Tigers still have a few tricks left for LSU

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Tigers still have a few tricks left for LSU

Monday, September 11, 2006

CHARLES GOLDBERG

News staff writer

AUBURN - Al Borges had to open up his offense a little more than he planned in romping over Mississippi State on Saturday, but Auburn's offensive coordinator still likely has plenty of tricks left in his bag for LSU.

Guess what? All the other coordinators set for Saturday's game probably do, too.

The Southeastern Conference and national showdown between No.3 Auburn and No.6 LSU features two teams that each have been able to hide their best from the other. Auburn has a 2-0 record after rolling over Washington State and Mississippi State by a combined 74-14. LSU has romped over Louisiana-Lafayette and Arizona by identical 45-3 blowouts.

What's next? New Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp says not much will change. Trickery, he says, won't beat LSU, though head coach Tommy Tuberville says the Tigers may have a new defensive play or two.

Borges has shown that he's satisfied with just pounding LSU, anyway, as he did when he turned Kenny Irons loose to rush 218 yards in last year's 20-17 overtime loss.

Not much has changed for Borges this season as the Tigers have shown glimpses of what may be in store for LSU.

Auburn ran over Washington State, and then showed the ability to switch game plans in midstream to have quarterback Brandon Cox pass over Mississippi State.

"They were of the mind that they were going to make the quarterback beat them, and I think the quarterback did that," Borges said. "It's nice to know if they do stop our running game - and people are obsessed with stopping our running game - we have some answers."

Borges says Auburn still wants to run first, but he likes the fact Cox gives him other options.

"If you run the ball and that's all you can do, that's the ultimate nightmare," Borges said. "The name of our game is balance. We start with running the ball, but when we're the most effective is the ability to do both."

Borges tried to run Irons and then run Irons some more against Mississippi State. But the Bulldogs wouldn't budge from putting eight and nine defenders at the line of scrimmage to stop him. That's about the time Cox stepped up to hit 18-of-27 passes for 249 yards and two touchdowns.

Auburn linebacker Karibi Dede says he watched the transition and was impressed, and figures Borges will adapt again if LSU sells out to stop the run as Mississippi State did.

"I would imagine Coach Borges is going to open it up and make them play honest and not allow both safeties to be down in the box on every play," Dede said.

Dede said his defense won't vary much from what it has tried to do the first two games.

"We might bring stuff they haven't seen yet, but, defensively, we're just going to play our game," he said. "We're not going to do anything outrageously different trying to stop one player. We'll just scheme and come up with a package that fits what they do."

And what LSU has done the first two games is score a lot of points.

Tuberville says he hopes his fast defense will be ready to slow it down. He also admitted the Tigers haven't shown "a whole lot defensively," which means there are some plays still in the playbook. "We'll make some changes this week," he said.

As one would expect on LSU week.