LSU comes to town this week, and the Bayou Bengals bring some bad memories with them.
Auburn traveled to Baton Rouge in Week 3 of 2015 for the team’s SEC opener, fresh off of needing overtime to topple FCS foe Jacksonville State. While it was early in the season and the early struggles were alarming, the Tigers were still undefeated and expected to contend in the conference.
60 minutes later, those dreams came screeching to a devastating halt. LSU running back Leonard Fournette almost single-handedly trounced Auburn, running through Will Muschamp’s defense like a tattered screen door to the tune of 228 yards and three touchdowns on just 19 rushes — a blistering 12 yards per carry.
The score was 45-21, but that isn’t what Auburn players remember.
“The only thing I really remember is the feeling,” said defensive tackle Montravius Adams. “I don’t remember the score, but I know it was a bad score. I just remember the feeling, really … just going back and watching the film and feeling like we could’ve did better. We just didn’t perform to the best of our ability.”
They have an opportunity to knock out two birds with one stone this Saturday: they can exact revenge for last year’s demolition, and they can notch Auburn’s first conference win of the season — and the first home conference win since October of 2014.
LSU presents almost a reprieve of sorts. Not in terms of quality — far from it, as LSU, despite dropping its opener to Wisconsin, is still sitting at No. 18 in the AP poll — but in terms of offensive personnel.
They utilize a more traditional Power-I offense, a jarring difference from the spread offenses Auburn has faced in Clemson and Texas A&M. It's something Auburn's had time to prepare for during the spring and fall camp.
“I never thought I’d stand before a group the third week of the season and saying ‘Well, we’ve got a little adjustment to make. We’ve got to go out there and make sure when can get lined up against I-pro,’” said defensive coordinator Kevin Steele. “I never thought I would say that, but that’s where the game is.”
LSU quarterback Brandon Harris, who made his first start in Auburn’s 41-7 win in 2014, was replaced by Purdue transfer Danny Etling two weeks ago in LSU’s win over Jacksonville State. LSU coach Les Miles named Etling the starter the following week for Mississippi State, and he will presumably start against Auburn as well.
The uncertainty at quarterback for LSU could allow Auburn to hone in its focus on Fournette and the running game, although Etling did perform well in the Tigers’ 23-20 win over Mississippi State.
Defending Fournette, however, is a tall task, and the issues Auburn had preventing Texas A&M from breaking long runs have to be squashed.
“As far as run defense, it’s not acceptable, it’s not to our standard and it will be corrected and corrected immediately,” Steele said. “The thing that we’ve got is we’ve got guys that have bought into the process, they understand the process and we just have to develop more of a sense of urgency on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday to sharpen the axe so that when we do go to chop down the tree that we’re not just knocking the bark and bruising the tree and getting really tired. We have to get that done to where the process is we’ve got to get more honed up in our skill to develop the ability to hone that process up in the week, so that we can come out with the kind of production that we want.
“So, we’re making progress but we’ve got a long way to go and it is a work in progress. But I think the thing is that their attitude has been and is very good. As long as we’ve got that then as coaches we have to help them, we’ve got to get better.”
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