With the 17-16 win over the Florida Gators now two days in the past, the Tigers are looking forward to a tough matchup against No. 11 Auburn.
Heading into the Florida game, the LSU offensive line faced scrutiny for struggling to protect senior quarterback Danny Etling. Junior center Will Clapp was happy with the performances, especially with the younger freshmen players.
“The mental side of the game,” Clapp said. “When you’re a freshman you don’t see things develop as quick. They’re smart kids and soon they’ll be the ones showing me stuff.”
LSU will be taking on a defensive unit in Auburn that is led by Kevin Steele, who was the defensive coordinator for the Tigers in 2015.
Junior tight end Foster Moreau was a freshman that season and has fond memories of the former coordinator.
“He was always an up-tempo, really good guy,” Moreau said. “It’s the base 4-3, the six technique instead of the nine, so it’s various coverages and different blitzes.”
Etling was on the scout team during Steele’s one year tenure with the Tigers. He remembers the Steele defense being scheme oriented.
“He did a good job of recognizing the strengths of his defense,” Etling said. “It’s something we’ll be focused on this week.”
It was after the Auburn game a year ago that LSU decided to move on from Les Miles as head coach. The team lost after a last second touchdown was overruled due to the clock expiring.
Moreau said the next day the players received texts to meet in the team room at 5:30 to confirm what was reported.
“It was a daunting feeling,” Moreau said. “It kind of felt like the things you were seeing on Twitter and the reports you were getting from Bleacher Report was kind of worrisome.”
When Orgeron took over as interim head coach a season ago, he pulled out a rope and had the players pull on different sides of the rope. Then, Orgeron put the players on the same side of the rope and had them pull.
“That was a good team message,” Moreau said. “That was the message we went back to this past week. Why are we pulling on different sides of the rope? We need to be on the same side of the rope.”
LSU freshman running back Derrius Guice (5) avoids getting tackled during the Tigers’ 45-21 victory against Auburn on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015 in Tiger Stadium
