Aug. 28, 2008

Coach Tuberville's Top 10: Number 2  

This summer, Auburn fans had the opportunity to vote on the Top 10 games during the Tommy Tuberville Era. Fans had 25 games to choose from during the month-long voting. Now, AuburnTigers.com will unveil how fans voted, with game recaps and video highlights daily Monday through Friday for the next two weeks, counting down from No. 10 to No. 1.....So sit back, relax and enjoy....Here's No. 2...

No. 2
Sept. 18, 2004 - Auburn 10, LSU 9
Jordan-Hare Stadium, Auburn, Ala.

Courtney Taylor caught a 16-yard touchdown pass with 1:14 to play as No. 14 Auburn defeated fifth-ranked LSU, 10-9, in front of a sell-out crowd of 87,451 fans. It was a game that was served as a spring board for the program in its run towards a perfect season.

Taylor's touchdown was the only of the game for Auburn, which improved to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in Southeastern Conference play. Quarterback Jason Campbell finished the game 16-of-27 passing for 170 yards, and led the Tigers on a 12-play, 59-yard drive to cap the victory.

Auburn's lone touchdown drive started on its own 41-yard line with just over six minutes remaining in the game. Ronnie Brown moved Auburn into LSU territory on a 20-yard run, but the Tigers later faced a 4th-and-12 from the LSU 28-yard line. Campbell found Taylor for a 14-yard pass to the right to get the first down and two plays later, Campbell connected with Taylor again to give Auburn the winning touchdown.

Tied at 9-9 after the Taylor touchdown, Auburn missed the ensuing extra point, but an LSU personal foul on the play gave the Tigers a second try, which John Vaughn promptly nailed. Vaughn's kick through the uprights maintained Auburn's streak of consecutive extra point conversions at 191. That streak ranked second in the SEC and dated back to the 1999 season.

Junior Rosegreen halted LSU's final drive when he picked off a JaMarcus Russell pass intended for Early Doucet. The Auburn defense allowed LSU 308 yards, but just three points after the Bayou Bengals opened the game with an 80-yard scoring drive. LSU quarterbacks Russell and Marcus Randall combined to throw for 168 yards on 12-of-28 passing.

After Randall found Dwayne Bowe for a 9-yard touchdown to begin the game, Auburn used a 14-play, 69-yard drive to put three points on the board. Vaughn connected on a 29-yarder to bring the score to 6-3 (LSU had missed its extra point).

The Bayou Bengals answered back with a 42-yard field goal early in the second quarter to go up 9-3, and the score stayed unchanged well into the fourth quarter as both teams' offense's stalled until the winning drive.

Carnell Williams led Auburn with 75 yards rushing on 18 carries.

Taylor, whose touchdown marked the first of his career, led the Tigers with five receptions for 71 yards.

Travis Williams and Will Herring both had eight tackles to lead the Tigers. As a team, Auburn tallied nine tackles for losses equating to 31 yards.

Tuberville's thoughts looking back...
"Our players had to stay in a hotel that week because school was closed [due to Hurricane Ivan] and the administration said that if we were going to keep them here, we had to keep them all together. We couldn't come and practice and so we had the banquet room and we blocked chairs. We put chairs up and we had guys go to their blocking assignments. It was the weirdest preparation I've ever been around and LSU had the same thing."

"I think we found out, in that game, that we had a pretty good football team. We found out a lot in that game. Our defense played tremendously and our offense did what we needed. We didn't play great. We didn't do anything basically until that last drive."

"The team that played the best that night probably didn't win. We didn't play as well as we probably should've played. We made a couple of fumbles, we had a few more penalties than we should've had, but we found a way to win. When you have championship years, they're teams that find a way to get it done. We found our way that night and that was probably one of LSU's better football teams."