by Chris Macaluso
LSUsports.net
Nick Saban hasn’t had a Thanksgiving Holiday in a very long time. Football coaches aren’t afforded that luxury. LSU’s first-year coach is hoping his players don’t take a holiday either.
Saban and his 24th-ranked team travel to Little Rock, Ark. this week to close out the regular season against an Arkansas Razorback team (5-5, 2-5) playing for its post-season life.
“We’ve had something to prove this season, whether it’s been to win a game on the road or beat Alabama in Tiger Stadium, which we haven’t done in a long time,” Saban said. “This is the first team that we’ve played that has something to gain relative to respect for themselves”
LSU’s ability to take Arkansas out of the game emotionally is key to a Tiger victory, Saban said.
The Razorbacks are coming off a 17-10 overtime win at Mississippi State in which Arkansas stopped the Bulldogs from scoring the potential tying touchdown at the one-yard line on fourth and goal to end the game. The Mississippi State loss ended the Bulldogs’ chances of winning a Southeastern Conference title.
“Arkansas did extremely well last week against Mississippi State,” Saban said. “They did a tremendous job of rushing the football and playing as a physical team. For us not to have the proper respect for Arkansas would be a mistake.”
The Razorback’s are ranked fifth in the SEC in rushing despite losing starting tailback Cedric Cobbs early in the year to a knee injury. Fred Talley, who replaced Cobbs, will miss this week’s game with his own knee injury. Brandon Holmes, who scored two touchdowns in last Saturday’s game, will start at running back against LSU. The Razorback defense held Mississippi State’s SEC leading rushing offense to just 68 yards Saturday.
Saban said he thinks Arkansas will approach the LSU game with the same plan it had against Mississippi State.
“They (Arkansas) played to gain some respectability as a team and it showed in the way that they played in the game,” Saban said. “The biggest thing for us is our attitude and how we approach the game.”
Auburn’s 9-0 win over arch-rival Alabama put an end to LSU’s hopes of playing Florida in the SEC Championship game. But the Tigers can still claim a share of the SEC West with a win this week.
A win by Arkansas would make the Razorbacks the ninth bowl-eligible team in the conference. A win by LSU would improve the Tigers’s record to 8-3, making them a potential candidate for a New Year’s Day bowl game.
Saban said he’s not worried about that yet.
“The season’s not even over and the Arkansas game has not been played. That needs to come first and that has to be our focus,” Saban said.
LSU starting tailback LaBrandon Toefield, who sprained his knee in the first quarter of the Tigers’ 20-9 win over Ole Miss Nov. 11, is questionable for Friday’s regular-season finale, Saban said.
Tiger second string tail back Dominick Davis would fill in for Toefield if he is unable to play. Davis rushed for 106 yards and two TD’s filling in for the injured Toefield against Ole Miss.
The game will be televised to a national audience at 1:30 CST on CBS marking the second time the Tigers have appeared on the network this season and the fifth nationally televised game this year.
“I think this game is more for the players than any of the other games we have played so far,” Saban said. “It’s kind of like a one-game season for them. They have a lot to accomplish in respect to some of the goals that they set for themselves early on. We can still possibly be a solid top-25 team at the end of the season.”