As a native of Oxford, Miss. and a young football coach with SEC aspirations, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze has always had a tremendous amount of respect for legendary Ole Miss football coach Johnny Vaught, who led the Rebels’ program from 1947-1970 and then again in 1973.

Before Vaught died in February of 2006, Freeze paid him a visit and Vaught took the opportunity to tell Freeze just how important it is to win football games on the road against LSU — something Freeze will have the opportunity to do on Saturday night when he and Auburn take on LSU in Baton Rouge.

Freeze told the story of the interaction Monday morning during his press conference.

“Coach, just so you know, you have never truly never been the head coach at the University of Mississippi until you beat them Bayou Bengals in Baton Rouge. And stood on the bleachers and let their fans know it,” Freeze said in a southern accent of sorts, mimicking the late Vaught.

Those standards are some Freeze never met during his five-year tenure at Ole Miss’ head coach.

With Freeze at the helm of the Ole Miss program from 2012-16, the Rebels visited LSU’s Tiger Stadium three times and dropped all three contests. However, Freeze and Ole Miss got its revenge each time LSU visited Ole Miss’ Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, picking up a pair of wins in 2013 and 2015.

Meanwhile, Vaught finished his career at Ole Miss with a 15-7-3 record against LSU, which included a 21-0 shutout victory over the Tigers in the 1960 Sugar Bowl.

And while Freeze might not have ties to Ole Miss anymore, Freeze is sure to carry the lesson he learned from Vaught into Baton Rouge this weekend.

“I know what it meant to a lot of coaches to go play there. (Vaught) might’ve said it a little differently than I just said it right then,” Freeze said, laughing at his own poor attempt at Vaught’s accent. “But this is a special place to play for many coaches who have experienced there.”

Auburn and LSU are set to kickoff from Baton Rouge on Saturday night at 6 for an all-SEC West matchup under the lights of Tiger Stadium.

And for a team that hasn’t performed well on the road, Freeze knows the Tigers have their work cut out for them.

“A great place to play. SEC environment. Obviously, their fans are into it Saturday night there,” Freeze said, adding that he enjoys hearing Garth Brooks’ “Callin’ Baton Rouge” and LSU’s public address announcer say, “In 15 minutes, the sun will set in the western sky and it will be Saturday night in Baton Rouge.”

“Man, we get to go represent Auburn in that environment. It’s a tough place to play, but so is Jordan-Hare and so are many others. That’s, again, why you come to this (conference).”

In an effort to get the team ready for Saturday’s hostile environment, Auburn will be pumping practice full of crowd noise this week, Freeze said.

“We will have it as loud as we can get it on the practice field. It’ll be playing, ‘Holddddd that Tigerrrr bom bom.’ Whatever the fight song is,” Freeze said.

“I do remember having a fist fight with them down there when I was at Ole Miss. It was a very, very, very — it was a Saturday night, and obviously, very loud. We were backed up into the student section in a critical drive and we had three false starts. It was so loud. We will have a couple different plans if that’s the case.”