AUBURN | As the ball sailed well over Bo Nix’s head early in the fourth quarter, just minutes after LSU took a 23-13 lead, it seemed Auburn’s hopes for an upset went with it.

Auburn, which lost 20 yards on the play, would punt three plays later. It turned out to be the final snap for senior Kaleb Kim, who was replaced at center by sophomore Nick Brahms.

It was one in a calamity of errors by the veteran offensive line in the game including four of AU’s five false start penalties.

“We just made a change. After that snap went for 25 yards or whatever, we just made a change,” said Auburn coach Gus Malzahn after the 23-20 loss. “We’ll see. We’ll see what happens moving forward. But the false starts are unacceptable. We’ll get that corrected.”

Brahms wasn’t perfect at center either, but he did help the Tigers to a late 49-yard touchdown drive. Auburn couldn’t recover an on-side kick with 2:31 left and LSU was able to run out the clock.

“He did really good. Obviously he came in there and we went down and scored,” said quarterback Bo Nix of Brahms after the game. “He didn't hurt us at all, so it'll be interesting to see how he did on video. I'm sure he did really well considering it was a tough situation to go in at, he went in there, made some tough calls and like I said we drove down the field and scored.”

Brahms started five games at center last season, but Kim has started 13 straight including all eight this season. Malzahn has opened up the competition again this week.

“Nick Brahms is going to get an opportunity to compete this week,” Malzahn said Tuesday. “He finished up the game. Both those guys are going to get an opportunity to compete this week in practice and we’ll see who the best one is for the game.”

No. 11 Auburn hosts Ole Miss at Jordan-Hare Stadium Saturday night a 6 p.m. CT on ESPN.