No. 6 LSU ready for matchup at Auburn

Published 12:00 am Friday, September 19, 2008

BATON ROUGE — The excitement continued to build for LSU on Wednesday as the sixth-ranked Tigers had another good workout in advance of Saturday’s game against ninth-ranked Auburn.

Saturday’s contest between LSU and Auburn will be the only top 10 matchup in college football this weekend. ESPN will televise the game with the kickoff slated for 6:45 p.m. ESPN’s College Gameday along with College Gameday Radio will both be on hand to promote the contest.

“I think (our players) are looking forward to this game,” LSU coach Les Miles said after practice on Wednesday. “It is a game that has significant consequences on the division and the guys look forward to playing games of great interest.

“We’ve told our team that it is gong to be a great college they experience. It’s a great environment. We were there a couple of years ago. There could not be a finer game day environment. We like playing at night.”

LSU brings a 2-0 overall mark into the game following last week’s 41-3 win over North Texas. LSU’s other win came by a 41-13 margin against Appalachian State. Despite having its second game postponed due to Hurricane Gustav, Miles said he feels like his team has played enough to be ready on Saturday.

”I think we are as prepared as we could be with two games,” Miles said. “Our non-game week gave us an opportunity to get better.”

Auburn, on the other hand, has played three games, including a road Southeastern Conference contest against Mississippi State last week. The Tigers are 3-0 overall and 1-0 in league play following their 3-2 win last week over Mississippi State.

Wednesday’s practice session had the Tigers continuing to refine the game plan for Saturday as well as having the offense call the plays with simulated crowd noise being piped into the practice facility.

“I liked our practice today,” Miles said. “We have some work to do certainly, but our guys are working hard.”

The Tigers will scale back their practice session on Thursday before holding a walk-thru on Friday. The team departs for Auburn on Friday afternoon.