No. 18 LSU (5-2, 2-2 SEC) at Auburn (4-2, 2-2 SEC). Saturday, Oct. 24, 11 a.m. CT (noon ET), Jordan-Hare Stadium, Auburn, Ala., ABC.
Your hosts are Cece Thibodeaux, a Baton Rouge socialite who rates every defense on a spice scale, and Lacey Bellamy, a former Auburn sorority president who can reenact every Iron Bowl and always plays the hero.
Lacey: War Eagle, y'all! Cece, welcome to the Plains, sugar. Bring your beignets.
Cece: Bless your heart, Lacey. Congratulations on Georgia. Now pass the beignets.
Players to watch
LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt has thrown for 1,784 yards and 14 touchdowns. Running back Dilin Jones has 567 yards and five touchdowns. Wide receiver Jackson Harris leads LSU with 456 receiving yards and five touchdown catches. Linebacker T.J. Dottery leads with 54 tackles, and pass rusher Princewill Umanmielen leads with eight sacks. LSU averages 40.4 points per game and allows only 2.82 yards per carry.
Auburn quarterback Byrum Brown has 1,202 passing yards and eight touchdowns, and he's a real threat as a runner. Wide receiver Keshaun Singleton leads with 32 catches for 367 yards. Linebacker Elijah Melendez leads with 52 tackles, plus four sacks and an interception. The Auburn defense allows 21.8 points per game and 3.56 yards per carry.
Cece: LSU's run defense? That's "Saturday night in Death Valley" on my spice scale, cher.
What happened last week
Auburn beat No. 1 Georgia 27-24 on Oct. 17 when Alex McPherson kicked a 34-yard field goal as time expired. Georgia had tied the game late, then fumbled, and Auburn recovered to set up the kick. Brown went 15 of 26 for 150 yards and a touchdown and ran 26 times for 115 yards and another score. Melendez had nine tackles, a sack and an interception. Lacey says the Toomer's oaks never stood a chance.
LSU shut out No. 16 Mississippi State 31-0. Leavitt went 31 of 38 for 289 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. Harris had six catches for 85 yards and two touchdowns before leaving with an apparent ankle injury in the third quarter.
Lacey: I'll be reenacting that field goal at every tailgate until Christmas. I play McPherson, naturally.
Injuries and availability
The first official SEC availability reports post three days before kickoff. Watch that report for Harris after he left the Mississippi State game in the third quarter. No Auburn injury news has surfaced, so check back closer to kickoff.
What the coaches are up to
Both coaches are in their first seasons. Kiffin came to LSU from Ole Miss, and Alex Golesh came to Auburn from South Florida. Kiffin praised Auburn's win, saying, "Auburn is playing really well," and said LSU will "try to get a win before the bye." LSU is off on Oct. 31 before hosting Alabama on Nov. 7.
Player storylines
LSU is 0-2 on the road this season, with a 32-24 loss at Ole Miss and a 35-34 loss at Kentucky. Auburn's protection is the matchup to watch: the Tigers have allowed 23 sacks, while LSU's defense has 24. Auburn is 3-1 in one-score games, which means Lacey's heart has been through a lot this fall.
Cece: Our pass rush against your blockers is a whole roux, Lacey.
Lacey: Sugar, our quarterback runs out of roux.
What's happening on campus
Auburn already held homecoming, on Sept. 26 against Vanderbilt. This is LSU's first trip to Jordan-Hare since 2022, when LSU won 21-17. Auburn received 61 votes in Sunday's AP poll but stayed unranked, while LSU rose four spots to No. 18.
Anything else fun and true
LSU leads the series 33-23-1 as played, or 30-23-1 officially. The last meeting, in 2023, went to LSU 48-18, while Auburn won 48-11 in 2020 and 24-19 in 2021. LSU quarterback Joe Burrow won the 2019 Heisman Trophy. And on the Plains, Auburn fans roll the oaks at Toomer's Corner after big wins, a tradition Lacey takes very seriously.
Lacey: War Eagle, bless their hearts. Bring a ladder, Cece. Those oaks are tall, and we plan to be busy.
Cece: Geaux Tigers. The purple ones. And darling, keep the toilet paper in the closet till the clock says zero.
The Cover Window
My call: LSU Tigers 28, Auburn Tigers 22.