Considering LSU hasn’t won on the road in the Southeastern Conference in three seasons, first-year head coach Lane Kiffin will subscribe to any theory his team can benefit from.
For the sixth time in school history, and the first in nine years, Auburn upset the No. 1 ranked team in the country with a 27-24 victory at Georgia.
The visiting Tigers improved to 4-2 overall and 2-2 in the league with an upcoming home game with No. 18 LSU (5-2, 2-2) for an 11 a.m. kickoff at Jordan-Hare Stadium at 11 a.m. Saturday.
The game will be televised by ABC.
“That’s a real thing. Relief syndrome is real,” Kiffin told reporters Monday during his weekly news conference. “It doesn’t mean we’re going to win this week, and they’re going to lose. That is a real thing.
“That is a real challenge, especially now, because of all the access on their phones, of people, media, all the stuff you see on social media,” Kiffin said. “You’re told how great you are. I was rooting for them to win knowing we were playing them next week. It makes it more challenging.”
Kiffin got his wish to face an opponent coming off its biggest win of the season, to heighten the challenge.
Auburn was part of a topsy-turvy Saturday where four of the nation’s top 10 teams were upset and were among two unranked teams (Florida being the other) to register such a seismic win.
Cheering on Auburn
Auburn knocked off its first No. 1 team since defeating top-ranked Alabama, 26-14, in 2017.
“(It’s) A really electric place,” Kiffin said of Jordan-Hare Stadium (87,451). “I’ve been there a lot part of the Iron Bowls. (It’s) Kind of a magical place. We’re going to have to prepare really well and be ready to play in a really loud environment that they play really well at.”
Kiffin theorized, when asked about the difficulty of winning on the road in the league, that the SEC offers a conference with a greater collection of teams over a league such as the Big 10 Conference, which has won the last three national championships.
“First off, it’s a deeper conference,” he said. “You can win because you’re No. 1 seed like the last couple of years and credit to the Big 10. That doesn’t mean that your conference is deeper because you win a national championship. Our middle to bottom, those are still really hard places just to play.”
0 and 2 away from home
This marks LSU’s third try to win away from Tiger Stadium in the SEC this season.
The Tigers last won an SEC game on the road (34-10) at Arkansas on Oct. 19, 2024 behind running back Caden Durham’s 101 yards and three touchdowns. They’ve managed to overcome deficits at both Ole Miss and Kentucky, two one-loss teams in the mix for the SEC lead but were unable to finish either game.
Ole Miss led 24-7 at halftime before LSU answered in the second half and tied the game at 24-24 on Scott Starcyzk’s 23-yard field goal.
The Rebels, who outgained the Tigers 426-330, drove 75 yards in 17 plays for the go-ahead score from quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and got a two-point conversion from JT Lindsay.
Quarterback Sam Leavitt tried to answer, leading LSU to four first downs and the 6-yard line of Ole Miss, when he was intercepted in the end zone with 58 seconds to play at the end of 14-play, 69-yard drive that consumed more than five minutes.
LSU, which lost the turnover battle 2-0, trailed Kentucky 21-17 at halftime before putting together a second-half charge that resulted in a 27-24 lead with over nine minutes to play in a game that eventually was settled in overtime.
Leavitt gave the Tigers a 34-27 lead with a 15-yard run, and Starzyk booted an extra point, until Kentucky had the final say. The Wildcats scored a touchdown and quarterback Kenny Minchey ran in the two-point conversion for a 35-34 victory.
“It’s always about preparation,” Kiffin said. “Preparing really well, playing really well. And then you go in there make less mistakes. A lot of times on the road is when you break down your losses and close losses.
“There’s usually not how many plays they make; it’s more the mistakes you make,” Kiffin said. “More penalties, more false starts, more turnovers than when you play at home.”
