Justin’s Weekly Brain Seepage: LSU vs. Auburn

By Justin Goar, Blogger

If this is the Tiger Bowl, then what’s with the eagle?...

For me, the first time it happened was in 1997. I was in the student section in Tiger Stadium. Auburn got up 14-0 before LSU came back with two scores to tie it up mainly from the running of Cecil Collins.

It was a back and forth slugfest that went down to the wire and had the Auburn Tigers finish on top 31-28. As I sat in my seat when the clock hit triple zeroes, I actually put my frustration aside for a few moments and marveled at the fact that I saw just an incredible football game. It was awful to swallow that loss, but the game couldn’t have been more entertaining. It makes you respect the game. It makes you respect your opponent and it made me respect the LSU-Auburn series. Eleven years later, little has changed and this game continues to be a gift that keeps giving to the world of college football.

Whether you’re an indifferent fan in some other part of the country or say a Bama fan that wanted both teams to lose, you have to respect the show these two teams put on when they play each other.

It’s mega physical without being dirty (except for maybe one infamous play from last year). That goes a long way in my book. You had LSU players popping pads and helmets on defense and I don’t think I need to illustrate the way Auburn hits outside of looking at the play that left LSU QB Andrew Hatch seeing stars like he’s on the red carpet.

But there was never any pushing or shoving and not too much jawing (outside the normal amount these days). With that in mind, between the whistles these guys still hit each other like the other side owes them money.

Cut out all the drama of recent years, the earthquakes, the magic, the fire, the cigars, and for sixty football minutes these guys put on a show.

I would hope that some Auburn fans had the same moment of appreciation for this series on Saturday that I had in ’97 in the face of a frustrating loss. But I know it’s easier said than done.

Before watching the game with my buddy Scott, I was pacing nervously, we both were. And I thought out loud, how cool it would be to not care, for a college football game to not matter this much?

There are people all over this country who don’t care about this game. They’re at work or on a date or hanging with their family or watching “Three’s Company” re-runs on TV Land.

The point is, their heart rate doesn’t hinge on every play, every bounce, and every turn of the game. They won’t go to bed heartbroken because they lost or on Cloud Nine because they won. Their mood for the rest of the week at work or at home won’t depend on the outcome of a three hour contest played by college kids. Why do I do this to myself???!!!


Then after LSU kneeled it out to end the game the four of us went outside for that conversation which if you replaced the words, you could have believed in our demeanor that we’d just robbed a bank without getting caught or escaped a bus crash with our lives.
As we hurriedly spit out the night’s cliffhangers and second guessed decisions made, I stopped for a moment and thought out loud again…

“Oh yeah, this is why we do this. This feeling right here and right now is why we care.”

I’ve been on the good side and the bad side of this rivalry through the years and I’ve suffered through heartbreaking losses to many other teams besides Auburn over the years. As bad as losing is, it makes winning that much better.

It’s the yin and yang. You can’t know true happiness without knowing true despair and vice versa. It proves we’re alive. LSU and Auburn fans won’t have to check for a pulse anytime soon.

Whether it’s the agonizing torture of a loss or the internal high of a great win, the fans of this Tiger Bowl definitely know we’re alive.

My hat’s off to the orange and blue and the purple and gold for leaving it all out on the field Saturday night. Also, to the fans on both sides who make this game what it is every year. It’s great to be an LSU Tiger. It’s great to be an Auburn Tiger. It’s great to be a fan.


“We’re also well above average…”

There’s a mantra I use via text message with my friends that I send out when things look their darkest during game. It was originally used last year in joking, as if to mock the very thought of LSU actually making a comeback in a game.

“We’re a second half team.”

The phrase was born last year during the Florida game. It returned for the Auburn game last season and was legitimized against Alabama.

The last three times I used it was when the Tigers were struggling with Tennessee in the first half of the SEC Championship game, going down 10-0 to Ohio State, and recently going down 14-3 at Auburn this past weekend.

Say what you want about Les Miles, but his teams do not quit. They’re the bad guy in the 80’s scary movie. Michael Myers, Jason Voorhies, Freddy Krueger. Don’t they ever just die???

Auburn had to be thinking that right around the time LSU recovered the onsides kick. They thought about it when we completed the halfback pass. They thought about it when Charles Scott got stopped behind the line only to burst through for a big run on the following play along with countless other “Great Scott” runs. They thought about it when LSU answered their late score with not a game winning field goal, but a touchdown. This time LSU left more than one second on the clock.

And most of all this was personified in Tiger defensive end Raheem Alem whose personal foul with under a minute was just about the last thing LSU needed in order to quell a comeback. Then, Raheem Alem came back on the next play and turned Jordan Hare into Elm Street, Haddonfield, and Crystal Lake all rolled into one. His fifteen yard penalty was followed by a fifteen yard sack and put Auburn in a 2nd and 25 hole from which they would not escape.

If Alem did it in two plays, Jarrett Lee took an entire half to redeem a horrible mistake. Lee took a snap and tried to take advantage of Auburn not having all their players set by swinging the ball to Keiland Williams in the flat. After starting 0 for 5, Lee completed his first pass to a lineman wearing blue who took it for a score.

In a game where every bit of real estate was precious and every point at a premium, a 14-3 deficit on the road seemed too much to overcome especially when starter Andrew Hatch went down in the third quarter with a good case of “you got knocked the #$%* out” syndrome.

But we all saw what Lee did in the second half. I was halfway through a text I started but never finished that said…

“Who is this quarterback?? Are there two #12’s?”

That’s when Keiland Williams took a pitch and played quarterback for a down. LSU would go up 17-14.

Lee continued to play like a different person in the second half against one of the better defenses in the SEC and it didn’t hurt to have the juggernaut knows as Charles Scott opening up the pass game.

That’s what did it, you know? That’s why this sequel ended like the original did last year. Last year, Flynn and the coaches saw something they could exploit. It wasn’t a crazy call it just took too long to set up at the line. Flynn made a perfect throw and Byrd made a great catch and that was history.

This year was eerily like last year. Last year the score was 24-23. A field goal would’ve won it. LSU got the touchdown. This year same thing with LSU down by one 21-20 and were within field goal range for kicker Colt David. With a little over a minute left, most of us would think to run Charles Scott three times up the middle and kick the field goal. It’s what I would have done. But then again, maybe there’s good reason I don’t coach this team.

With a 1st and 10, everyone and their mom expected a run from Charles Scott including Auburn. But offensive coordinator Gary Crowton and Les Miles play to win and look for favorable situations. Instead of handing off, Jarrett Lee dropped back and threw his best ball all night. It was a down and away out route that only Jo Jo Lafell could’ve gotten. #1 did and brought it to the house.

So another Les Miles gamble pays off, but I’ll ask this question for the hundredth time. If gambles work out in your favor 90% of the time, is it still a gamble?

Les Miles doesn’t play his cards, he plays his opposition. He exploits favorable opportunities when his opponents show tendencies.

In this case, the call wasn’t the gamble, believing in a redshirt freshman quarterback to execute the call was.

But hey there Mr. Blue Chip recruit, you want to come play for a coach that believes in his players??? You can come do that in Baton Rouge.

Crazy calls or not, it doesn’t take a football genius to see what coaching staff made the better adjustments at halftime.

LSU has some weak spots that need to be worked on, but all in all, even in games they should probably lose like Florida and Georgia, it would be wise never to assume the bad guy is dead. After all, we’re a second half team.

Stop trying to bring me down…

I wouldn’t start making reservations in Atlanta and Miami just yet Tiger fans. This team has a bunch of things to get straight but the good definitely outweighs the bad at this point and time. One thing that if consistent will always keep LSU in a game is their running game.

The offensive line looked like beasts and it doesn’t hurt to have a fullback like Quinn Johnson opening holes and solid blocking from TE Richard Dickson. With Charles Scott continuing to rack up the yards especially on first down, it puts a defense on its heels.

Enter Jarrett Lee in the second half who began to throw on first down and then the offense really got clicking. LSU gained 257 yards on 31 first down plays for the game. That’s an 8.3 yard average and Miles and Co. will take that every time.

Add in a defense that gets pressure rushing just four and are smothering against the run and you’ve got some headaches for the opposition. LSU has some holes in its coverage and that was to be expected with inexperienced corners and Danny McCray and Chad Jones struggling with coverage at the nickel back position. Good QB’s (read Tebow and Stafford) should be more effective in making the Tigers pay for mistakes.

I was right about…

Two things:

1) Trindon Holliday’s hands. I said he’d fumble punt returns in crucial situations this year. I didn’t want to be right so soon in the season, and twice on top of that. Miles insists Holliday will still return punts. I’d keep him in on kickoffs though.

2) Chris Hawkins is the best corner on the team. This isn’t even a close race at the present time.


I was wrong about…

Two things:

1) Demetrius Byrd being the featured receiver when the season started. Lee likes Brandon “Jo Jo” Lafell and he likes him a lot.

2) Richard Murphy being the go to guy in the backfield when the season started. It’s quite obvious to everyone that #32 Charles Scott is the man.

Moo U blues…

I’m sorry to say that while I’m a pessimist at heart, I am never worried when we play Mississippi State. For some reason, LSU has their number every single time they tangle. The Bulldogs are 1-3 this year with losses to La. Tech, Auburn, and Georgia Tech. The reason why MSU was good in the 90’s was because of their lines. And that advantage has faded away for State. Add in the fact that it’s a night game in Tiger Stadium and I don’t like the Bulldogs’ chances.

LSU should be able to run the ball. If they can’t, and MSU forces LSU to become one dimensional, then that might give State a chance. But I look for LSU’s O-line to be dominant again and Scott should have another 100 yard day. That’s bad news for the Bulldogs who need every advantage they can get in Baton Rouge. LSU slows down a bit because of a hangover from the AU win, but don’t expect an upset this week.

LSU 35 Miss. St. 10