It’s Auburn week, which means one might expect almost any result from Saturday’s game.

Strangely enough, at least by the old SEC schedule standards, the two Tiger teams haven’t met since 2023, a 48–18 drubbing by LSU in Baton Rouge during Jayden Daniels’ electric Heisman campaign. The year before, in Daniels’ first season leading the Tigers, LSU overcame a 17–0 deficit to win on the Plains, 21–17.

Of course, LSU is starving for an SEC road victory, its last coming at Arkansas on October 19, 2024, by a 34–10 score.

Monday’s MIKE CHECK revisited the 1990s, when the schedules were more consistent, and an early-season beating of Mississippi State became a precursor to the much harder task of getting past Auburn. No LSU fan needs a reminder or a redux of 1994, when LSU turned a 23–9 lead into a total fourth-quarter collapse and a 30–26 loss. Gerry DiNardo’s breakthrough against fifth-ranked Auburn at home in the infamous “Bring Back the Magic” game wouldn’t come until the following September in his first season at the helm.

This team under Kiffin, now 31 years later, needs its own breakthrough.

While statistics aren’t as integral a component of this particular space, the numbers suggest LSU has an edge. Its offense amasses 504 yards and 40.4 points per game, while its defense allows just 256.4 yards and 15.9 points. Auburn averages 394.2 yards and 26.8 points, surrendering 371 yards and 21.8 points. Those are season averages, however, and LSU has already demonstrated it cannot put up the same numbers on the road, not yet anyway.

Against Mississippi State, quarterback Sam Leavitt exhibited an encouraging response after the Kentucky loss, going 31-for-38 for 289 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions. LSU wasn’t fazed at all by the morning kickoff, as LSU teams of those same 1990s once were, and it handled the business it needed to handle, 31–0.

Now that dominance has to travel east.

One huge boost could come from the Tigers’ standout tight end Trey’Dez Green, who was absent from Thursday’s availability report, fueling speculation that he will be on the field on Saturday. Of course, even if he does play, his workload remains a question. Whether it be full involvement or selected packages and situations, he would undoubtedly bolster a red-zone offense that has scored only 28 touchdowns in 40 trips.

“Small things equal big things,” Ty Benefield said Tuesday, pointing to the game in Lexington two weeks ago as evidence of how individual mistakes can accumulate and get out of hand. Likewise, Kiffin emphasized penalties, false starts, and turnovers when explaining why close road games get away.

There is one other adjustment Tiger fans would welcome from the head coach, in a more general way moving forward, and that’s keeping certain fascinating observations inside the football operations building.

“Relief syndrome is real,” Kiffin said Monday when asked about team letdowns after big victories, such as what Auburn accomplished this past Saturday at No. 1 Georgia. He explained that he had rooted for Auburn to beat Georgia because the emotional aftermath could make preparing for LSU more difficult.

His fuller explanation concerned the difficulty of recovering focus after an emotional victory, especially with cell phones now serving up the dreaded rat poison both Kiffin and Nick Saban have so often warned about. Is it interesting insight that moves beyond the boring coach-speak? Absolutely. Is it often true? Certainly. Is it, moreover, biblical? Yep, sure is. So it’s human nature, in other words, and both evidence and the Good Book bear witness to it.

But why publicly remind the Auburn team of the very trap you hope it falls into? Give us insights, Coach Kiffin. You don’t need to provide your next opponent the same pep talk you’d give your own team.

And remember I say that with respect for what he offers the media, and the mind behind the man. My take here simply comes from years and years of working with young people both in the classroom and on the court myself.

As far as the game itself goes, I’m tempted to pick Auburn, if for no other reason than to not jinx LSU.

But superstition isn’t real.

So my take remains that it’s time to win one, and that winning one will happen at some point. It was time in Kentucky, too, when we picked LSU with confidence, and a little fun, going back to 1984 for our 36-10 pick.

That confidence involved and still involves more than silly LSU fan hope-dom. Watch enough football and you learn to recognize improvements that indicate a team is ready to go on the road, against all the naysayers, and win in a hostile environment. LSU seemed there before its trip to Lexington. Last Saturday gave us another piece to our understanding of how this team is built and its mental state, and we are once again confident that it is primed to finally break through.

I respect the levelheaded fans who consider 8–4 or 9-3 (or even 7-5) more realistic than a playoff berth in Kiffin’s first year, but “improvement” must mean something more tangible the Tigers can build on. Frankly, I’m not even looking at the record. Winning one SEC road game for the first time in two years is a modest enough expectation, even for those of us most willing to be patient—and yes I do count myself in that number. Patience gives a person room to grow in life; it doesn’t excuse him from the obligation to do something about it.

Georgia won at Alabama two weeks ago. Auburn won at Georgia and Florida won at Texas last week. Winning away in this conference is difficult, sure, but plenty of teams are doing it anyway, and certainly over the years we’ve experienced our own heartbreaks when opponents travel to Tiger Stadium and win.

Auburn has done it plenty of times.

LSU looks ready, but whether or not it finally delivers is another question. As we’ve said in our discussions of living by a rule, one’s discipline must hold strong when the surrounding noise and temptations are doing everything they can to shake him.

And Jordan-Hare will most certainly be shaking on Saturday.

I’m picking the Tigers nonetheless, albeit grudgingly—and reversing that miserable 1994 score. LSU wins, 30–26.

Thank you for reading The Hayride!