LSU walked into Jordan-Hare Stadium and walked out with something it had not managed in two years and five days: a Southeastern Conference road win.
The Tigers made sure there was no drama attached to it. No. 18 LSU rolled past Auburn 38-17 on Saturday behind an offense that kept finding answers and a defense that smothered the home team when it mattered most.
Sam Leavitt was at the center of it all. He went 32 of 45 for 387 yards and three touchdowns, adding 54 rushing yards and another score on the ground.
Jackson Harris was his favorite target by a wide margin, hauling in nine passes for 178 yards and two touchdowns. Tight end Trey’Dez Green made an immediate impact in his return from injury, catching five balls for 50 yards and a touchdown.
LSU finished with a huge edge in total offense, piling up 552 yards to Auburn’s 271, and controlled the down-and-distance battle too, winning first downs 29-16. Auburn quarterback Byrum Brown, who had ripped off back-to-back 100-yard rushing games, was limited to 21 yards on 19 carries after going for 115 in last week’s win over then-No. 1 Georgia.
The early stages were steady rather than flashy. LSU opened with a drive that started near midfield and ended with a 30-yard field goal.
Once the game was tied 3-3, the offense picked up speed fast. On the next possession, Leavitt completed all six of his passes on a 65-yard march, including four throws to Harris, before hitting him for a 10-yard touchdown on a play where he was under pressure and falling backward as he released the ball.
That was just the start of a long first-half onslaught.
LSU’s next meaningful drive covered 95 yards in 14 plays, and it featured a gutsy fourth-and-2 conversion on the LSU 32. On that snap, running back Dilin Jones took a direct snap, handed off to Leavitt, and watched the quarterback connect with Green for 11 yards. Leavitt finished the series himself by finding Green over the middle for a 15-yard touchdown, stretching the lead to 17-3.
Auburn responded with its only touchdown drive of the afternoon, but LSU came right back with two more scores before halftime. One took only three plays, and it was Harris again doing the damage, turning a third-and-5 throw from Leavitt into a 70-yard catch-and-run.
The next possession was more deliberate, going 74 yards on 10 plays and leaning heavily on Jones, who ripped off runs of 9, 16, 10 and 12 yards during the march. Jones finished with 92 yards on 21 carries.
Leavitt then put the exclamation point on the half himself, diving into the end zone on a 4-yard touchdown run that sent LSU to the locker room with a 31-10 lead.
From there, the defense took over. LSU recorded 12 tackles for loss and seven sacks, and Auburn’s first three possessions of the second half went nowhere fast, totaling just 29 yards on 15 plays. When Leavitt was in the game, Auburn managed only two tackles for loss and never got to the quarterback with a sack.
Jones added one more blow late in the third quarter, spinning out of a tackle and powering in from 12 yards out to make it 38-10 just over a minute into the fourth. Auburn’s final touchdown came with 24 seconds left and only trimmed the margin to 21.
The result snapped LSU’s eight-game losing streak in conference road games and gave the Tigers their first such win since an Oct. 19, 2024 victory at Arkansas.
It also sent LSU into its bye week in strong shape. Green is already back in the lineup, and linebacker Whit Weeks, another of LSU’s No. 7s, could return after the open date. Alabama and Texas are waiting after that, and a pair of home wins could give LSU a major boost in its College Football Playoff push.
Lane Kiffin said before the game that he was rooting for Auburn’s upset because “relief syndrome,” a letdown after a big win, is a real challenge. But there was no sign of that problem for LSU on Saturday. The Tigers took control early, kept it, and left Auburn with the kind of road win that had eluded them for far too long.
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