chance to make history

[aubiefifty 18,222]

Auburn’s not daunted by predictions, sees Saturday as a chance to make history

Today 8:06 AM

3 minutes

The Las Vegas betting lines have Auburn as a double-digit underdog to LSU, but what do you expect, quarterback Bo Nix said.

“You’re at Auburn and nobody really ever gives you any kind of advantage,” Nix said. “We accept that and we know that’s what people are going to put on us. Being an underdog, you still have to play the game and they still have to play it too.”

Nix and his teammates don’t follow the betting lines — safety Jeremiah Dinson was shocked to hear that LSU opened as a 12.5 point favorite and said “I don’t know whoever made that” — but they’re well aware of the history between the two teams.

“The facts is that since I’ve been here, we haven’t beat LSU at LSU,” Dinson said.

Auburn is 0-2 against LSU in the last two years and lost by a combined five points. Since 2010, Auburn is 3-6. And the Auburn Tigers have not won at Tiger Stadium in 20 years.

“I don’t have to bring it up because everybody else brings it up and our guys know,” coach Gus Malzahn said.

Auburn’s biggest problem is that it hasn’t been able to finish, Malzahn said. It had the chance to snap the streak two years ago, but it couldn’t finish the game.

Regardless of the 20-year streak, the team knows the difficulty of going on the road to any stadium in the SEC, Malzahn said. Add in a stadium that’s among the loudest in the nation and an opponent that Malzahn feels is very worthy of its No. 2 ranking, and it’s impossible to ignore that they’re facing a huge challenge. They’ve got their “hands full.”

Instead of looking at those nine straight losses at Tiger Stadium as insurmountable, the players are looking it as a chance to make history. The team thrives on challenges and its tough schedule, Nix said.

“It would be like, ‘Dang, that 2019 team stopped our streak,’” defensive end Marlon Davidson said. “But hey, it’s got to come to an end one day. Why not Saturday?”

The rest of the nation isn’t as fixated on the historic potential of Saturday’s game.

A week after LSU plays Auburn, it will head to Tuscaloosa to play Alabama. If No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 LSU both win and keep their rankings, the game will feature the two highest-ranked opponents.

Auburn isn’t paying attention to that game, and it doesn’t care if other people are. They’re keeping their heads down and are focused only on LSU, Malzahn said. No. 2 versus No. 9 has the potential to be a big game, too.

“If they’re looking toward Alabama, I mean, that’s their loss,” Davidson said. “We Auburn. They’ve got to come through us first.”