Eyes of Tigers in focus
LSU tries not to look ahead to game at Texas or back at 7-OT loss to A&M
HOOVER, Ala. — LSU’s regular season includes bookend games against Texas’ two most prominent programs, with the Tigers’ season opener against Georgia Southern on Aug. 31 serving as a foreword.
“We learned our lesson against Troy,” LSU coach Ed Orgeron said on Monday of not looking past Georgia Southern for one of the early season’s touted showdowns on Sept. 7 in Austin. “Obviously the natural thing is to look toward Texas. But that’s when you’re going to get beat.”
On the first of four SEC Media Days, Orgeron fielded questions about the Tigers taking on the Longhorns in the second week of the season in a non-conference contest, prompting Orgeron to recall Troy’s toppling of LSU in Baton Rouge, La., in September 2017.
For all the hype enveloping UT and LSU meeting in the regular season for the first time since 1954, Orgeron and his three players attending the media days fielded plenty of questions about what happened in last year’s regular-season finale – leading to this season’s regularseason climax.
“Both teams fought,” Orgeron said of Texas A&M’s 74-72 victory in seven overtimes at Kyle Field on Thanksgiving weekend. “It adds to the rivalry. … Now they’re coming to Baton Rouge, so let’s see what happens.”
ESPN dubbed the knockdown, drawn-out affair college football’s game of the year — one lasting nearly five hours and leaving the players as drained and frayed as they had ever been.
“You get into a player-safety issue when you start playing two games in one night,” LSU quarterback Joe Burrow said.
The historic contest prompted the NCAA to tweak its extended-game rules, and after four overtimes teams now will alternate two-point plays in lieu of starting possessions at the 25-yard line.
The NCAA wrote that it updated its overtime guidelines to try and “limit the number
plays from scrimmage and bring the game to a conclusion.”
Burrow, who had 29 carries for 100 yards rushing against the Aggies, admitted Monday he had a tough time bringing the A&M game to a conclusion, even in the weeks afterward.
“We really wanted to go into the bowl season with a lot of momentum, and that kind of killed all of the momentum we had,” Burrow said. “Any time you play seven overtimes and come out on the losing end, that’s not very fun. When you give your all like that, you run the ball (nearly) 30 times, it’s tough to come out with a loss.
“That really stuck with me a long time — it stuck with me through the bowl game.”
LSU wound up handing Central Florida its first loss of the season in the Fiesta Bowl, in defeating the Knights 40-32. With Orgeron against the ropes a year ago from an impatient fan base, the Tigers finished a surprising 10-3 and No. 6 nationally.
They’ll likely enter this season in the top 10, with Burrow and All-American safety Grant Delpit of Houston among the returnees.
“We have to block out the noise,” Orgeron said of outside chatter about his program. “Last year we came here (to SEC Media Days) with a lot of negativity about the program, now there are a lot of positive things being said about the program. When we get to camp we need to forget about all of that — we’ve got to get back to fundamentals.
“And obviously we have to beat Alabama – that’s the benchmark at LSU.”
Much like the Aggies, the Crimson Tide kept popping up in conversation with the Tigers on Monday. Alabama and coach Nick Saban have defeated LSU in eight consecutive meetings, starting with the national title game following the 2011 regular season.
Orgeron has been head coach for the last three setbacks against the program most LSU players and fans consider their primary riof val — even if the sentiment isn’t reciprocated. Last November the Crimson Tide whipped the Tigers 29-0 in Baton Rouge, and this year the SEC West powers meet on Nov. 9 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
LSU is adapting more of a spread offense to try and put points on the board against Alabama, but Orgeron cautioned fans shouldn’t expect a wideopen attack.
“We want to get to the spread (offense), but we still want to run the football,” he said. “We’ve got to be 50-50 — to be strong and have a power game.”