BATON ROUGE — LSU head coach Nick Saban spoke to the media about his 15th-ranked Tigers’ Southeastern Conference opener against the Auburn Tigers on Monday at his weekly press luncheon at the LSU Athletic Administration Building.
The Tigers (2-0) are coming off a 31-14 non-conference victory over Utah State, while Auburn (2-0) held off Ole Miss, 27-21.
LSU running back LaBrandon Toefield has taken the majority of the credit for the Tigers’ early season success, as the sophomore ranks second in the nation with 42 points in the young season. He trails only Dwone Hicks of Middle Tennessee State in the national rankings. Hicks and the Blue Raiders (2-0) come to Tiger Stadium for Homecoming on Nov. 10, 2001.
Toefield scored all four LSU touchdowns on Saturday, including a 70-yarder with less than 30 seconds left to play in the first half. He ran for 183 yards on 27 carries and has tallied 241 yards on 42 carries (5.7 average).
After facing the Auburn Tigers on Sept. 15, the LSU football team takes its first open date before traveling to Knoxville, Tenn., on Sept. 29 to face Tennessee. The game time has NOT been announced and will not be announced until at least Monday, Sept. 17, and as late as Sept. 22.
QUOTES FROM NICK SABAN’S WEEKLY PRESS CONFERENCE
“I don’t think that the Utah State game is a particular game that we would like to dwell on. I think that we did some good things in the game, but there are definitely some things that need to be corrected. We’re going to work on correcting those things and we’ll see how much more improvement we can make as a team as we get into conference play.
“Obviously, we had some errors on special teams that could have been disastrous in the game, and those were the things that we will be most concerned about. A penalty that continued a drive on a punt return that eventually turned the field position around in the game that eventually led to a score, because they moved the ball, we didn’t field the punt and it rolled dead at the one (yard line). Then, we run one play, fumble the ball and they get the ball at the 20 yard line and get right back into the game.
“Those are the kinds of things that are just an example of the kind of mental errors and mistakes that can be very costly in a close game. Those are the things that you would like not to do and to get behind you before you get into conference play.
“We’re very hopeful that we’ll have Dominick Davis back this week. He’s going to return to practice today for the first time since his injury and I think that he is a key guy for us in terms being our returner. He’s a phenomenal return specialist, both on kick return and punt return, and we realized how much we missed him when he wasn’t there. I do have a lot of confidence in the other players that we have at those positions. I know that they can do the job, but they just struggled a little bit in that game. It was a real problem for us, but we were able to overcome it and we’re really pleased about that.
“Auburn obviously has a very good team. I think that they are a lot better team than what people thought coming into the season. Sometimes it goes that way, you lose a couple of your star players early to the draft and I think that sometimes people assume that the team is not going to be that good.
“The core of their defensive team has returned this season and they have an outstanding defensive team. Statistically, they’ve proven that in their first two ball games by the way that they have played. I mean people have a hard time getting past the 50 yard line on them until the second half of the Ole Miss game. So, they have a very dominant front seven. They are very physical and a dominant defensive line.
“With that kind of defensive team, I think that they certainly have talented offensive players. Their defense is going to keep them from losing games and allow their offense to continue to grow and get better. They have four out of five starters returning on the offensive line and both tight ends came back this season. They have a couple of good skilled players coming back, but they have a new quarterback who’s very talented in Jason Campbell. They have some good runners that are very talented as well, so I don’t really see a big difference.
“Their special teams are outstanding. Damon Duval is a very good punter, a good kicker and a very good kickoff guy all rapped up in one. So, this is a very good team that we are playing and it’s going to be an interesting challenge for us to see how we get ready to play this game. It’s an important game, because it’s our first conference game. It’s not the end-all of the season as some people are making it out to be, because when you build up a program, you do it for the long term and you try to get consistency in the performance of your program and you can’t say we better win now, or else.
“It is the first conference game. It is always great to get off to a good start in the conference and they are a good football team and a great team for our football team to get started off on the right foot against, but it’s not now or never.
“From an injury standpoint, I think that Robert Davis is questionable for the game. We have a couple of other players who may not practice today, but who will be okay for the game. I think that we’ll have most of our other players back by tomorrow to be able to practice.”