BATON ROUGE — After coming off a thrilling 29-25 comeback victory over Kentucky, Nick Saban spoke to the media about Saturday’s Southeastern Conference match-up with the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Monday at the LSU Athletic Administration Building.
LSU (3-2, 1-2 SEC) takes on Mississippi State (1-4, 0-3 SEC) at 8 p.m. on ESPN2.
QUOTES FROM COACH SABAN:
“It was a great win for our team. It was a great comeback win and we talked about those things after the game. I’m pleased and happy that our offense could put together a drive like that. I think that there are a lot of lessons to be learned from what happened in the game.
“We had several opportunities, I think four to be exact, where we had the ball inside the 35-yard line and we came away with no points. A lot of those times came when the score was 22-10.
“I think that we have to be able to put teams away, especially when you’re playing teams on the road. That’s something that we should be able to show the capacity to do. This is the only thing that I think that our offense needs to improve on.
“Two or three times in the Florida game we had the ball right outside of the red area, as I call it, where we were in the 20 to 30-yard line area and knocking on the door for points. There were also many times in the Tennessee game where we were in the same position, but came away with no points, for whatever reason, turnover, penalty, sack or a missed field goal, it doesn’t make a difference. That’s something that we need to improve on as a team.
“I know it’s pretty obvious to everyone here, but defensively we gave up too many big plays and that’s something that we need to keep working on to improve and get better at. It is something that is costly in the number of points that we give up and it is also costly to have the mental toughness overcome it and to bounce back on the next play. It is something that our players definitely need to work on.
“I said that last week’s game was a dangerous game and everyone thought that I was crazy, but it turns out that I wasn’t crazy. We went and played a team that has nothing to lose, played them on the road, it has historically not been an easy game for LSU and it was their homecoming.
“So, why wouldn’t it be a dangerous game? Now, everybody is sitting there saying, ‘Boy, this is going to be an easy game this week, because they (Mississippi State) lost to Troy State.’ Well, I’m here to tell you that it is an even more dangerous game because they lost to Troy State. They too have pride in what they do, just like last year when we lost to UAB, they are going to try and come back and prove that they have a good football team.
“They have a good football team. Auburn beat Florida last week and Auburn barely beat Mississippi State on a last-second field goal. South Carolina is in the top 20 and they beat them (Mississippi State) by only two or three points. This is not a football team that does not have good football players and we don’t have a history of being able to dominate a team on the road.
“So, look at the big picture when you formulate opinions on what should or shouldn’t be. In college football right now, how could anybody assume anything? Auburn beats Florida, Arkansas beat South Carolina, in our league, and Troy State beats Mississippi State.
“The psychology and the competition in this day of age is one of more parity. It’s tougher to get consistency in performance and it’s more difficult to get players to play with emotion for an entire season. It happens all over the country and it happens every week, yet everyone continues to be surprised about it. People wonder why coaches worry.
“Mississippi State has good players and they are capable of playing good football. I would expect their team to come out and play well. Our players better be thinking that too.
“From an injury standpoint, we have two guys nicked up, but they are the same two guys that were questionable last week. They are Dwayne Pierce and Devery Henderson. We can’t make a decision on those guys until Wednesday, but everybody else will probably be okay. Regardless of whether they practice today or not, we think that they will be okay.”