Statement made for Lane Kiffin and his LSU football program on Saturday night. Under the lights in the real "Death Valley," Kiffin's Tigers proved that their massive NIL investments this offseason made for money well spent with a 51-10 win over Clemson. Dabo Swinney's perception as a top coach may have had its funeral in Baton Rouge.
With the hoopla from Auburn's own Week 1 win, a 17-16 nail-biter over Baylor at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, passing over, Alex Golesh's squad now must face the reality that the 2026 schedule is a buzzsaw.
Week 8 against LSU may be the toughest game of the bunch, even with it being within the friendly confines of Jordan-Hare Stadium. For as spectacular as Georgia and Alabama looked in their 2026 openers, LSU may own the trenches this season.
Kiffin's crew may also own something you can't teach.
LSU has the swagger to leave opponents lying in its wake
Kiffin joked about how much more he could've beaten Clemson had he rostered NFL players. After everything he attempted in the offseason, it's surreal hearing him joke about it. It's disturbing how much swagger he had delivering that line amid his team's dominance on the field.
Clemson was completely overwhelmed in the trenches, where championships are won, on both sides of the ball.
LSU didn't allow a single sack, allowing quarterback Sam Leavitt and running back Dilin Jones to amass 226 rushing yards. The rest of LSU's rushing attack went for another 83 rushing yards. The Bayou Bengals built an impenetrable wall in front of LSU's backfield.
Defensively, LSU's pass rush disrupted former Briarwood Christian star Christopher Vizzina to the point that he had just 83 passing yards on 16 pass attempts. Vizzina was sacked four times, and LSU's defense had 11 TFLs. Worst yet, Clemson was 1/13 on third downs.
Auburn matches up very unfavorably against LSU
We saw Byrum Brown get sacked five times against the Bears. 11 times Auburn had a negative-yardage rushing play against Baylor.
There's a pretty clear issue in the offensive trenches for Auburn.
While typically a strong suit throughout the years on the Plains, the interior offensive line struggled the most. It's not as though the tackles looked prepared to stand in front of LSU's Jordan Ross and Princewill Umanmielen, either, if we're being real.
We'll see if Joel Gordon can scheme around that with a more up-tempo pace than what we saw in Week 1. At least in execution. Brown was oftentimes holding onto the ball for a while, unable to find his receivers open against Baylor on Saturday afternoon.
LSU's elite secondary is going to be its own issue. Vizzina was often forced to check the ball down, and even that became a challenge. Vizzina finished 10/16.
Week 8 is part of a hellish month of October, but LSU's trip to Lee County, Alabama, may as well be an official visit from the devil himself.
Kiffin would probably appreciate that branding right now. He's fully embracing the villain role.
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