by Chris Macaluso
LSUsports.net
(9/18/00)
LSU football coach Nick Saban said he faces a new challenge every week his team takes the field. This week’s challenge: Making sure his team can recover from its first set back of the year.
Saban’s Tiger’s will try to recover from last week’s 34-17 loss to conference rival Auburn with a trip home to take on the University of Alabama at Birmingham in LSU’s 2000 homecoming game.
“This is our game this week, this is our opportunity,” Saban said. ” We need to focus. We’ll never get this opportunity back if we don’t take advantage of it relative to it being our homecoming and our home game.”
According to Saban, this week’s game is just one more step his team can take towards proving it is much better than it was at this time last year. Last Saturday’s game against Auburn showed some of the progress the LSU football team has since last season.
LSU lead the game 10-0 at the end of the first quarter but trailed 13-10 at the half. Auburn scored another touchdown early in the third quarter to take a 20-10 lead. But LSU bounced right back when quarterback Josh Booty connected with receiver Josh Reed for a 45 yard TD pass with 6:45 left in the third to make the score 20-17 and help regain some of the momentum that helped it to an early lead.
The LSU high tide fell fast though, as Auburn return man Tim Carter knifed through the LSU kick-off coverage for a 100-yard touchdown run on the ensuing kick. Saban said the challenge in the wake of the Auburn loss is more consistent play on the offensive side of the ball.
“The first three plays we had of the second half we took the ball and went three plays and out,” he said. “We need to move the ball. Whether we score or not, that’s something you need to do, establish an offensive tempo.”
The Tigers will have the chance to establish that tempo against their second Conference USA opponent of the season in the UAB Blazers. LSU already has a victory over Houston from the C-USA, 28-13 in the second game of the year. The Blazers enter Saturday’s game after a disappointing loss of their own, 23-20 to Kansas last weekend. UAB won its first game of the year 20-15 over Chattanooga.
Saban said though the UAB game is sandwiched between conference match-ups for LSU against Auburn and Tennessee, the Tigers are taking this game as seriously as any other on the schedule.
The Blazers are averaging 185 yards rushing in their two games so far this season while holding their opponents to less than 120 yards per game on the ground.
“They (UAB) gave Kansas as much as Kansas wanted on Saturday,” Saban said. “I think that’s an indication of the quality of football team we’re going to play. I think we need to be ready to play. We have to prove that we can bounce back after a tough loss.”
Saban said his team’s preparation will hopefully give him an indication of the character of the team he will be leading through the rest of the season in which the Tigers will play every game against an SEC opponent.
“To be able to prepare for a game now after a disappointment in the league and get better at the things we need to get better at as a team so we can continue to get better, that takes character,” he said. “We’re kind of growing right now and we need to get out of the adolescent stage pretty quickly.”