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By Rowan Fisher-Shotton
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Lane Kiffin secured one of his most impressive wins as head coach at LSU, beating Auburn 38-17 on the road at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday. The Tigers have now improved to 6-2 overall and 3-2 in SEC play, likely putting them in line to crack the top 15 when the AP poll drops on Sunday.
LSU scored 31 points in the first half alone against Auburn, and took a commanding 21-point lead into halftime. Quarterback Sam Leavitt put together his best game of the season, completing 32 of 45 passes for a career-high 387 yards and three touchdowns without an interception, along with 54 rushing yards and one rushing score. Wide receiver Jackson Harris led all pass catchers with 178 yards and two touchdowns on nine catches.
After the win, college football analyst Danny Kanell argued that even if the Tigers were to finish the season with a 9-3 record, they will still make the College Football Playoff given their quality of wins and losses.
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"If they're 9-3, that means they would have beaten two out of three of Alabama, Texas, and Tennessee," Kanell said. "If they can go 9-3 and beat two of those juggernauts, top-15 programs, that boosts their resume. There's going to be a 9-3 team in, and I think LSU has one of the best resumes that can make the strongest case, especially when they lost kind of earlier. You want to finish strong too; you don't want to lose right now. Look at Texas and Alabama. They're losing now, so everybody's down on them. LSU can gain some momentum coming down the home stretch."
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LSU opened the 2026 college football season with dominant wins over Clemson and Louisiana Tech, but then got beat 32-24 by Ole Miss in Kiffin's return to Oxford. They rebounded by crushing Texas A&M 35-6 and McNeese 63-14, but then fell again in overtime to Kentucky 35-34. They then responded with a 31-0 shutout of Mississippi State before Saturday's win at Auburn.
With how competitive this season is shaping up to be, there's a chance a three-loss team could get into the 12-team CFP. Alabama, Texas, LSU, Florida, and Missouri all already have two losses on their respective seasons, yet they still ranked inside the top 25 heading into this weekend. LSU faces two of those teams in the coming weeks.
One of those powerhouse programs will likely clinch a playoff spot, and LSU has an upcoming schedule that would give them a very strong argument. They next host No. 13 Alabama and No. 19 Texas, before going to No. 11 Tennessee and closing out their regular season at Arkansas. Win out, and it should be enough to get them into the postseason.
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For Kiffin, a playoff berth would be a massive weight off his shoulders. The program invested millions of dollars to bring him in as their head coach, with the hope that he'd turn them into a national title contender. Rattling off six straight to end the season and make the CFP could put LSU in a good position to go on a deep playoff run, and validate the school's decision to hire him.
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