AUBURN, Ala. – Les Miles will go for his 100th win at LSU and the Tigers will go for an important Southeastern Conference road victory Saturday night at 15th-ranked LSU travels to Jordan-Hare Stadium to take on fifth-ranked Auburn in a 6 p.m. contest scheduled for broadcast on ESPN.
LSU enters the game at 4-1 and 0-1 in the SEC after last week’s 63-7 non-conference win over New Mexico State. LSU dropped its SEC opener to Mississippi State on Sept. 20. Auburn is 4-0 overall and 1-0 in league play. AU is coming off a 45-17 win over Louisiana Tech last Saturday in Auburn and its conference win was its opening game back on Aug. 30 when Auburn downed Arkansas in Jordan-Hare, 45-21.
Auburn, which will be seeking its 300th all-time win in SEC play, has a 12-game home winning streak coming into the contest. LSU on the other hand, has never been 0-2 in SEC play under Miles and the Tigers have lost back-to-back SEC games just twice in 10 years under the LSU coach.
ESPN’s Saturday night football crew of Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe will have the broadcast on the main network channel as well as the WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app.
The radio broadcast will be available on the LSU Sports Radio Network and at www.LSUsports.net/live starting at 4 p.m. CT with the Voice of the Tigers Jim Hawthorne joined by Doug Moreau in the booth and Gordy Rush on the sideline.
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LSU GameDay Info #15 LSU at #5 Auburn LSU’s Ticket Will Call opens at 4:30 p.m. CT at Gate 1 of Jordan-Hare Stadium. As the visiting team, LSU will wear white jerseys and will occupy the southeast sideline. TV: ESPN (National) | WatchESPN Kickoff: 6:01 p.m. CDT (w/ 5 min. slide) Driving Directions (Baton Rouge to Auburn, Ala. — 421 mi.; 6h, 11m) Full-Game Replays on SEC Network: |
Watch/Listen: WatchESPN | Listen Live | Radio Affiliates
Miles announced at his Monday media luncheon that freshman Brandon Harris will take the first snap under center at quarterback against Auburn. Harris, from Bossier City, directed the Tigers on touchdown scoring drives on all seven possessions that he was in the game versus New Mexico State. Going back to the Mississippi State game on Sept. 20, Harris has led LSU to TD drives on nine of his last 10 possessions at quarterback.
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“(Harris) did a great job (this week),” said Miles after practice on Thursday. “He’s really committed and working hard. When you go from the second team quarterback to the first team quarterback it’s quite an adjustment and it’s one he’s worked hard to accomplish. The confidence is not the issue. The ability to do his job and not think about things like what’s going on in the stadium. Just relax and play ball. He’s played in some big-time venues before and he’ll be able to relate that to a big-time college venue and we’ll be fine.”
LSU will be facing on the other side quarterback Nick Marshall of Auburn, the consensus preseason All-SEC signal caller. Marshall is just the third player in Auburn history to throw for 2,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in his career. Against Louisiana Tech he had his sixth 100-yard rushing game (105) and was 10-of-17 passing for 166 yards and three TDs.
“(Our defense has) to play with speed, certainly be assignment conscious and tackle. If we do those things, we’ll be fine,” Miles said.
LSU leads the overall series, 27-20-1 as the teams meet for the 49th time. LSU won last year in Tiger Stadium, 35-21, in what was Auburn’s only regular season loss. LSU has won three straight games against Auburn, including a 12-10 victory in 2012 in Jordan-Hare. The teams have met every year since SEC expansion in 1992 with LSU holding a 12-10 advantage during that span. The home team has won 12-of-the-last-14 games in the series and seven-of-the-last-10 games have been decided by a touchdown or less.
Les Miles is 7-2 versus Auburn, 2-2 in Jordan-Hare.
With Harris stepping into the starting spot at quarterback, the youth movement continues for LSU and never has that been more seen in the scoring category as true freshmen have scored 14-of-26 offensive touchdowns in the first five games. Running back Leonard Fournette has scored four rushing TDs, while wide receiver Malachi Dupre has four receiving TDs. Harris has rushed for three scores as has running back Darrel Williams.
The 14 TDs by true freshmen is the most at LSU since 1982 when Dalton Hillard, Garry Jones and Jeff Wickersham accounted for 26.
Even more staggering is that 21-of-LSU’s 26 offensive touchdowns have been scored by freshmen or sophomores when you throw in wide receiver Travin Dural‘s five scores and redshirt frosh John Diarse‘s one reception.
Live stats for the event can be found at LSUsports.net and social media will be up in running at www.Facebook.com/LSUfootball and Twitter @LSUfball.
The game telecast will be replayed on the SEC Network on Sunday at 7 p.m. CT, Monday at 9 a.m. CT and, Tuesday at 5 a.m. and 8 p.m. CT.