Sept. 25, 2016
By Charles Goldberg
AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. - Sean White says Auburn's gut-check 18-13 victory over LSU on Saturday night was exactly the kind of game that will get the Tigers going.
"It gives us confidence," the quarterback said.
Besides, White and his teammates were just following coach Gus Malzahn's orders.
"Malzahn told us if the game is close, we're going to win this game. That's what he kept saying. We believed it," White said. "It's huge for the rest of the season to get us on the roll. It will start the momentum to get us going."
LSU was the third Top 25 team Auburn had faced in the first four games. The Tigers were in the other two, but lost. The Tigers were in this one, and won, though LSU made it more than interesting by throwing and a catching the football in the end zone on its last snap.
Sorry, said Auburn and the officials, time had expired before the play. Auburn won.
White was 19-of-26 passing for 234 yards, and, again, showed his toughness.
"He's a competitor," said running back Kerryon Johnson. "He got hit multiple times. I missed a block. He got killed. But he keeps getting up, he keeps battling and he keeps leading the team. He's a great leader, and that's what I saw."
- The game story
- Carl Lawson's big game
- Whew! Auburn had to wait and see if it had won
Coach Gus Malzahn said he thought White "played an outstanding game."
"I thought he managed the game well. He had a high percentage. He was 19-of-26 with no interceptions, and I think that's good against that defense. We were almost 50 percent on third down, and that was a big key. We talked earlier in the week about needing to get third-and-shorts. We got quite a few of those and then we converted some third-and-mediums. That was a big part of the game, and we had some guys step up and make some pretty big catches on third down, too."
White played almost the entire game, coming out for a brief appearance by John Franklin III. And this time, Auburn knocked off an SEC team and nationally-ranked team.
"We were close and lost in the last couple. It just felt good to win," White said.
"When you're 1-2, nobody is going to say 'you guys are awesome'. But we are a good team. We just lost a couple of close games to a couple of good teams. Once we get rolling, we're going to be tough to beat."
Auburn's offense still has work to do. The Tigers scored on five of their six trips to the red zone, but every one of those points came on Daniel Carlson field goals. Carlson hit six before the night was done.
Malzahn said he's turned over the play calling to offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee, and that he did a good job against LSU.
Still, "we need to score more touchdowns," Malzahn said. "When we have opportunities to catch them, we've got to catch them, and when you have opportunities to run it in you've got to run it in. That will be something moving forward."
Charles Goldberg is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @AUGoldMine