Kerryon: 'I just wanted to win that bad'

AUBURN | Kerryon Johnson didn’t care how many hits he took, how many times he was knocked and dragged to the ground.

This was Auburn-LSU. It was a chance to win his first-ever SEC home game and get Auburn’s season back on track.

“You get bangs and bruises but we wanted this and I wanted it so if I had to go 15 more, I had to run it. I just wanted to win that bad,” Johnson said. “It didn't really matter to me. Beat up or bruised, it doesn't matter. We've got to go out there and win.”

Johnson, a sophomore, helped Auburn to its first SEC home victory since 2014 as AU held on for an 18-13 win over No. 18 LSU. Johnson was a workhorse for the offense carrying the ball 22 times for 93 yards and catching four passes for 68 yards.

He also returned a kickoff 21 yards, accounting for 182 all-purpose yards.

“KJ is a tough guy,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. “He was a little banged up coming into this thing too, so it says a lot about him.”

Johnson got all but two of Auburn’s carries in the second half with Kamryn Pettway nursing a minor injury. Pettway finished with 61 yards on 17 carries.

“Pettway got a little banged up,” Malzahn said. “He’s been battling a couple of injuries and got banged up, so we just went with KJ.”

And Johnson delivered in what was probably the biggest win of his Auburn career and the start of what he’s hoping is more big wins to come this season.

“It was a big lift,” he said. “But within the Auburn family we knew how good we could be. We knew we were just this close in most of the games this year and most of the games last year. To actually get over that hump, to actually get a W, that's going to send us through the roof.”