Inside Slant

The Sports Xchange

November 13, 2018 at 10:44 pm.

LSU hosts Rice in home finale

LSU will remember the past and keep an eye on the future in its home finale against Rice on Saturday night in Tiger Stadium.

The Tigers will honor their 18 seniors for their careers in their last game in Tiger Stadium. They’ll also look for opportunities to give young players valuable playing time as long as it doesn’t jeopardize a redshirt.

Along the way LSU will try to get to 9-2, keeping alive a chance for a 10-win regular-season and a New Year’s bowl game berth.

“Really important for these players,” coach Ed Orgeron said of a possible New Year’s bowl bid. “They poured their hearts out this season. We’re 8-2, I’m very proud of the character of this football team. We talked about it and I don’t talk about the standings or none of that, but we do talk about finishing strong, taking them one game at a time and taking it to a New Year’s Day bowl.”

After this week’s game against the undermanned Owls, the Tigers finish the season at Texas A&M next week.

“Obviously we have to play well this week, we have to play well the week after,” Orgeron said. “We can’t look ahead, but it’s something for them to shoot for. I thought after the (29-0) loss in the Alabama game (two weeks ago) they were very down. We had to regroup and look at what we can do and what we can accomplish and I think for this team it could be a great accomplishment.”

LSU bounced back from the loss to Alabama with a methodical 24-17 victory at Arkansas last Saturday. The Tigers seemed to have the game well in hand before being outscored 14-0 in the fourth quarter by a team that is winless in the SEC.

“We have to finish the game,” Orgeron said. “We walked away disappointed not finishing the game strong, but very pleased that we won the game.”

The Tigers appear to be in position to win more easily this week and allow some younger players to get into the game against Rice, which is 1-10.

“We’re going into each game with a plan and obviously we’re going to play our first team, we’re going in to win the game,” Orgeron. “If things happen, we have several guys that we’re going to give a chance to. We’re going to practice them this week and make sure they’re ready. If they get a chance to get in the game, we’ll put them in.”

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