The “Riverboat Gambler” said he “rolled the dice” by holding out the meat of his defensive line Saturday against UT Martin.

Most figured UT Martin would enter Jordan-Hare Stadium wide-eyed and intimidated by their larger-than-normal surroundings.

BATON ROUGE, La. — The Alabama defense was about to take the field with its dream season on the line when secondary coach/defensive coordinator Kirby Smart pulled free safety Rashad Johnson to the side.

Saturday was the 20th time Alabama had gone into the LSU game undefeated. The Tide’s 27-21 overtime victory raised Alabama’s record to 18-1-1 against the Tigers when it was unbeaten. The Tide improved to 12-0 when undefeated at Tiger Stadium.

More than two hours into Saturday’s homecoming game at Jordan-Hare Stadium, six minutes after the bulk of Auburn’s student section figured it’d seen enough, the Tigers were right back where they started.

BATON ROUGE, La. — Something is going to give when top-ranked Alabama visits No. 15 LSU at 2:30 p.m. today.

Tigers look for something good to go their way today when against UT Martin

Finally ... a game Auburn can win.

When you take your seat at Jordan-Hare Stadium today, try not to think you’ve been launched four months into the future.

Roderick Hood was headed into his senior season at Auburn, months away from sweating it out in an NFL training camp, when he got a call from his little cousin, the karate kid.

For defensive tackles coach Don Dunn, it’s all “junk.”