Like so many college football observers, I was astonished at how the LSU Tigers manhandled Auburn on Saturday night.
I never have awarded LSU much credit for its accomplishments on the gridiron this season. I thought if Georgia would have had its star players healthy, the Bulldogs would have beaten LSU. I believed the Tigers’ success largely was because of the fact that they had a weak away schedule and played the “tougher” teams within the friendly confines of Tiger Stadium.
Although the Tigers displayed moments of brilliance, never did I observe any form of true consistency. But throughout the course of the past two games, I have to say I have jumped on the bandwagon.
I picked LSU to beat Auburn by one point, mainly because some friends of mine on the team were upset with me for choosing Georgia to beat LSU. But I really thought Auburn would win.
LSU held South Carolina to zero rushing yards when the Gamecocks were the second-best rushing team in the Southeastern Conference. That was impressive, but Carolina does not have the personnel of Auburn, and I did not think it was realistic to think LSU could hold Auburn to less than 150 yards on the ground. Obviously, I was wrong. The same team that racked up 405 rushing yards the previous week mustered only 50 yards on the ground against the Bayou Bengals.
With Joseph Addai and Shyrone Carey on the bench, Justin Vincent and Alley Broussard ran over, around and through South Carolina. But I thought Auburn had the best defensive front seven in the conference, and I didn’t think Vincent could run for 60 yards on Auburn, much less 127 yards on just 14 carries. His spectacular vision and balance is reminiscent of former LSU standouts Dominick Davis and Kevin Faulk.
And the big men up front for the LSU offense are finally showing why they had such lofty expectations at the start of the season. Behind the Tigers’ now-dominant offensive line, they have accumulated 432 rushing yards and have not allowed a sack during the past two games.
Surprisingly, LSU dominated Auburn the same way it did against South Carolina. Few teams in the country are playing at the level of LSU right now.
Classy Tigers vs. Classless Tigers
As impressive as their domination of Auburn was, the class shown by LSU coach Nick Saban was just as astounding. Unlike three years ago when Auburn and scandalous coach Tommy Tuberville scored a touchdown with three seconds left in the game while holding a 27-17 lead, LSU opted to take a knee and run out the clock when it had a first-and-10 at the Auburn 12-yard-line with more than 40 seconds left on the clock.
And while The Golden Band From Tigerland was still performing its halftime entertainment, Auburn’s band began to belt out its fight song in one of the worst displays of sportsmanship I have ever seen.
Whether it’s late and unnecessary touchdowns, fights with band members (remember Damon Duval), unruly band directors or cigars, LSU wins the battle of the classier institution – as long as you don’t include the fans.