s first year.
If LSU drops another one at Auburn, it would give more weight to that idea. It would also suggest Kiffin’s noise hasn’t been enough to lead to a strong finish in Baton Rouge during the 2026 college football season, and it would likely knock LSU out of the CFP race.
And if that happens against a banged-up LSU defense, Kiffin will head into his Tigers’ bye week with plenty to explain.
In Other News...
Auburn Just Lost A Defensive Leader At The Worst Time
Xavier Atkins had become one of Auburns most important defensive pieces this season, so his dismissal from the football program lands at a particularly difficult moment. The junior linebacker had already built out a strong 2025 rsum and was part of the group helping stabilize a unit that needed dependable play at the second level.
Now Auburn has to move on without one of its top defensive leaders after his suspension during the win over Georgia. The Tigers will have to lean harder on the linebackers still standing, including sophomore Elijah Melendez, as they try to keep the defense steady with the schedule still moving fast. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Just Delivered The Win That Changes Alex Golesh Expectations
Auburns 27-24 upset of No. 1 Georgia did more than snap a nine-game losing streak in the rivalry, it gave the program a result that instantly reframes what comes next under Alex Golesh. The Tigers took down a Georgia team that had been rolling under Kirby Smart, and they did it with Byrum Brown driving the offense and delivering the kind of balanced performance Auburn has been searching for.
Browns work as both a runner and passer helped Auburn keep the Bulldogs off balance, and his final drive was the one that mattered most in closing out the win. Golesh, after the game, pointed to the backing the program has received from former Auburn legends, a reminder that this kind of victory tends to bring the past and present together fast at a place where expectations never stay quiet for long. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Can't Let Its Georgia High Carry Into LSU Trouble
Auburn walked out of a 27-24 upset of No. 1 Georgia with plenty to feel good about, but the attention inside the program has already shifted to making sure one emotional win does not leak into the next week. Head coach Alex Golesh, along with coordinators Joel Gordon and DJ Durkin, spent a recent press conference laying out the same message from different angles: the Tigers played well enough to beat an elite opponent, yet there were still plenty of details to clean up before No. 18 LSU arrives.
Golesh pointed to the defenses turnovers, the fundamentals that carried the night and the progress made by younger players, while Gordon said the offense still needs more consistency and praised quarterback Byrum Brown for the kind of toughness Auburn will keep leaning on. The larger concern now is whether the Tigers can bottle the energy from the Georgia win without carrying any of its looseness into a matchup that figures to demand a cleaner performance from the opening snap. [Read more 🡒]