By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU football coach Lane Kiffin has heard that Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium is haunted, but that was not enough to attract him enough to take the head coaching job there after the 2022 season.
“I don’t think it’s haunted, but there is some magical stuff that has happened in there,” Kiffin said at his weekly press conference on Monday.
No. 18 LSU (5-2, 2-2 Southeastern Conference) plays at Auburn (4-2, 2-2 SEC) a week before Halloween on Saturday at 11 a.m. on ABC. Auburn’s team may be more frightening than its stadium. It just beat No. 1 Georgia, 27-24, at Georgia last Saturday.
Jordan-Hare, which seats 87,451 in a tight bowl, can get loud at times, but Auburn has not had a winning home record since the 2022 season. It is 2-1 this season with a 44-39 loss to Florida and 43-8 and 21-15 wins over Southern Mississippi and Vanderbilt.
Auburn was a very magical 8-0 at home in 2013 with a 43-38 win over Georgia on a fortunate fourth-and-18, tipped touchdown pass with 25 seconds left for the win and a 34-28 victory over Alabama on a freak 100-yard plus return of a missed field goal by Chris Davis with no time on the clock. That got Auburn to the national championship game, but its luck ran out in a 34-31 loss to Florida State. Auburn’s only other loss in a 13-2 season in ’12 was 35-21 at LSU.
LSU has won 10 of 22 games at Jordan-Hare, and Kiffin was 1-1 there as Ole Miss’ head coach in 2021 and ’23 and 1-0 as Alabama’s offensive coordinator in 2015. Yet, the program clings to Jordan-Hare mystique.
“When Auburn was trying to hire me, Bruce Pearl tried to tell me that it was haunted, by the way,” Kiffin said.
Pearl was Auburn’s basketball coach at the time following the 2022 football season when Auburn athletic director John Cohen tried to hire Kiffin from Ole Miss. Kiffin said no, and Auburn settled for Hugh Freeze, who lasted three seasons. Alex Golesh, the former South Florida head coach, is in his first season as Auburn’s head coach.
According to Kiffin, Pearl told him back in 2022, “Hey, you’ll get a win every year that you really don’t deserve, because magical things happen here. It’s haunted.”
What Kiffin does believe in is relief syndrome, and that’s what the LSU Nation is banking on as Auburn tries to recover emotionally from a huge upset over its border rival last Saturday in Athens, Georgia. Auburn had lost nine straight to Georgia overall and nine in a row in Athens. Such a win can cause a team to feel relief over the accomplishment and relax.
“That’s a real thing,” Kiffin said. “Relief syndrome is real.”
Kiffin mentor Nick Saban, whom he was offensive coordinator for at Alabama from 2014-16, preaches it.
“That’s a real thing that’s a real challenge,” Kiffin said. “I was rooting for them (Auburn) to win.”
LSU is a 6.5-point favorite at Auburn, though the Tigers have lost their last eight road SEC games.
INJURY REPORT: Kiffin did not update the conditions of two starters injured in the win over Mississippi State on Saturday -wide receiver Jackson Harris (ankle) and edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen (concussion) – and two previous injuries – starting tight end Trey’Dez Green (knee) and starting linebacker Whit Weeks (leg).
“If we have something, it will be Wednesday,” Kiffin said.
The SEC will release availability reports from each member school playing an SEC game on Wednesday night.
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