BATON ROUGE — One of the most anticipated football seasons in recent LSU history opens on Saturday as the 14th-ranked Tigers play host to in-state foe Louisiana-Monroe at 7 p.m. in Tiger Stadium in the first-ever meeting between the teams.
LSU, a consensus Top 20 team, enters the contest coming off an 8-5 overall mark a year ago, while Louisiana-Monroe posted a 3-9 overall mark in 2002. LSU has been picked in most preseason polls to finish second to Auburn in the SEC Western Division, however, ESPN’s Lee Corso tabbed the Tigers to win the league earlier this week.
A crowd of close to 90,000 is expected to watch the Tigers as LSU opens its 110th season of football and the fourth under Nick Saban.
During his stay in Baton Rouge, Saban has guided the Tigers back to national prominence. In three years with the Tigers, Saban has led LSU to three straight bowl games, including the school’s first back-to-back New Year’s Day bowl games since the 1960s. LSU is 26-12 under Saban, which includes a 2-1 record in bowl games.
Saban will also attempt to become the first LSU coach since Charles McClendon to lead the Tigers to winning seasons in four consecutive years. Coach Mac was the last to do it as he led the Tigers to four straight winning seasons from 1976-79 to finish out his career. Since then, no other LSU coach has posted four straight winning campaigns.
As far as LSU’s matchup with UL-Monroe is concerned, the Tigers will face a squad that is being guided by its third head coach in less than a year. Charlie Weatherbie, who coached Utah State to a 38-17 setback to LSU in Tiger Stadium in 1993, took over the Indian program last May. Weatherbie, who has also served as head coach at Navy, has been out of coaching since the 2001 season.
Former UL-Monroe head coach Mike Collins will be on the LSU sidelines on Saturday night as he is currently an intern with the Tiger strength and conditioning program. Collins was elevated to ULM’s head coach after three games last year and guided the Indians to a 3-6 mark.
LSU enters Saturday’s game after having an outstanding fall camp, one that saw the Tigers come back from the summer as one of the best conditioned teams Saban has ever coached. The Tigers, after 27 practices since August 6, are ready to play a game.
“We have been talking about this it seems like for a long time,” Saban said. “Practice has gone fairly well this week and throughout camp. I think the team is tired of practicing and I’m tired of them practicing. I think everybody is ready to play a game, and a lot of questions will be answered about a lot of things when we play the game.
“I do not think our team is tired. It has been awful hot but this has been the best-conditioned team that we have had and I think we have persevered a lot better than we have in the past. Hopefully it will show up in how fresh we are on Saturday. We are just looking forward to trying to go out and play a good game and have everyone compete at a high level and see where we are at and go from there.”
Saturday night will mark the return of LSU quarterback Matt Mauck, who missed the final seven games of the 2002 season after suffering a season-ending injury in the fourth quarter against Florida. Mauck, who led LSU to a 5-1 mark over the first six games in 2002, is completely healthy and will start at quarterback for the Tigers.
Joining Mauck in the LSU backfield will be a pair of first-time starters in running back Joseph Addai and fullback Kevin Steltz. Michael Clayton returns as one of the league’s most dangerous weapons on offense as he’s racked over 1,500 yards receiving in just two years with the Tigers.
Perhaps the strength of the Tiger offense will be that of the line as four starters return from last year’s team, including First Team All-SEC guard Stephen Peterman, First Team Freshman All-America Andrew Whitworth, and First Team Academic All-America Rodney Reed.
Defensively, the Tigers enter the season-opener with a strong front four led by senior defensive tackle Chad Lavalais. Defensive ends Marquise Hill and Marcus Spears and first-time starter in senior Bryce Wyatt will join Lavalais up front.
Corey Webster, a First Team All-SEC pick in 2002, returns as the Tiger playmaker on defense. Last year, Webster led the SEC with seven interceptions, including a school-record tying three in a 36-7 win over Florida.