The advice LSU football coach Lane Kiffin has for his players attempting to get a handle on its College Football Playoff fate is simple.
“It has nothing to do with this game,” Kiffin said Monday during his weekly news conference. “This is one game: we’ve got to be ready to play to get to 1-0. Don’t worry about who we’re playing next, or where we are in playoff rankings.
“Guys don’t watch it,” Kiffin said of his refrain to players. “Don’t watch when it comes out. It’s going to move so much between now and the end of the year and you control a lot of it. Play really well and win and you won’t have anything to worry about.”
No. 15 LSU (6-2, 3-2 in SEC) is riding a two-game winning streak before enjoying its first open date of the season. The Tigers host No. 9 Alabama (6-2, 4-2) in a SEC matchup at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 7 in Tiger Stadium.
“I think over time byes are a little bit overrated,” Kiffin said. “You would think the numbers would show you always played better after a bye, but that’s not the case.
“It was good to give some time off from a physical standpoint, not a mental standpoint,” Kiffin said. “The ones (players) where their play counts were really high or had been banged up. We worked on some things and got ahead on Alabama.”
Since a 35-34 overtime setback at Kentucky, LSU enjoyed consecutive weeks of outstanding play in a 31-0 win over Mississippi State and 38-17 against Auburn.
The heart of the team’s offensive surge has been junior quarterback Sam Leavitt who didn’t throw an interception in either of those games. He was the league’s leader with eight in his first six games.
For the season, Leavitt’s completed 70% (180-256) of his passes for 17 touchdowns.
“He’s made really good decisions with the ball outside of one (at Auburn) that could have been picked,” Kiffin said. “Just made really good decisions. He hasn’t forced, he’s thrown a lot of check downs to the running back, taken what they’ve given. He’s a lot more comfortable which should have been probably expected, even by us.
“He missed all of spring,” Kiffin said. “They’ve said portal teams usually start playing better in the little to late part of the year. But you can have portal units. Our defense had some returning players. Our offense, for the most part, are all brand-new players. A quarterback missing spring… This is what you expect about certain play. He’s getting more comfortable and playing with those guys longer.”
Kiffin said Leavitt’s also had to adapt to a new coaching staff with offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. and quarterbacks coach Dane Stevens.
“There’s something to playing with your coaches, too, especially at quarterback,” he said. “That’s a real thing. Just getting comfortable with each other and what he does well, him getting used to how we do things in-game also takes a bit of time.”
Since the SEC dropped divisional play for a 16-team format, some of the league’s oldest rivalries have been, or will be, discontinued for a two-year span.
That means that LSU-Alabama series, which dates to 1964, will end after Saturday’s game which will be the 63rd consecutive matchup.
“That’s sad,” said Kiffin, who was Alabama’s offensive coordinator three years under head coach Nick Saban. “I’m not being critical of all the decisions that probably all come down to money, whether that’s realignment, the rivalries.
“It’s all sad in general in the big picture of things,” said Kiffin. “Money drives to make such great traditions and rivalries. Unfortunately, that’s where we are. It doesn’t seem that much is going to be protected when it comes to TV contracts and money and other people’s ideas.”
