BATON ROUGE — After the first open date of the season, LSU head coach Nick Saban addressed the media before this weekend’s Southeastern Conference opening game against Mississippi State. Members of LSUsports.tv can watch the video archive of the press conference now.
TICKETING NOTES:
- Less than 200 tickets remain for Saturday’s 11:30 a.m. game against Mississippi State. To purchase online, click here. To purchase tickets over the phone, please call (225) 578-2184 or 1-800-960-8587 outside of Baton Rouge.
- After UL-Lafayette returned 2,400 tickets to LSU for the Oct. 5 homecoming game, less than 1,800 tickets remain unsold. To purchase these online, click here. To purchase tickets over the phone, please call (225) 578-2184 or 1-800-960-8587 outside of Baton Rouge.
QUOTES FROM LSU HEAD COACH NICK SABAN
WEEKLY PRESS LUNCHEON – SEPT. 23, 2002
“We obviously are looking forward to the start of SEC play. I think everybody realizes the importance of every game that you play in the SEC. You can never get them back and it is something that you really have to do a good job with your team to focus and prepare for. I was really pleased with the effort and the intensity and the practices that we had during the bye week, and the start that we had in our preparation for Mississippi State. I think they are a really talented team who has played really well at times this year and in their two losses the thing that has hurt them the most is that they are minus nine in turnovers. Their turnover ratio absolutely killed them in the Auburn game and also in the Oregon game. I think though offensively they have shown an ability to move the football when they do not turn the ball over and they have a good number of skill guys that can make a good number of plays.”
“Their defense has played solidly for them and they have made some big plays on special teams. This is not a team that, relative to the talent, is really a team that you could ever think that is not very capable of being about as good as any football team we will play this year. I think our players need to realize that and understand that in terms of their preparation for this particular game. They have some outstanding players on their team. I think Mario Haggan has been a good player for them for a long time and it seems like he has been playing there for many years, and he is still playing as good now as ever. Their ability to throw the ball this year with Kevin Fant probably is the biggest change in their offense because they have been a very effective running team that has been a little inconsistent throwing the football, but that is certainly not true for them this year because they have thrown for over 275 yards in two games. I mentioned the fact that they have some outstanding skill guys on special teams that have made a lot of big plays in terms of their return game.”
“I think the key for us in this game is going to be the intensity and the physical style of play that we play in the game because I think your toughness gets challenge when you play a team like Mississippi State, who always comes into the game physical and aggressive and I think we are going to have to beat them at that part of the game. I think our ability to have patience in the game to move the ball is a key because their style of defense enables them to give you some bad plays offensively. We need to not turn the ball over and take care of the ball and take advantage of the opportunities that you get to make plays is a real key to being successful against them. I think if we can create turnovers on defense, which has not been a hallmark for us this year, and not give them big plays, I think those will be two things that will be real important to us having success against them offensively and as always I am sure special teams will have a lot to do with the outcome of this game. Their punter has been outstanding and their return game has been outstanding. They have been a team in the past that has pressured kicks and I am sure they will do the same thing against us in this game.”
“From an injury standpoint we really have no new injuries to report. Ben Wilkerson, Eric Edwards and Kendrick Allen all practiced pretty much the whole time during the bye week and I think those guys are back up to full speed, as long as they don’t get re-injured in practice. Donnie Jones and John Young still are guys we really can’t make a decision on right now and probably will not until Wednesday or Thursday this week as to whether they will be able to play in this game or not. Basically we feel good about where we are as a team right now. I think the most important thing for us right now is to carry the attitude forward of improving, focusing and playing physically dominant in the style we play. We need to play hard and be very intense and aggressive because that seems to be when we play the best. It also gives us an opportunity to overcome some of mistakes that we made so we those are things that we need continue to do.”