Stephen Lew-Imagn Images
By Hunt Palmer
A purple and gold buzzsaw is coming out of Tiger Stadium’s north tunnel on Saturday night.
That’s the sense that has become apparent to me over the last five days.
This LSU roster finds itself in an unfamiliar spot, 1-0. No one in uniform Saturday will have taken the that field unbeaten in week two. However, many of the Tigers recall last season’s home opener when Nicholls was within two points with two minutes to play before halftime.
That Nicholls squad finished the season 4-8 as an FCS school
“I just kind of remember us coming out a little flat, obviously, then just playing like we didn’t have an edge,” said senior linebacker West Weeks. “(We) didn’t play with that edge. That’s definitely something that will not happen this year. We’re going to come out on fire like we will every game.”
That night in Death Valley the Colonels struck for a 62-yard touchdown run to again draw within two points where the deficit remained well into the third quarter.
LSU failed to recover from the bright lights of the Las Vegas opener against USC and transition to an overmatched in-state school. No college football stage was as spotlighted last weekend as LSU’s win at Clemson.
Here comes little ol’ Louisiana Tech. And LSU sounds ready.
“It’s not hard to lock back in,” said senior cornerback Mansoor Delane. “Our goal is bigger than a win versus Clemson. So, you’re locking back into LA Tech, and going 1-0 is our focus.”
The 1-0 mantra has been burned into the Tiger conscience since the spring. It’s been plastered throughout the weight room, printed on shirts and regurgitated in press settings for months.
That was achieved on Saturday night, but the slate is wiped clean on Sundays.
Kelly lamented LSU’s performance against Nicholls in this week’s Tuesday press conference. He, like Weeks, detested LSU’s.
“I didn’t like the way we performed,” Kelly said. “The maturity of a football team is that you have a nameless and faceless opponent. In other words, you prepare the same way no matter what. That’s the hard part of this. This is 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’s on them to do this.”
This LSU lineup is old. That’s what happens when you reel in 18 transfers with starting experience. Just three of LSU’s 22 starters at Clemson are in their first or second year in college.
This group is not just talented and driven, it’s remarkably mature. They’re human, though. And no reasonable mind can completely level a primetime top ten matchup on the road with a game against a Louisiana Tech team that was in a tussle with Southeastern Louisiana in the opener.
That’s comparing fighting a cougar to fighting a kitten.
Things like discipline, focus and intensity can be instilled and expected, though.
“The biggest thing that can help you as a team from week to week, not playing up or down to an opponent, is focusing on yourself and your process,” said senior guard Josh Thompson. “If you’re focused on someone else, you’re going to go up and down wherever they’re at. You’re not going to play to what you should be playing to. When you focus on yourself, we set the standard on how we play.”
Louisiana Tech played North Carolina State to a 10-point game last season and was within two touchdowns late in the game at Arkansas weeks later.
Don’t expect a repeat of that or LSU’s struggles with Nicholls on Saturday night in the Tigers’ home opener. LSU’s answers this week signaled that, and so did the work on the field.
“I think Tuesday and Wednesday we’ve had two of our better practices,” Weeks said. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, it is that 1-0 mindset. It wasn’t just for the first game that we wanted to go 1-0. We want to go 1-0 every single week, so we know we’ve got to bring that mindset every single week.”
Kelly and his coaching staff will no doubt approach the game with sincere focus. But that only goes so far.
“We can’t drive them as coaches,” Kelly said. “They’ve got to drive themselves. And this group has a lot of veterans, a lot of guys that understand that. And that has allowed us to prepare in a much better fashion.”
And if the Tigers are looking for a little bump from outside the locker room, a sellout crowd will do. For the first time in more than half a decade, the purple and gold contingent in Tiger Stadium will welcome an undefeated team to the field.
Something tells me that will be the first of many thunderous roars in that building this fall.
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