Wednesday Wayback: St. Vaughn

After the Monday night overtime defeat against Tennessee, LSU blew out Mississippi State and Vanderbilt before holding off Urban Meyer’s Florida 21-17 (which would have been the next game in line for the Wayback were it actually on YouTube).

Auburn, under the tutelage of Tommy Tubervile, had rebounded off of their opening weekend loss against Georgia Tech with a similar cakewalk that lead them high stepping over Arkansas 34-17.

The memory of the 2004 visit to the Plains fresh on the minds of the masses, Tiger Stadium came to life for the first time on a Saturday night in 2005 and it claimed another victim to it’s lore.

The Game

-Winner of this game has gone on to the SEC Championship game in four of the last five seasons, and this year would make five of six. This really was the rivalry at it’s highest point especially considering the aughts held some of the best games in this rivalry.

-FOOTBAWL BAWB!

-The Brandon Cox Experience lives on in my heart. Somewhere he’s just jammin to DMB and pounding High Lifes. Livin’ man. Really livin’.

-Tubbs’ polo had features a HUGE SLEEVE STRIPE and a tiny tiny logo. Auburn had yet to switch to Under Armour, so they were still rocking with the Russell R. Mid 2000’s fashion will end up being as octraciszed as that of the 80’s, give it time.

-One thing I will fondly remember about the mid 2000’s is that it was a time when fullbacks were still rightly appreciated. The greatest Americans.

-Chevis Jackson gets beat early and allows a 26 yard pass on the opening drive that brought Auburn deep into LSU territory.

-Claude Wroten decides enough is enough and manhandles his man on the edge to break up Auburn’s play action with a sack of Cox to set up a third and long (that is also rushed).

-John Vaughn. Wide Right. 0-1.

-Early on, Russell shows too much pace on his throws, overthrowing Carey on third down.

-Kenny Irons, North/South runner, decides to go East against a fast LSU team and it doesn’t quite work out well for him. However, LSU lines up offside on the next play. At time of the game LSU was the second most penalized team in the nation and man it showed.

-Skylar Green gets a big block from Ronnie Prude on a line drive punt and has an open field to house it. 7-0 LSU.

-The ICBM known as “LaRon Landry Blitz” results in a 15-yard sanction.

-Cox drops a dime past Jackson to Aromashodu to take it inside the LSU 35. Irons, with the help of a Grubbs block, takes Auburn into the red zone. However, Cox just floats one a liiiiittle too much to Aromashodu on 3rd down and John Vaughn has to come out for his only successful field goal of the night. 1-2. 7-3 LSU.

-”Tailgate functions”

-That video jumps way ahead, so let’s go to a more locally sourced viewing method that features the dulcet tones of Lyn Rollins on the good ole Cox Sports Television.

-Buster Davis makes a great catch while basically blind to move the chains.

-I’m not saying Michael Clayton was drunk for that interview, but...

-Addai makes the most out of a checkdown swing pass with two jukes for a first down.

-Today, that third down “drop” would be reviewed, but in 2005 it wasn’t and LSU had to settle for a 38 yard field goal, which Chris Jackson would hook. This is a theme.

-Landry drops the hammer on Mix to end Auburn’s drive.

-Credit Auburn’s secondary, they forced Russell to use his rocket arm and be perfect with it, and he wasn’t. Despite having all the time in the world in the pocket, they hold up the back end against him.

-Auburn’s offense can’t move the ball themselves, but they can pin LSU to their own four yard line.

-JaMarcus Russell, dual-threat QB.

-Addai makes a sweet cut at the face of the line of scrimmage to move the chains. However, Russell once again misses at range and a false start penalty belay the drive.

-Auburn begins to wise up to Addai and stops overpursuing to the playside, making sure he doesn’t have a gap to the backside to cut to. If Addai is to beat them, it will have to be between the tackles.

-Play action check-down to Slaughter, a fullback (with the fullback-iest name), draws Auburn from midfield to the LSU 30. Make Fullbacks Great Again.

-But Kyle Williams blows up the center to get to Cox, who gets popped for intentional grounding.

-John Vaughn. Short. 1-3.

-Russell had a terrible night. He’s missed six or seven absolute gimme throws.

-Kenny Irons disappears in the line of scrimmage and pops out on the other side. 74 yards on the run. Two white jerseys had him dead to rights but neither sealed the deal on the tackle. 10-7 Auburn.

-Auburn goes back to over-pursuing to the play side and Addai makes them pay by doing what Addai did best: make a cut to the backside and bust it to the numbers.

-Russell couldn’t make a short throw to save his life, but he can drop it deep. He hits Craig “Buster” Davis 41 yards downfield to take LSU into the red zone.

-On a rollout, Russell finds a wide open Dwayne Bowe who split the corner from the strong safety. 14-10 LSU.

-Okay so apparently we’re just going to skip towards the fourth quarter. LSU is in the red zone and a wide open Dwayne Bowe drops the ball. Colt David misses from 28. Lost in all of this is the fact that LSU kickers didn’t exactly have a banner night either.

-On 3rd and 10 at their own 20, Cox hits Courtney Taylor for exactly 10 yards to avoid a heavy body blow given field position, time, and score.

-Kenny Irons just played out his mind against LSU. He should have been tagged for a three yard loss but instead he slips forward out of reach for a 36 yard gain.

-John Vaughn. Wide Left. 1-4.

-LSU goes three and out and has to give the ball back to Auburn, Lyn Rollins is as nervous as an old cat in a new house.

-Let’s jump ahead in time again for reasons. Thanks to a 36 yard pass to Courtney Taylor and the magic of editing*, Auburn is in the LSU red zone with four minutes to play.

*fast forwarding.

-On 4th and 6 from the LSU five, Cox hits Mix for six. Mix was double covered, but the ball was placed so that if Mix didn’t come down with it, nobody would. 17-14 Auburn.

-LSU gets the ball back at their 25 with 4:35 to play.

-Despite getting popped on impact, Bowe comes down with a YUGE catch for eight yards. Addai picks up the first.

-Russell hits Bowe for 31 yards to take the ball down to the Auburn 32. Run-Run-Pass doesn’t work for LSU and they have to settle on Chris Jackson tying the game on a 44 yard field goal. 17 all.

-Shakers were unbearable in 2005 and they’re unbearable in 2016.

-Auburn gets the ball to the LSU 30 via a 19 yard pass to Mix and Irons runs for 19, but the clock forces Auburn’s hand and they have to try to win it off of the foot of John Vaughn.

-John Vaughn. Way Wide Left. 1-5.

-In overtime, LSU gets a first down but then they bog down and have to settle for three. Doucet had a touchdown but it was just short out of his reach. 20-17 LSU.

-LSU slams the door on Auburn and forces them to try to extend it to another OT by kicking a three.

-John Vaughn. Off the left upright. 1-6. LSU Wins.

-Despite his terrible night in Death Valley, Vaughn would only miss five more kicks in his entire collegiate career. He would redeem himself with a game winning kick to beat rival Georgia in the same year. But even to Auburn fans, his name will forever be linked to that of Tiger Stadium’s as another example of what can happen on a Saturday Night in Death Valley.