SZVETITZ COLUMN: LSU most crucial game of biggest month

Why is six scared of seven?

Because, seven ate nine. No? Not funny? Didn’t think so.

OK, here’s another one: Why does Auburn have a chance to win tonight in Baton Rouge against LSU?

Because seven, eight, nine.

Get it?

Let’s let Gene Chizik explain the punchline.

“When you look at games seven, eight and nine is when you see a lot of upsets occur,” the Auburn head coach said Tuesday during his weekly “Meet The Press.”

And an Auburn win tonight — its eighth game of the season — will most certainly be an upset.

Not just because LSU is No. 9 in the country. And not just because the game’s in Tiger Stadium on the Bayou on a Saturday night.

All those are contributing factors to Auburn being big underdogs — and LSU being the “overdog” as Chizik likes to call the favored team. But the real reason that it would be an upset for Auburn to win tonight is because of Auburn.

The Tigers have been their own worst enemy the past two weeks in losses to Arkansas and Kentucky (Game 7).

Yes, we can argue that Auburn, even if playing well from the beginning, wouldn’t have beaten Arkansas — that the Hogs were just that much better on that day. Well, didn’t you know football is a game of “if only” and “shoulda, coulda, woulda?”

Didn’t you know that any team “coulda” beat any other team “if only” this or that would have happened? Of course you did. You say it all the time.

But there’s no arguing the fact that Auburn shot itself in the foot last week in its lost to the Wildcats. Auburn “shoulda” won that game.

See how easy it is to say?

You know what won’t be easy? Tonight’s game. (Nice segue, huh? Thanks.)

This is the most important game of the most important month.

Wins in October equal respect, so says Chizik and his football team.

And they’re right. Winning in October sets the stage for November. And everyone remembers what you do in November.

But first, you’ve got to get through October. Through tough road games. Through bumps, bruises, nagging injuries, columns like this and no rest. Especially if you’re Auburn.

There are no breaks in the schedule for the Tigers, making the next game that much tougher. Add to that equation no depth, and October might as well be Murderers’ Row.

And Auburn’s walking the Green Mile today heading into Baton Rouge.

That’s how big the game is. That’s how big the rest of this month is.

“It will be huge, but every game is huge,” Chizik said. “October is a stretch for us where the schedule gets difficult ...

“At this time of the year there are no more surprises, everyone knows what you are doing. There is no newness to anything. There is no first conference game or away game. At this point it becomes who can execute better, especially on the road.”

Especially in Auburn’s case. Tell me a tougher place to play on a Saturday night than Tiger Stadium?

But there’s hope.

Auburn doesn’t have to shoot itself in the foot tonight. It can play well.

It’s done it before.

Remember 5-0?

It wasn’t that long ago.

Really.

But you’ve got to play well.

“In my opinion this is the time when you see a lot of crazy things happen, because a team doesn’t execute right,” Chizik said. “It is really hard to be good every week. So for us in particular, this game and the whole month itself is huge. If we want to be good throughout this month we will have to execute better.”

Or seven won’t be the only thing Auburn has to be scared of.

MIKE SZVETITZ is sports editor of the Opelika-Auburn News. He may be reached at or 737-2513.