By Lee Feinswog
Special to LSUsports.net
LSU football coach Nick Saban talked about being embarrassed. You can bet the same held true for his players after their 13-10 defeat to UAB last Saturday night.
“It was a real tough loss and it’s still stinging me right now,” said LSU sophomore linebacker Trev Faulk, who leads the Tigers with 47 tackles, 25 unassisted, including four for losses.
“I really couldn’t believe it. It really didn’t hit me until Sunday morning when I woke up. We just have to somehow get our morale back up and get our spirits back up. And I think having a team coming in like Tennessee coming in actually helps us.”
Tennessee (2-1) is ranked 11th nationally. LSU (2-2) will face the Vols on CBS at 6:30.
“Everybody will be writing us off. Everybody will be telling us how bad we are, so we’ll be forced to come together as a team and be closer,” Faulk said. “It’s really important for us to circle the wagons and know that we can go out there and win on Saturday.”
If LSU has a shot, it’s because of the defense, one that ranks third in scoring defense in the Southeastern Conference (15.0 ppg) and fifth in passing defense (178.8 ypg).
“We’re playing pretty well right now, but we have to step up our level and do more,” said Faulk, a 6-foot-3, 225-pound sophomore from Carencro. “We know we have a lot of improvement because of the mental errors we’re still making. But it’s great that people think we’re playing well right now, because we’re not even scratching the surface. We have a long way to go before we’re comfortable in the system.”
LSU shut out Western Carolina in the season opener, held Houston to all 13 of its points in the third quarter, struggled against Auburn after blanking the War Eagles in the first quarter, and then kept UAB off the board after halftime until the final field goal.
“There will be games when we won’t be able to stop anybody and will have to lean on them,” Faulk said. “Saturday I hoped we could have made just one more turnover and we could have scored defensively and done whatever it took for us to come out with a victory.”