LSU-Auburn rivalry gets personal

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Posted 4:01PM on Thursday, October 24, 2002

AUBURN, Ala. - It's been a rivalry of in-your-face victory cigars, titles won and lost and logo-stomping rudeness. In other words, Saturday's game between Auburn and No. 10 LSU is personal. "It's not going to be a one-year thing," LSU tailback Domanick Davis said. "We're trying to kill Auburn every time we play them. ... It's going to be a war over there." Beyond the touchy relationship, neither team has any shortage of motivation. The visiting Tigers (6-1, 3-0 Southeastern Conference) are off to their best league start since 1987 and well on their way to a second straight West division title. They clinched last year against Auburn in a winner-goes-to-Atlanta game. Auburn (4-3, 2 (2)- has played poorly in three consecutive games and lost two of them behind a shaky passing game and suddenly vulnerable defense. Plus, leading rusher Carnell Williams was lost for the season with a broken leg in last week's 30-23 overtime loss at Florida. Davis is still steaming from Auburn's antics before and after a 41-7 win at Baton Rouge in 1999. Coach Tommy Tuberville and his players lit up victory cigars on the field after the game. The players had also ended their pre-game warmup by dancing on the eye of the tiger at midfield. "We kind of took that personally," Davis said. Last year, many LSU fans brandished cigars as they stormed the field. Auburn defensive end Reggie Torbor said the grudge match mentality is one-sided. "If they're going to use something from four years ago as motivation, that's fine," Torbor said. He said Auburn's main concern is avoiding a repeat of last year's three-game season-ending swoon - also after Williams suffered an injury. Auburn lost to LSU 27-14 in the sandwich game of the losing streak and needed a late touchdown to make it that close. "We shot ourselves in the foot three games in a row last year," Torbor said. "It was going downhill before we got to Baton Rouge." Auburn's decline and LSU's rise have both continued ever since, with the latter team going on to win the SEC championship game and the Sugar Bowl. The visiting Tigers have won seven straight league games. Nobody's come closer than 18 points in their current six-game winning binge. Coach Nick Saban's main concern now is guarding against overconfidence. "I think it is very important for our team now to stay focused, because this is a very treacherous situation we are in now in this league," Saban said. Anybody who loses focus, he said, "is definitely setting themselves up for failure." Tuberville is hoping his team can build on its aborted comeback against Florida. The Tigers trailed 23-7 entering the fourth quarter trying it up. Then, they had a potential game-winning field goal blocked and lost in overtime. "Hopefully we have some carryover from last week on how to play and how hard to play," Tuberville said. Davis will certainly be fired up and expects every LSU opponent to have extra incentive these days. "Everybody's trying to get a piece of LSU, since we're doing so well," he said. "They probably think LSU can't be this good, so we've got to go in there and beat them."