GAME SNAPSHOT
KICKOFF: Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET
SITE: Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge, La.
TV: ESPNU
SERIES: LSU leads 37-13-5. LSU won the last meeting 52-7 in 1995.
RANKINGS: LSU No. 7
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Owls
–HB Aston Walter enjoyed the best day of his career in the loss to Louisiana Tech last week. Walter, a senior, rushed 17 times for 72 yards in the 28-13 defeat. He has rushed for a team-high 543 yards with four rushing touchdowns.
–WR Austin Trammell is enjoying a productive year with a team-high 59 receptions for 600 yards. He has three touchdown receptions. He had four catches but for only 10 yards last week against Louisiana Tech.
–LB Blaze Alldredge, a sophomore transfer from , had 10 tackles against Louisiana Tech. He is third on the team in tackles with 44 and also has one of Rice’s six interceptions.
–SS Prudy Calderon leads the Owls with four interceptions and also has been credited with breaking up five other passes. He has 32 tackles and has forced a fumble.
Tigers
–RB Nick Brossette is playing his last game in Tiger Stadium in what has been a breakout senior season. The Baton Rouge native had played very little and never scored a touchdown before this season. He has 11 touchdowns this season and needs 208 yards to reach 1,000 for the season. That’s a lot of yards in one game but look for LSU to feed him the ball enough to make his last home game memorable even if he has to wait on the 1,000-yard milestone.
–NT Tyler Shelvin has come on in recent weeks after losing some weight. The defensive line as a whole is playing better, but Breiden Fehoko won’t play against the Owls, giving Shelvin an opportunity to continue building on his recent success.
–CB Kelvin Joseph is expected to start in place of injured Kristian Fulton. The Owls don’t have the most productive passing game, but they likely will try to test Joseph early and often.
KEYS
TO THE GAME
LSU is searching for the magic that produced a big offensive performance against Georgia a month ago but has gone missing since when the Tigers entertain Rice in a non-conference game Saturday.
Kickoff at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge is 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPNU.
Since handing Georgia its first (and so far only) loss of the season by a 36-16 count, the No. 7 Tigers (8-2) have fallen into a scoring funk. They scored just one touchdown in a 19-3 win over Mississippi State, were shut out in a 29-0 loss to No. 1 Alabama, and had to hold on for a 24-17 win over lowly Arkansas last week.
Coach Ed Orgeron said he told offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger to review the tape of the Georgia game to try to recapture what worked then and hasn’t worked since.
“We were clicking pretty good that game,” Orgeron said. “Let’s look at the things that we did. I think it’s more or less to simplify. We’re putting too many things in. Are we trying to cover up some things that are some weaknesses? Maybe.
“Maybe sometimes we feel like we’re handcuffed, we can’t get as many receivers out as we want to or something like that because of protection or whatever it may be. We’re going to look at the defenses that are giving us problems, have answers for those defenses because we’re going to see them again.”
The struggling Owls (1-10) may present an opportunity for the Tigers to find answers. The Owls have lost their last 10 games with only one decided by fewer than 14 points. Rice has allowed an average of 38.5 points during the losing streak.
The Owls have given up fewer than 30 points just twice during the losing streak and have allowed 45, 43, 40, 56, 42 and 41 in other losses.
Running back Nick Brossette, one of 18 seniors who will be honored before their final home game this weekend, is coming off a 90-yard rushing performance against Arkansas, his second-highest total in the last eight games. He needs 208 yards to reach 1,000 in his first season as a starter.
“Coming into the season we had those questions at running back; there’s no questions anymore,” Orgeron said. “He’s had a tremendous season. I hope he gets a thousand yards. I don’t know how many shy he is, but whatever it is, I want him to get it, give him a chance to get it, he’s very deserving.”
LSU needs a victory over Rice and another in the regular-season finale at Texas A&M Thanksgiving weekend for a 10-win regular season and almost certainly a New Year’s Six bowl bid. But Orgeron was reluctant to look that far ahead.
“Our target is Rice and Rice only,” he said.
Orgeron was asked about the possibility of giving young backups game experience if the Tigers get a big lead, and he referred to a shocking 24-21 loss to Troy last season in Tiger Stadium.
“Obviously we know there might be an opportunity for those guys to play,” Orgeron said. “But listen, man, we learned our lesson last year and that’s not going to happen to us again. So we’re going full bore against these guys.”
Rice first-year coach Mike Bloomgren’s team is taking the first steps toward what the Owls hope will be respectability in Conference USA. But for now they are outmanned, especially against an SEC program.
Bloomgren said he stressed to his players that they can’t afford to be intimidated by the Tigers.
“You look at their roster 1 to 22 and they’re going to be more talented than us,” Bloomgren said. “They’re going to have more guys with stars by their name in terms of recruiting rankings.
“But every week in college football, you see a team go into one of those places and you see the score on your phone and you go ‘Wow, those dudes beat them?’ It happens every week. … We can’t come out of the tunnel and let Death Valley or Mike the Tiger score points for them.”
