Auburn football: 5 burning questions heading into Saturday’s LSU game

Auburn football Mandatory Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports
Auburn football Mandatory Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports /
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Auburn football Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports
Auburn football Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports /

Burning question #2 for Auburn football: Would starting Bo Nix be an advantage for Tigers?

After his sub-par performance last week, Bo Nix found himself on the sidelines when the game was hanging in the balance.

Nix didn’t throw an INT against Georgia State–and hasn’t thrown one all season–but he was routinely overthrowing targets to the point where Bryan Harsin felt it necessary to replace him with TJ Finley. The rest, as we know, is history.

It may seem obvious coming off Finley’s heroic performance to start the former LSU QB against his old team, but there’s a chance that Nix being the man under center could be the more strategic chess move.

Coach O expects his former signal-caller to the be the guy, but Death Valley Voice’s Zach Regan thinks that a Nix misdirection would actually give Auburn an advantage because of LSU’s familiarity with Finley’s tendencies.

After the first few drives, we should know if Bo is an ace up AU’s sleeve or a detriment to ending the Death Valley winning drought.

Burning question #3 for Auburn football: Can Tank Bigsby bounce back after Week 4 struggles?

Georgia State came to play last week on both sides of the ball.

Tucker Gregg’s 142 first half rushing yards highlighted Auburn’s inability to slow down the Panthers’ progression down the field.

On the other side of the ball, the Tigers’ run game was stifled by GA State’s defensive schemes, taming the explosive RB duo of Tank Bigsby and Jarquez Hunter.

Hunter had almost half the carries of his Heisman hopeful counterpart, but still managed six yards per carry and 62 yards total. Bigsby had just 60 yards on 18 carries, marking the first game of the season he had under 100 yards.

With LSU’s secondary being notoriously tough to air it out against, the run game will be crucial. Bigsby is going to need to bounce back for Auburn to have a chance Saturday.