The LSU Tigers have been the talk of the town and the nation after their impressive 17-10 season opening win over Clemson to catapult the Bayou Bengals as the number three ranked team in the nation. After snapping the program’s five game Week 1 losing streak last week, Brian Kelly says that there is no time to relax, and the team should carry that same focus no matter who they are playing against. Even though LSU is the heavy favorite against Louisiana Tech and is the better team, Coach Kelly wants his guys to prepare for every opponent the exact same way.
“The maturity of a football team is that you have a nameless and faceless opponent. It means that you prepare the same way no matter what. That’s the hard part and that is can I go out there as if this was Clemson or Florida or Alabama. They have to come up with the understanding that it is on them to do this. We can’t drive them as coaches. They have to drive themselves. This group has a lot of veteran guys and a lot of guys that understand that and it has allowed us to prepare in a much better fashion.”
LSU HC Brian Kelly
The mantra of this team has been constant since the start of the off-season, and it is “1-0”. The LSU players warmed up against Clemson wearing 1-0 shirts. For Kelly, it was not a way of being cocky, but just the mindset he wanted his team to have not only on every Saturday, but every day of preparation.
“We put ourselves out there. Sometimes, you have to go out on a limb. I knew the team we had and I knew it was a mature enough team that we can put that on them regardless of what the outcome was going to be. On our board, there is only one game that is visible on that board and that is Louisiana Tech. All the other games are covered up. It’s a mindset that we have kept and so the 1-0 is not something that we were going to rub in Clemson’s nose. It’s our mantra for the year. We just want to focus 1 week at a time. Block out the noise, stay locked in, and do the things that we have been doing so we can go 1-0 each week. That was more of the mission from the group this year than it was anything else.”
LSU HC Brian Kelly
That mission statement is going to be tested in more ways than one. It is pretty evident that this week is not about who is going to win, but how crisp and clean the result is going to look and by how much against Louisiana Tech. The biggest question is if LSU will continue that mindset and play a clean, efficient game or will they be focused on last week’s win or will they be looking ahead to next week’s big time game against Florida.
As mentioned above, LSU will play in state school Louisiana Tech in front of the home fans at Tiger Stadium for the first time this year. This is the first time that LSU and Louisiana Tech have played against each other since 2018 when LSU was able to get a 38-21 win. The Tigers are 4-0 all-time against the Bulldogs.
Coming off a 24-0 shutout win against Southeastern Louisiana University, the Bulldogs have a lot of ties to the current LSU coaching staff with both offensive coordinator Joe Sloan and defensive coordinator Blake Baker having those same roles earlier in their coaching careers in Ruston.
“We have Tim Rattay who is in the Louisiana Tech Hall of Fame and is on our staff. Joe has coached there. Blake has coached there so there is a lot of crossover here. There’s a lot of respect for Sonny Cumbie and the program that he has. We see him in recruiting and he is at our camps. From that perspective, there is a great allegiance to the in-state schools, but on Saturday, we want to whip them and they want to do the same. I like tipping our cap and if we are going to play a non Power Four conference, let’s do so against a team from the state of Louisiana.”
LSU HC Brian Kelly
Offensively, Garrett Nussmeier is coming off a SEC Offensive Player of the Week performance in which he completed 28 of 38 passes for 230 yards and a touchdown against Clemson. Louisiana Tech head coach Sonny Cumbie has called Nussmeier as “probably the best quarterback in the country.” After a great Week 1 performance, Nussmeier has a chance to add on to his Heisman campaign.
Nussmeier will have a ton of weapons to throw and hand the football off to including Caden Durham, Aaron Anderson, Zavion Thomas, Barion Brown, Chris Hilton, Trey’Dez Green, Ju’Juan Johnson, Bauer Sharp, and others.
Durham paced the Tigers’ backfield with 17 carries for 74 yards and a touchdown while Aaron Anderson paced the receivers with six grabs for 98 yards.
“We have a lot of weapons on our team so we are going to make sure that everybody is getting used.”
LSU RB Caden Durham
The offensive line was a pleasant surprise last week with a new group as Coach Kelly stated that the unit played well going up against a highly praised Clemson defensive front. A passing grade in a tough situation has given the LSU offensive line a lot of confidence.
“One of the biggest focal points coming into the season was grow our unity. It is a bunch of different faces and in order to be a good offensive line, you have to be a tight unit. We made sure to spend a lot of time together and do things outside the facility. One of the coolest things was to see how much we were able to grow over the offseason not only from a relationship standpoint, but how we played. You can see the difference from spring to now. I am proud to be part of it.”
LSU OG Josh Thompson
Playing proud is what LSU’s defense did last week in what was a dominant effort by Blake Baker and his defense shutting down a high potent Clemson offense in the second half while only allowing 31 total yards on the ground and not giving up a touchdown to preseason Heisman favorite Cade Klubnik. Like the offensive line, there were a lot of new pieces with 10 new players on the defensive side of the football especially coming from the transfer portal class including guys like Patrick Payton, Jack Pyburn, Bernard Gooden, Tamarcus Cooley, AJ Haulcy, and Mansoor Delane.
“It didn’t happen overnight. It started with January being on time, getting your locker cleaned. It’s the discipline that our team has bought into our program and it carries onto the field in the way they play. We are not going to tolerate foolishness. It’s an overall program perspective and those guys have trusted what we have been telling them and going out and doing it.”
LSU HC Brian Kelly
As good as the LSU defense played, the veterans feel like that they are only starting to scratch the surface on the defensive side of the football.
“Defensively, we played a good game, but there’s a lot of stuff that we can clean up. We came in this week focused on what we need to get better at and just trying to prepare to get 1-0 another week.”
LSU LB West Weeks
Mansoor Delane was the Bednarik Award National Player of the Week after two pass breakups, an interception, and two tackles.
“I feel like there is always room for improvement. I just focus on doing my job every play. The win against Clemson was just a step. We can’t get caught up in just one victory like that. It’s a great win for the program, but that’s not the goal that we aspire for. If that was the goal, you are going to come in complacent and not looking to get better. Clemson is in the past and we are on the road for the National Championship.”
LSU CB Mansoor Delane
In order to compete for the national championship, the Tigers players’ standard is going to be tested every single week.
“There’s a standard when we play at LSU and every time that we hit the field. Every Saturday, there is a standard. Our guys know what the standard is. We are going to be demanding not demeaning. Our expectation is if we want to go 1-0 every week, we got to do the same thing each and every week. We are not moving off of that. We’ve heard about the other stuff. We are going to focus on what we can control.”
LSU HC Brian Kelly
The LSU Tigers will kickoff against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs at 6:30 P.M. on SEC Network.
Score Prediction: LSU 49 Louisiana Tech 7
As mentioned earlier, there is no question about what the result is going to be, but the question is going to be by how much. This LSU team is locked in and focused. They will take care of business early, pull their starters, and get their young players some opportunities to show what they can do.
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