AUBURN, Ala. – Process oriented, Auburn head coach Alex Golesh recognizes the challenge that follows last Saturday’s signature victory on the road against No. 1 Georgia.
“The entire team meeting (Monday) morning was giving your flowers on the win, but we have a long, long way to go,” Golesh said. “Good win or tough loss, it all has to be the same on Monday morning. I'll give our kids a lot of credit. They responded. Our entire team was in (Sunday) on their off day. They all individually watched the film. They were in here all day. They turned around (Monday) morning and were able to go clean it up and turn the page really quickly (Monday) morning to a really good LSU team.”
LSU opened its Lane Kiffin era with a 51-10 thrashing of Clemson in Baton Rouge, where the Bengal Tigers have since added ranked wins over then-No. 23 Texas A&M and a 31-0 shutout of then-No. 16 Mississippi State last week.
"Offensively, they're a talented bunch,” Golesh said. “The quarterback is uber talented, runs it really well. He's tough. He's scrappy. He's played a ton of football. Defensively, top 10 defense in a lot of ways, under 100 yards per game rushing. They haven't given up a bunch in the air and have created 26 sacks, giving up under 16 points a game.”
LSU’s two conference defeats have come on the road, to then-No. 8 Ole Miss in Kiffin’s emotionally charged return to Oxford, and 35-34 to Kentucky on the Wildcats’ two-point conversion in overtime.
"The excitement to get back home, the excitement to play at Jordan-Hare, the excitement to play in front of our fans,” Golesh said. “I can't tell you how geeked our guys are to get right back out on the field. We're playing an LSU team that's offensively explosive in every way and really balanced - almost 200 yards a game rushing and over 300 yards a game passing. They're top 10 in the country in just about every offensive category. They've had some turnovers and for us to win in those margins, that's a huge piece of what we have to get done defensively.”
Against Georgia, Auburn’s defense made two interceptions and recovered a critical fumble in the final minute while the Tigers’ offense played turnover-free, leading to a memorable 27-24 win in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.
“As Coach Golesh says, October victories earn respect,” said sophomore safety AnQuon Fegans, who made one of Auburn’s takeaways.
Seeking a second straight ranked victory, Auburn (4-2, 2-2) hosts No. 18 LSU (5-2, 2-2) Saturday at 11 a.m. CT at Jordan-Hare Stadium on ABC and the Auburn Sports Network, where Andy Burcham, Jason Campbell and Bret Eddins will call the action for listeners.
“It's a really good football team that we're preparing for,” Golesh said. “We're fortunate to be playing at home. We're going to need our crowd. We're going to need it to be juicy, rocking as it always is, and we need a huge week of prep. Right back to the fundamentals, right back to making sure schematically we're right, and go and compete at a high, high level on Saturday."