Auburn edged out a win in overtime against Louisiana at Monroe in their home opener Sept. 7.
The Tigers began overtime on defense and held the Warhawks to only three plays before they were forced to attempt a field goal. Defensive tackle Angelo Blackson was having none of it.
Blackson reached a huge paw in the air, tipped the ball and celebrated with his teammates as it came up short.
"I got a hand on it, I got a piece of it," Blackson said, "I just wanted to get pressure and get my hands up."
Auburn's offense then took the field to secure the victory. After several rushes by running back Tre Mason, quarterback Kiehl Frazier took a knee in the middle of the hash marks in order to set up kicker Cody Parkey with a chip shot.
Parkey stepped up and drilled the field goal to the delight of the Auburn faithful.
"It was an easy kick for me," Parkey said, "It was right down the middle. It couldn't have gone any better."
With Parkey's kick the Tigers secured their first win of the season, improving the record to one win and two losses.
ULM began play with the football and scored a touchdown on the first drive. Quarterback Kolton Browning capped a 12 play, 89 yard drive by throwing a one yard pass to tight end Harley Scioneaux.
Auburn responded quickly with a 76 yard scoring drive. Running back Ontario McCalebb ran 27 yards for a touchdown to seal the drive.
"The offensive line ran to the left and I just followed Jay Prosch," McCalebb said, "He took out the man in front of me and I was able to score."
McCalebb would finish the game with 128 yards rushing on only 11 carries. Several of McCalebb's best carries went between the tackles, which is supposedly not his strength.
"He's kind of doing what everybody said he couldn't do," Chizik said, "I'm proud of him for being able to run between the tackles."
The game turned into a stalemate until late in the second quarter when Browning ran 39 yards for a touchdown.
Auburn scored on another fast-paced drive that finished with some trickery. Frazier threw a backward pass to wide receiver Quan Bray who then threw the ball back to a wide open Frazier for a 33 yard touchdown.
"It was a great play call," Frazier said, "Quan [Bray] made a great play ... It worked like we thought it would."
The Tigers got the ball back in good field position with 22 seconds left in the half.
As time expired in the second quarter, Frazier threw a prayer toward the end zone that wide receiver Cameron Blakes came down with.
Going into halftime the Tigers lead the Warhawks 21-14.
Auburn began the third quarter with the ball, and the offense soon put it into the end zone to increase the lead by another touchdown.
This time it was Tre Mason who scored on a one yard rush.
The Tigers held a 14 point lead at the end of the third quarter, but the Warhawks closed the gap by scoring two touchdowns in the final quarter of play.
Auburn began the game with a balanced rush and pass attack, but with the two touchdown lead, they kept the ball on the ground.
Because of that, ULM honed in and stopped the Tiger offense in the fourth quarter almost completely.
Time expired and the teams went to overtime deadlocked at 28 points each.
Auburn went on to win by three points, and Chizik said that's all that matters.
"It wasn't always pretty," Chizik said, "But we beat a good football team today. It's something to build on."
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