Well, hey there, Auburn family. It's Lacey Bellamy, and I am writing to you from a porch swing on the Plains with a glass of sweet tea, a voice that is completely gone, and a little bit of toilet paper still stuck in my hair. Do not ask me how. Actually, you know exactly how.
Because on Saturday afternoon, in Athens, Georgia, inside the hedges, in front of 93,033 people wearing red and black, our Auburn Tigers beat the No. 1 team in the country. I have been reenacting the final drive in my living room ever since, and yes, in my version, I'm the one who kicks the field goal. In heels. Through a hurricane.
Part 1: The Day the Hedges Wilted
Let me set the scene, because this one deserves a proper telling.
It did not start pretty, darlin'. Georgia scored on its first two possessions, a 15-yard Dwight Phillips Jr. run and a 24-yard pass from Gunner Stockton to Lawson Luckie, and it was 14-0 before most of us had found our seats. I'll be honest, I had a moment. I said a little prayer. Then I said, "Lacey, you've seen worse. You've seen Iron Bowls."
And then Auburn scored the next 24 points.
Our first touchdown came on a trick play that I will be describing to my grandchildren. Byrum Brown pitched to receiver Christian Neptune, and Neptune threw a touchdown pass to Keshaun Singleton. It was Neptune's second completion of the season, and both of them have gone for touchdowns. A perfect career, sugar. That young man should never throw again, just to protect the record.
Then Brown hit Chas Nimrod for a 9-yard score to tie it. Alex McPherson drilled a 49-yard field goal before the half, and we led 17-14. Brown ran it in from five yards out in the third quarter, and it was 24-14 in Athens. I was standing on my coffee table.
Georgia came back, because Georgia is good. A 42-yard field goal, then a 94-yard, 13-play drive to tie it at 24 with 2:58 left. And then, with 58 seconds remaining and Georgia driving, Stockton fumbled on a run from our 46, and safety Sylvester Smith-Reed fell on it at the Auburn 44. A roughing-the-passer penalty on Georgia helped us along, and McPherson kicked a 34-yard field goal as time expired. Auburn 27, Georgia 24.
Byrum Brown was magnificent. He ran 26 times for 115 yards and a touchdown and completed 15 of 26 passes for 150 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions. We outrushed Georgia 192 to 113 and didn't turn it over once. Jeremiah Cobb added 61 yards on the ground. On defense, Elijah Melendez had nine tackles, a sack and an interception, and AnQuon Fegans picked off a pass too.
And, oh, the streaks we broke. The AP said it ended Georgia's nine-game winning streak over Auburn, and its 53-game winning streak against unranked teams. It was also the second straight week that the No. 1 team lost to an unranked opponent, and the AP says that hadn't happened in consecutive weeks since October 1990. Our first-year coach, Alex Golesh, has us believing again. War Eagle, bless their hearts.
Toomer's Corner Report
You know where I was Saturday night. Since 1962, Auburn folks have celebrated big wins by rolling the trees at Toomer's Corner with toilet paper, and on Saturday night those live oaks looked like they'd been through a very joyful snowstorm. If you came by and saw a woman in a sundress throwing a roll with her eyes closed and a tear on her cheek, no, you didn't.
Part 2: Here Come the Other Tigers
Now, Saturday at noon Eastern on ABC, No. 18 LSU comes to Jordan-Hare. We're 4-2 and 2-2 in the SEC. They're 5-2 and 2-2.
I'll be sweet first, because my mama raised me on a porch. LSU is good, y'all. Last Saturday they beat Mississippi State 31-0 in Baton Rouge. Sam Leavitt went 31 of 38 for 289 yards and four touchdowns, his first game of the season without an interception. Jackson Harris caught two of those touchdowns. Their offense averages 504 yards a game, seventh in FBS, and their defense allows only 256.6 yards a game, fourth in the country. Those are real numbers, and I respect them.
Now, let me tell you about the rest.
Two weeks ago, LSU lost 35-34 in overtime at Kentucky. Earlier this year, they lost at Ole Miss 32-24. On the road in the SEC this season, LSU is 0-2, sugar. They're about to visit the loudest village on the plains, and I hope they packed earplugs and a hankie.
And bless their hearts, their quarterback had thrown eight interceptions in LSU's first six games, and the AP said he was the only FBS quarterback intercepted in every one of his team's games before Saturday. I'm not saying a thing. I'm just reading the newspaper out loud, which my mama says is not gossip if it's printed.
Who to Watch
Byrum Brown, our quarterback: 1,202 passing yards, eight touchdowns, and a team-high 459 rushing yards with five more scores on the ground. He's 235 pounds of pure Plains, and LSU's run defense is about to meet him personally.
Keshaun Singleton, receiver: 32 catches for 367 yards, our leader. Also the proud owner of a touchdown catch thrown by a wide receiver, which is the most Auburn sentence I've ever typed.
Sam Leavitt, LSU quarterback: 1,784 yards, 14 touchdowns, eight interceptions. Our secondary has two interceptions from Saturday and would love a few more.
Dilin Jones, LSU running back: 567 yards on 128 carries.
The clock. Here's the honest part. The AP preview says we're 134th in FBS in time of possession at 26:54 a game, and LSU is 19th at 32:55. We were flagged 11 times for 85 yards on Saturday, and we average 68 penalty yards a game, 111th. We can't do that twice in a row against a defense this good. But you know what we did do on Saturday? We beat the best defense we'll see all year by running straight at it.
A Brief History Seminar
LSU leads the series 33-23-1, according to CollegeFootballData.com. The last time these two met at Jordan-Hare, in 2022, LSU won 21-17. The 2021 game in Baton Rouge, though? Auburn 24, LSU 19. And in 2020, at Jordan-Hare, Auburn won 48-11. I have reenacted that one at three family weddings.
Here's the fact I love most. Auburn claims nine national championships and has produced three Heisman Trophy winners: Pat Sullivan, Bo Jackson and Cam Newton. Our stadium is named for Shug Jordan, who won more games than any coach in Auburn history, and Cliff Hare, who played on Auburn's very first football team. When his name went up in 1973, it was the first stadium in the country named for an active coach.
Porch Talk: A Tale of Two Towns
Auburn. They call us the Loveliest Village on the Plains, from Oliver Goldsmith's poem "The Deserted Village": "Sweet Auburn! Loveliest village of the plain." The 2020 census counted 76,143 of us, and every one of them knows where Toomer's Corner is. Before every home game, a golden eagle and a bald eagle perform the War Eagle Flight at Jordan-Hare, which seats 88,043. People ask me why our battle cry is an eagle when our team is the Tigers and our mascot is Aubie the Tiger. Darlin', we have more than one good thing going. It's called abundance.
Baton Rouge. Now, I love Baton Rouge. It's the state capital, it sits on a bluff above the Mississippi River, and the food is a gift from the Lord. But the name, y'all. Baton Rouge means "red stick," after a red-painted post early French explorers found marking a boundary on the bluff. Their whole city is named after a stick. Auburn is named after a poem. I'm just pointing out who reads.
And they're very proud of the "Earthquake Game," when the roar of the crowd at Tiger Stadium registered on a seismograph on campus. You know who they were playing? Auburn. In 1988. We have been making Baton Rouge shake for almost four decades, sugar. We're happy to do it again from our place.
Their mascot is a live tiger named Mike. Mike VII no longer comes to the stadium on game days. I understand completely. I wouldn't want to see an Auburn game in person either, if I were an LSU tiger. Our eagles, on the other hand, fly right into the stadium. Brave birds.
And one more, because I can't help myself. Baton Rouge has 227,470 people, and Tiger Stadium seats 102,321. They built a stadium for half the town, then told everybody to arrive at night. Here on the Plains, kickoff is at noon. Bring your sunglasses, Tigers. The village is wide awake.
The Last Word
Here's how I see it. LSU is talented, and its defense is no joke. But we just went to Athens, fell behind 14-0, and walked out with a win over No. 1 and a pocketful of broken streaks. Byrum Brown runs like a freight train with good manners, our defense took the ball away twice from the best team in America, and Jordan-Hare at noon is going to be loud enough to register on somebody's seismograph.
Roll the corner, darlin'. Or at least keep the toilet paper handy. War Eagle!
My call: LSU Tigers 28, Auburn Tigers 22.