Auburn hosts LSU after toppling No. 1 Georgia

LSU owns the margin and the clock

Against Power 4 opponents, LSU is +92 in point margin, fourth nationally and first in the SEC. Auburn is -5 in the same games, 32nd nationally and eighth in the SEC. LSU has mostly put good teams away, and Auburn has mostly gone the distance with them.

LSU gains 454 yards a game, seventh nationally and first in the SEC, and allows 292, sixth nationally. Auburn gains 350 and allows 401, ranking 45th nationally on both sides.

LSU holds the ball 31:49 a game, 14th nationally, while Auburn holds it 25:43, 16th in the SEC. That shows up on the other side of the ball, where Auburn's defense has faced 73 plays a game this season, sixth-most in FBS. LSU is also cleaner, penalized 45 yards a game to Auburn's 67.

Where it's decided

When LSU has the ball, it brings a balanced attack against Power 4 opponents: 282 passing yards a game, 13th nationally, and 172 rushing, 20th. It scores 35.0 points a game, 12th nationally. Auburn allows 24.6 points and 162 rushing yards a game, and that run defense ranks 13th in the SEC.

The receivers are almost all new. LSU returned 19% of its 2025 receiving yards, and Jackson Harris brought 963 of the yards that arrived by transfer. Harris leads LSU in receiving yards with 456 and has 5 touchdowns, and Winston Watkins Jr. leads the team with 33 catches for 447 yards. Dilin Jones leads LSU in rushing yards with 567 and 5 touchdowns, and quarterback Sam Leavitt is second with 270.

When Auburn has the ball, it runs into the best scoring defense in the SEC against Power 4 teams, 16.6 points allowed a game and fifth nationally. Auburn scores 23.6 points a game, 41st nationally, and throws for 201 yards, 14th in the SEC. LSU allows 188 passing yards and 104 rushing yards a game, 14th and 17th nationally.

Auburn rebuilt its passing game from scratch, returning 0% of its 2025 passing yards and 6% of its receiving yards. Quarterback Byrum Brown, a South Florida transfer, leads Auburn in passing yards with 1,202, with 8 touchdowns, 7 interceptions and a 64.1 completion percentage. He also leads Auburn in rushing yards with 459, ahead of Jeremiah Cobb's 306. Keshaun Singleton leads Auburn in receiving yards with 367 and in catches with 32, and Chas Nimrod adds 333 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Umanmielen lives in the backfield

LSU defensive end Princewill Umanmielen, a 5-star transfer from Ole Miss, leads LSU with 8 sacks and has 11.5 tackles for loss. He ranks second in FBS in sacks and is tied for second in tackles for loss. One more sack gives him 20 for his career.

Leavitt and an offense nearly doubled

LSU scores 40.4 points a game in all games, up from 22.8 last season and seventh in FBS. Sam Leavitt, a 5-star transfer from Arizona State, leads the SEC with 1,784 passing yards and 21 total touchdowns. He is completing 70.1% of his passes, with 14 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. LSU has outscored Power 4 opponents 61-3 in the third quarter.

Third down, strength on strength

Against Power 4 opponents, LSU converts 54.9% of its third downs, first nationally. Auburn's defense allows 33.8% on third down, 15th nationally and the best piece of its résumé.

Old teams, home roads

Lane Kiffin coaches LSU and is 2-3 against Auburn from his years at Tennessee and Ole Miss. Alex Golesh coaches Auburn and has never faced LSU in 4 seasons as an FBS head coach.

LSU defensive tackle Malik Blocton played at Auburn in 2024-25 and grew up about 45 miles from Jordan-Hare Stadium in Pike Road, where he played high school ball. He had 33 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss and 2 sacks for Auburn, and this is his first game against the Tigers since leaving.

LSU linebacker TJ Dottery plays about 50 miles from his hometown of Montgomery, and he leads LSU with 54 tackles.

Three Auburn defenders know LSU from the inside. Linebacker Xavier Atkins played for LSU in 2024, and defensive lineman Walter Mathis Jr. transferred from LSU after the 2025 season. Edge rusher Da'Shawn Womack played at LSU in 2023-24, with 23 tackles and 2.5 sacks, and came to Auburn from Ole Miss. Auburn linebacker Elijah Melendez leads Auburn in tackles with 52 and in sacks with 4.

LSU had 7 players drafted, including 2 wide receivers and a quarterback, and cornerback Mansoor Delane went sixth overall to Kansas City. Auburn had 5 players drafted, including 2 edge rushers, a center and a guard, and edge Keldric Faulk went 31st overall to Tennessee.

Availability

Neither team's availability report is out yet.

LSU leads the series, Auburn guards its home

LSU leads the series 33-23-1 since 1902. The margins have stayed tight, with 6 of the last 10 meetings decided by one score.

The last meeting was not close: LSU won 48-18 at home in 2023, when Jayden Daniels threw for 325 yards. Daniels won the Heisman that season for a 10-3 LSU team, and Malik Nabers was a unanimous All-American. Auburn finished that year 6-7.

Auburn is 18-13-1 at home against LSU, and LSU last won at Jordan-Hare in 2022, a season it finished 10-4 while Auburn went 5-7.

Three things to watch

Auburn's path: against Power 4 opponents it is +1 in turnover margin to LSU's -1, and its punt coverage allows 3.3 yards a return, 19th nationally, against LSU's 13.2.

The red zone: LSU scores on 87.0% of its trips, and Auburn's defense allows scores on 93.3%, 14th in the SEC.

Byrum Brown needs 108 passing yards for 9,000 in his career, a week after the Georgia win, against a defense allowing 188 a game.