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October 16, 2007

Cardiac kids at play in Auburn

By Justin Graves

AUBURN — Tommy Tuberville isn’t sure if he can take much more excitement this year.

After all, dramatic finishes have been the norm for his Auburn Tigers this season. And luckily for Tuberville, his football team has been coming out on the winning end of their weekly barn-burners.

But even though doing just enough to get by has been working for Auburn this season, Tuberville isn’t sure that style of football will hold up as the Tigers head down the stretch.

During the past few weeks, Auburn’s schedule has been brutal. After falling to 1-2 early in the season, the Tigers have won four straight. But two of those wins — Arkansas and Florida — came down to a field goal in the final seconds of regulation.

So in other words, Auburn has been hanging on by the skin of its teeth in big SEC road matchups. And with that in mind, Tuberville is naturally concerned since his Tigers head to Baton Rouge this weekend to face No. 5-ranked LSU.

“We are kind of like the cardiac kids,” Tuberville said. “We play just good enough, and we’ve got to get out of that mode. We have to play better on offense because we can’t lean on our defense as much as we have been.”

If Tuberville was going to challenge his offense to score more points, this is the game to do it. After all, the largest margin of victory in the last three meetings between Auburn and LSU is four points.

In Auburn’s undefeated 2004 season, the Tigers hung on to beat LSU 10-9. The following year, LSU beat Auburn 20-17 in Baton Rouge. Auburn won last year’s matchup 7-3.

In other words, Auburn’s going to need all the offensive production it can get this week at Death Valley.

“I think for years they have stressed defense,” Tuberville said. “We have stressed defense. When you put two good teams together it’s usually going to be a low scoring game. I imagine it would be close to the same thing (this year).

“We are playing good defense. They are playing excellent defense. The kicking game is always a factor. It’s going to be an exciting game, one where we don’t have to do much in terms of motivation.”

If Tuberville believes the 2007 version of the Auburn-LSU series will be another close game, then his team could have a slight edge. Auburn kicker Wes Byrum has won multiple games with last-second field goals this season, including a pair of clutch kicks at Florida and Arkansas.

But with that said, Tuberville still wants to break Auburn from its recent habits in big games.

Against both Florida and Arkansas, Auburn’s offense just did enough to maintain the lead throughout the game. At Florida, the Tigers jumped out to an early lead in the first half, but relied primarily on defense and Byrum after halftime.

In Fayetteville last week, Auburn’s offense never reached the end zone. Instead, Byrum kicked three field goals and Auburn beat Arkansas 9-7.

“Well, my philosophy is that you have to play well on defense and in the kicking game to win on the road,” Tuberville said. “But we need to change our mentality on offense. We know we are going to have to score more points down the stretch. We are going to have to make more plays.”

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