AUBURN | Auburn’s secondary has excelled at tackling in space and one of the most proficient has been Jeremiah Dinson, who tied his career-high with 15 tackles at LSU.

The senior, who also had a forced fumble, led an AU defense that held LSU to less than half its scoring average.

“Nine tackles, seven assistants, was in on that fourth-down stop. Really quarterbacked our defense with the new wrinkles that we had, trying to disguise things. He had a phenomenal game,” said Auburn coach Gus Malzahn, who rewarded Dinson with one of the team’s three helmet stickers from the game.

Dinson, who is one of the team’s permanent captains this season, leads all SEC defensive backs and is sixth overall in the conference with 61 tackles this season. He’s added 4.5 tackles-for-loss, which is fifth on the team, two sacks, an interception and a pass breakup.

The leadership he’s provided all season was evident just minutes after the 23-20 loss in Baton Rouge when he came out and spoke to the media.

“Yeah, it hurts. It always hurts when you lose,” Dinson said. “But as a leader, I can't hold my head down. Everybody's looking at me. Everybody's looking at how I'm going to react. I've been in this position before. Yeah, it does hurt. Take on the chain, come in tomorrow, watch film and just move on.”

And Dinson’s message to the rest of the team, especially the younger players, after the game was to stick together and keep grinding.

“Just keep going. No matter what,” Dinson said. “No matter what the outside people say to you. You keep pushing. This is a hard game. You know what I'm saying? This is one that I wanted. This is one that we wanted as a team. But as a leader, all you can tell your guys is just keep going. Keep going, come in tomorrow, watch film. You know, get better and move onto Ole Miss.”

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