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BATON ROUGE — For third straight year, the outcome of LSU’s season-finale will determine if the third-ranked Tigers advance to the Southeastern Conference title game. Two years ago, LSU beat Auburn for its only appearance in the SEC title game, while last year, Arkansas used a fourth quarter rally to keep the Tigers from advancing to Atlanta.
LSU and Arkansas meet at 1:40 p.m. on Friday in Tiger Stadium. The game will be televised to a national audience by CBS.
LSU enters the contest with a 10-1 overall mark and stands atop the SEC Western Division, along with Ole Miss, with a 6-1 league record. LSU, winners of five straight since a 19-7 loss to Florida, will also celebrate Senior Day on Friday as 22 Tiger seniors will be recognized prior to kickoff.
Arkansas, behind the play of quarterback Matt Jones, has won four straight and stands at 8-3 overall and 4-3 in league play.
The Tigers head into Friday’s game coming off a good, but abbreviated week of practice due to the short turnaround between last Saturday’s win over Ole Miss and Friday’s game.
“Practice has gone well all week,” LSU coach Nick Saban said. “I have been pleased with the way we have made some corrections on offense. Defensively, this is probably one of our most difficult preparations, not probably one you would like to have in a short week because their option offense is kind of different from what everybody else does in this day and age in football.”
“When you have a short week, you don’t have the opportunity to get as many reps on that type of stuff. The players seem very focused on what we are trying to do and what they have to do to get ready to play this game. You hope you don’t lose a game like this on lack of execution because you didn’t have enough time to get ready to do the things you like to. I guess you just have to keep it simple and make sure everybody has a good understanding of what they need to do to get good execution.”
Against Arkansas, the Tigers will face two of the top offensive threats in the SEC in Jones and running back Cedric Cobbs. Jones is first in the SEC in pass efficiency as he’s thrown for 1,768 yards and 16 touchdowns to go with over 600 yards rushing this years. Cobbs is third in the SEC with 1,010 yards rushing to go with eight touchdowns.
The Tigers will counter the Razorback offense with one of the nation’s best defenses. The Tigers rank first in the nation in scoring defense (9.4 points per game) and rushing defense (57.7 yards per game) and they are third in the country in total defense (256.7 yards per game).
Offensively, the Tigers will continue to rely on the play of quarterback Matt Mauck, who now holds the LSU single-season record for TD passes with 23. Mauck, who is 15-2 as a starting quarterback, has thrown for 2,364 yards this season.
Mauck’s top target is that of junior Michael Clayton, who leads the SEC in both receptions (66) and yards (918). Clayton is tied for LSU’s all-time lead in receiving TDs with 19.
Running back Justin Vincent leads the Tigers with 571 yards and five touchdowns. Vincent rushed for 105 yards last week in a 17-14 win over Ole Miss.
Lost in all of the hype surrounding the game is the fact that the Tigers and Razorbacks will battle for “The Boot” for the eighth straight year. Arkansas currently has possession of the trophy, which is made in the shape of the states of Louisiana and Arkansas. LSU has won “The Boot” game four times, most recently being a 41-38 decision in Tiger Stadium in 2001.
Prior to Friday’s contest, LSU’s senior class will be honored on the field. Among the players in this year’s class include All-Americas in Chad Lavalais and Stephen Peterman, two-time Academic All-America Rodney Reed, ESPY winner Devery Henderson as well as LSU career record holder in punts and punting yards Donnie Jones.
“We certainly have some great guys this year who have played a lot of good football and won a lot of games,” Saban said. “I mentioned last week that this group of guys who are seniors right now have won 10 games twice and have the opportunity to win a game or two more. I can’t say enough about the guys. We don’t have one bad guy in the senior class. We have had a few that have been challenges, but all of them have been respectful in trying to do what we want. I think this has been a really good group for us for four years.”
In all, this year’s senior class has been a part of 36 victories, the 2001 SEC title and three bowl games, including wins in the Peach and Sugar Bowls.