Not too long before kickoff, before the festivities were underway, an older man made his way onto the field into the sultry September sun, and he leaned against the south goalpost of Pat Dye Field.
Auburn great Pat Sullivan beckoned quarterback Sean White over to him, and imparted some wisdom upon the sophomore. He didn’t tell him the secret to dissecting defenses, diagnosing blitzes or dropping dimes in between defenders.
Sullivan told him to put a penny in his sock.
“He told me, ‘Put a penny in your sock, and it’ll give you a little bit of luck whenever you need it,’” White said. “I said, ‘Alright, I’m gonna listen to Pat Sullivan, he won the Heisman.’ So I went and got a penny and put it in my sock, and after the game I was just like, ‘Wow.’”
That tiny piece of luck might’ve helped more than he thought. Auburn beat No. 18 LSU, 18-13 on Saturday night, but not before the result flipped once or twice.
With just a second left on the clock — a situation all too familiar to the orange-and-blue faithful packed to the brim in Jordan-Hare Stadium — LSU had the ball, facing a 4th and goal from the Auburn 15-yard line. On the previous play, LSU receiver Travin Dural had committed an illegal motion penalty which backed his team up five yards, however, instead of starting the clock on the snap, the rule dictated that on the next play, the clock would wind on the referee’s signal.
So, LSU quarterback Danny Etling received the snap seemingly in time, rolled right, and found D.J. Chark alone in the end zone. The purple-and-gold Tigers rejoiced, but replay showed that LSU center Ethan Pocic snapped the ball well after the scoreboard read all zeroes.
Auburn won, and the players — starving for a win after suffering seven consecutive home losses to Power 5 opponents — went ballistic, sprinting across the field and piling into the waiting arms of the student section before the official ruling was even announced.
The overturning of the game-winner that wasn’t was cathartic: It represented a reversal of fortune for Auburn, which hadn’t beaten an SEC opponent since toppling Steve Spurrier’s South Carolina team in October of 2014. It pulls the Tigers back even at 2-2, and it quiets the increasingly louder grumblings about head coach Gus Malzahn, at least for a week or two.
Malzahn instituted a couple of changes for the game against LSU, both of which will remain in place for the rest of the season: He replaced his signature visor with a hat, and he relinquished playcalling duties to offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee.
“I’ve been really leaning towards that for about two weeks now, and I’m turning it over to him,” Malzahn said of handing the playcalling to Lashlee. “He’ll do a great job, I thought he did a fantastic job tonight. I need to be the head coach, and that’s what I’m going to be.”
In Lashlee’s second official game handling playcalls — he called Auburn’s win over Texas A&M in 2015 — the offense outgained LSU, 388-338. White put in his best game at Auburn, all things considered, and finished 19-of-26 for 234 yards. He engineered six drives that ended in the red zone, and finally looked comfortable.
However, it wasn’t all peaches and sunshine. All of Auburn’s points came via the leg of Daniel Carlson, whose six field goals tied an Auburn program record. The offense got inside the LSU 15-yard line five times, and came away with three points all but one of those drives.
The issue Auburn has finishing drives with touchdowns is still hanging around, and it’s something Malzahn, Lashlee and the staff will have to figure out. But having a kicker like Carlson — who hasn’t missed a kick yet this year — is always a solid safety net.
“It’s automatic. It’s funny to say, but when you think about it from an offensive standpoint, all we have to do is just get on our side of the field and we know we’ll at least make a field goal,” said running back Kerryon Johnson. “However, obviously we want seven points, but when you have that kind of kicker, you know you literally have three points every time. It’s very relieving.”
Johnson didn’t have his best game statistically — he carried the ball 22 times for 93 yards, and caught four balls for 63 yards — but he ran like a man possessed, at times dragging up to four or five members of the LSU defense for handfuls of yards at a time. He got stonewalled at the goal line on fourth down right before halftime, which was probably Auburn’s best shot at a touchdown.
It could've been the difference in the game, but the Auburn defense made sure Carlson's six field goals were enough. LSU running back Leonard Fournette, who gashed Auburn for 228 yards and three touchdowns a year ago, was held to 101 yards on 16 carries Saturday. He didn’t find the end zone once, and the only time LSU did score a touchdown was when quarterback Danny Etling flipped a three-yard shovel pass to tight end Foster Moreau late in the first quarter, who dove across the goal line to give LSU a 7-3 lead.
“Coach Steele stressed playing lights out, stopping the run and just pulling the pin,” said safety Tray Matthews. “He kept saying all week, ‘Pull the trigger. Don’t hesitate, don’t shuffle your feet. Just go. If you miss them, you miss them. You’ll slow them down.’ And that’s what we did.”
It may not have been pretty, but it’s a win Auburn desperately needed before its season slipped away, and it’s one they’ll take.
But they’ve yet to play a road game, which comes up in two weeks when the Tigers travel to Starkville. It’ll be a chance to prove Saturday’s win wasn’t a fluke, and they may need some more of that luck that the penny in White’s sock brought.
“Oh, I’m keeping it,” White said. “I made sure.”
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