Auburn Football: The 2004 undefeated season, my story
By Keith Prater
The LSU game
Hurricane Ivan hit the Gulf Coast the week before the LSU game. Heading into the week there was talk about pushing the game back later in the season but the storm moved out of the area quickly enough for the game to be played with no threats to safety.
LSU came into this game as the defending National Champions. It was the first, and still only time, I’ve seen Nick Saban in person.
The night before the game, Bradford and I decided we wanted to “Get painted up!” So we got up early for the game and painted each other orange and blue with cheap acrylic paint we got from the arts and crafts section at Wal-Mart. We had AU’s on our chest, and I had “CADDY” written across my back, and Bradford went with “RONNIE B.”
When we arrived in Auburn, painted up, we made our way to the stadium to many excited fans yelling and waving “WAR EAGLE!” People were giving us high fives and waving shakers, it was an awesome feeling headed up to the stadium. As we reached the gates we were surrounded by LSU fans yelling and pointing “TIGER BAIT, TIGER BAIT, TIGER BAIT!” I mean, we were walking targets!
During the pregame warmup, because of where we were seated, LSU backup quarterback Jamarcus Russell was throwing right in front of us. This was a big man, who effortlessly, while kneeling was throwing a football further than I could if I were standing. I’d never seen athletes like this close up.
The game started fast, LSU jumped out to a 6-0 lead on a touchdown pass to Dwayne Bowe, but LSU missed the extra point. Auburn would go back down the field and kick a field goal to make it 6-3. LSU would add another field goal before halftime to take a 9-3 lead into the locker room.
The defense turned up the heat in the second half, literally turned up the heat. We were sweating so badly that our paint was chipping off onto the people all around us. I actually put a t-shirt on at halftime as part of my “halftime adjustment” ritual that I still do to this day. I will change clothes at halftime if Auburn is struggling.
We knew when Auburn got the ball with a little over six minutes left that we would have to stop LSU’s defense if we scored too quickly. Al Borges doesn’t get enough credit for this drive and his clock management.
Jason Campbell took Auburn deep into LSU territory and on 4th-and-12 took a shotgun snap, stepped to his right and threw a dart to Courtney Taylor who went up and got the ball just beyond the first down marker. Taylor hit the ground, then kneeled and tapped the ball on his helmet before giving it back to the referee. Taylor earned the name “BIG PLAY” that afternoon. A few plays later, Campbell fired a pass to the back of the end zone to a wide open Courtney “BIG PLAY” Taylor to tie the game 9-9 with just over a minute left.
All we needed was the extra point to take the lead. John Vaughn‘s extra point attempt missed and I’ll never forget that sickening feeling in my stomach. I kneeled down on the bleaches and Bradford yells “THERE’S A FLAG!” An LSU defender jumped and landed on an Auburn lineman, and by rule, Auburn got a re-kick. Vaughn’s next attempted squeezed through the upright and I don’t ever remember Jordan-Hare being that loud.
Junior Rosegreen picked of a pass a few plays later to seal this win for the Tigers, 10-9.
