BATON ROUGE — After what coach Nick Saban termed a good week of practice, fourth-ranked LSU returns to action on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Tiger Stadium against Arkansas State from the Sun Belt Conference.
The Arkansas State game will serve as LSU’s final tune-up before starting Southeastern Conference play next week at Auburn. LSU enters Saturday’s game against the Indians coming off a thrilling 22-21 overtime win over Oregon State. Arkansas State (0-1) dropped a 52-20 decision to 17th-ranked Missouri in its season opener.
“The key focus for us is to get better execution and to get it right with our guys,” Saban said in leading up to Saturday’s contest. “I’m hopeful that nobody is relieved that we won the (Oregon State) game and that they see this as an opportunity to learn from an inability to execute, regardless of the circumstances, and how with the proper execution we can have a lot more success. The real key is going to be on the improvement. That’s what we want to focus on.”
“We’re really always going to respect our opponents, but I think it’s more important at this time what our team does relative to the situation that they’re in rather than it is who we’re playing. And that’s not to disrespect anyone, but I would say that regardless of who our opponent was this week.”
The Indians come into Tiger Stadium with a high-powered passing attack, one that racked up 350 yards through the air last week against Missouri.
“Arkansas State played really well against Missouri, especially on offense,” Saban said. “They had 438 (total) yards and scored 17 points in the first half. They really looked good offensively. Steve Roberts does a really good job of coaching these guys. The two new quarterbacks that they have both played extremely well in the (Missouri) game.”
The Tigers will counter the Arkansas State offense with a defense that held Oregon State to only 88 yards rushing, while racking up four sacks in the win last weekend.
Offensively, LSU is expected to use two quarterbacks against the Indians as senior Marcus Randall and freshman JaMarcus Russell are slated to see action. Randall started last week against Oregon State and connected on 7 of 18 passes for 66 yards before giving way to Russell in the second half, who guided the LSU comeback by directing a pair of scoring drives, including one that sent the game into overtime with just over a minute remaining. Russell hit on 9 of 26 passes for 145 yards and a pair of touchdowns in his first action as a Tiger.
In overtime, Russell gave way to Randall after suffering cramps and Randall responded by rushing for a 5-yard touchdown that proved to be the winning points for the Tigers.
“There is some improving we need to,” Saban said of the play of the quarterbacks. “We need to get better execution there. We are going to try to build and we will play both guys in this game.”
Another must for the Tigers against Arkansas State will be the establishment of a running game. Last week, the Tigers rushed for only 91 yards against Oregon State with Justin Vincent leading the way with 48 yards.
The history between LSU and Arkansas State is brief and one-sided as the Tigers hold a 2-0 advantage against the Indians. In the two previous meetings, LSU has combined to outscore the Indians, 112-20, which includes a 70-14 win in 1991. In that game, LSU set a school record by returning three interceptions for touchdowns. LSU has also returned a punt for a score in each of its two games against Arkansas State.