No. 9 LSU tries to bounce back
LSU is out of the SEC West race.
The 29-0 loss to No. 1 Alabama last Saturday in Tiger Stadium greatly reduced what the Tigers (7-2, 4-2) can accomplish this season, but there’s still much that can be accomplished, beginning with a game at Arkansas (2-7, 0-5) on Saturday night in Fayetteville, Ark.
“I thought today was my biggest day of coaching since I’ve been at LSU,” Tigers coach Ed Orgeron said Monday at his weekly news conference. “I told that to our staff and we need to bring (the players) up.
“We’ve got to let it go. There’s a lot of hurt people in that building, a lot of hurt people on our football team. I understand that. This is a very big game for everybody involved in the state of Louisiana, but we have to let it go. We have to press on to Arkansas, and I do believe we’re going to do that.”
Orgeron and his Tigers teams have a track record of bouncing back. Both of his previous LSU teams rebounded from the loss to Alabama to win their next game — and they have done the same after the other five losses during his brief tenure.
The Tigers, who many prognosticators thought would lose anywhere from four to six games this season, can still finish 10-2. After visiting the Razorbacks, they host Rice and finish the regular season at Texas A&M.
They are the highest-ranked two-loss team in the country and a 10-2 finish would probably land them in a New Year’s Six bowl, perhaps even the Allstate Sugar Bowl down the road from the LSU campus in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
“We’ve got a lot to play for,” Orgeron said. “This is a big game for us in terms of where we want to go, in terms of how strong we can finish and in terms of if we do finish strong where we can end up.
“So there’s a lot of great things. We’re 7-2 now and we have a chance to have an excellent season and that’s what we’re going to look at and we’re going to use that as a motivational tool.”
Despite the lopsided loss to Alabama and an earlier loss at Florida, the Tigers have held up well against a daunting schedule, having beaten three teams that were ranked in the top 10 at the time they played them. None of the remaining opponents are currently ranked.
“These guys will bounce back,” Orgeron said.
“We’re going to talk to them, we’re going to talk about the things that we have to play for. We’re going to take it one game at a time but if we do the things that we need to do, we can have an outstanding season and I think as the week goes on they’re going to bounce back. I want to have a 24-hour rule today and hopefully it only takes 24 hours. This one may take a little bit more.”
