BATON ROUGE, La. - LSU running back Leonard Fournette made a freshman mistake last year when he flashed a premature Heisman Trophy pose after the first touchdown run of his college career - an innocuous, 4-yard score against underwhelming Sam Houston State.

One year later, there is absolutely nothing innocuous about Fournette, the sophomore man-child who quickly is growing into the biggest man in college football.

Fournette rushed for a career-high 228 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries, including bruising runs of 39 and 29 yards, to power No. 13 LSU to a 45-21 rout of No. 18 Auburn on Saturday at Tiger Stadium.

The victory improved LSU to 2-0 - both SEC wins - and kept it atop the SEC's Western Division. Auburn dropped to 2-1, 0-1.

"He's a special player," said LSU coach Les Miles, who seemed in awe of the way Fournette barreled over and tossed aside Auburn tacklers as if they were cheap throw rugs. "He sure loves playing. I'm telling you, he did some things today that made me say 'wow.' He took one of their tacklers and threw their tackler into another tackler and came out the other end. That was a guy who lacked real resolve to tackle."

LSU safety Jamal Adams couldn't hide his amazement at Fournette's 29-yard TD in the third quarter, which put LSU up 31-7. Fournette used a head fake to make a defensive lineman miss and then threw cornerback Tray Matthews off his back with a shrug of his massive shoulders.

"He threw a dude off his back," Adams said. "He's amazing."

Said Fournette: "That's God. I'm blessed with an ability and a talent.

Fournette had special fire entering the game. Auburn safety Rudy Ford tweeted before the game about the prospect of trying to tackle Fournette: "It shouldn't be that difficult of a challenge."

Wrong.

"I didn't do nothing," Fournette said. "(I've got) a big shout out to the 'O' line. During the week of preparation this week, everybody seen the tweets. We took it into consideration. You can't come into our house and talk crazy. Words are words; this game is about playing. It didn't motivate me, but it motivated everybody else."

Auburn coach Gus Malzahn also seemed to be living in a state of denial. Asked after the game about Fournette averaging 12.0 yards a carry – an LSU school record – Malzahn said: "He's pretty good."

Then he turned in the other direction.

Fournette's third touchdown, a 1-yard leap with 4:14 left in the third quarter, was his final carry of the day. Fournette appeared to bruise his left knee, but he came to the bench and waved off treatment. Fournette said he took a hit to his left knee, but he declared himself fine.

Fournette finished just 23 yards shy of LSU's all-time single-game rushing record. His 387 yards rushing are the most for any LSU running back in the first two games of the season. LSU finished the game with 411 yards rushing and 485 yards in total offense.

Miles said LSU running backs coach Frank Wilson turned to him on the sidelines after Fournette seemed to throw two tacklers into each other on his second touchdown run.

"I've been teaching that," Wilson said.

"He's been teaching that all along," Miles said with a smile, "but Leonard's the first one who picked it up.

Fournette's first two scoring runs were incredible displays of power and speed. On his 39-yard scoring run late in the first half that put LSU up 24-0, Fournette barreled over cornerback Blake Countess as though he were a speed bump.

LSU pounded Auburn into submission from the outset. In racing to a 24-0 halftime lead, LSU outgained Auburn 307-70, including a 267-34 edge on the ground.

"The bottom line is we got our rear kicked," Malzahn said. "We're going to evaluate everything after today.

On the game's first play, Fournette raced 71 yards to the Auburn 4 on a simple dive off left tackle, and he piled up 169 yards on 15 first-half carries.

After forcing another Auburn punt - the Tigers punted four times and had an interception on five first-half drives – quarterback Brandon Harris drove LSU 78 yards in 13 plays. Harris got the payoff with a 1-yard flip in the right corner to tight end Colin Jeter. Harris kept the drive alive with a 27-yard scramble up the middle on third-and-7 from the Auburn 27.

By that time, LSU had outgained Auburn 152-10. Harris finished the half with 63 rushing yards on six carries and 7-of-10 passing for 40 yards. LSU finished with a 485-260 edge in total offense.

NOTES: LSU linebacker Deion Jones will be suspended for the first half of LSU's game Saturday at Syracuse because of a targeted hit to the head of Auburn quarterback Jeremy Johnson. ... The victory was sweet revenge for LSU, which was dominated 41-7 last year at Auburn. ... Fournette has six rushing TDs in two games.