BATON ROUGE — LSU head football coach Nick Saban addressed members of the media at his weekly luncheon held Monday afternoon in the fifth floor conference room of the LSU Athletic Administration Building.
Opening Statement…
“After watching the game and evaluating and meeting with the players, I don’t think that there’s any doubt that our players played hard in the game and competed. It was a tough, physical game on both sides, and both teams really played their heart out.”
“I think what really it came down to for our team was that we didn’t play very smart in the game. By that I mean our inability to execute consistently comes from too many mental mistakes and lack of execution on both sides of the ball and on special teams. I think it’s a little bit of the inexperience that we have at some positions, but I also think that we’ve got to focus a little better, we’ve got to have a little better preparation so that we can eliminate some of those errors and understand the consequences of not doing it right and how it affects the team.”
“And for young guys, this game is a great opportunity for us to teach them and show them that very thing that if you do it right this is what happens, and if you don’t do it right this is what happens. Consequently, when you’ve got 22 guys out there and a couple of other guys on special teams, and I’m not blaming this on just the young guys because we had this at every position throughout the team at some point in time where we didn’t get the kind of execution, adjustments, pick up the blitz, whatever it is, some guys with experience didn’t do it and some guys without experience didn’t do it.”
“I think the biggest thing is we identify that, and what we need to do now as coaches is be the best teachers we’ve ever been to teach our guys to be able to do this. This is an opportunity for them to really learn and understand the consequences of doing it right and what can happen and the consequences of not doing it correctly and what can happen. And it takes all 11 guys doing it right to get it to work the way it needs to work on a consistent basis.”
“On defense, even though they didn’t score a lot of points, we allowed them to change the field position way too much in the game so that our offense never really had good field position, only the one time when we got the fumbled punt. We didn’t take advantage of that. We had three opportunities that were right on the edge of field-goal range that we squandered the opportunity with a penalty, a sack, unable to move the ball for another five yards so that we could kick the field goal and make it a two score game. All of those execution issues, and it all came down to that.”
On the LSU quarterback situation…
“I know you want to ask about the quarterback position, but somebody’s got to take the bull by the horns at this position to get the kind of execution that we need. We get it at times from both guys and at times we get inconsistencies at that position. What affects the team is the inconsistent play, not who’s playing. When we’ve got a guy wide open and we throw it five feet in the dirt in front of him, that’s what hurts the team.”
“So, it’s not who’s playing, it’s the consistency that we get at the position. And both guys do some things well, and they make some mistakes that they need to improve on so that we get more consistent execution at that position. I think that is what will create the rhythm that we need for our team. I don’t really care who does it or when it happens, the sooner the better, but somebody needs to do that. And I’m not sure that that’s happened quite yet. We’re going to continue to work with both guys, and we believe in both guys.”
On LSU’s players of the week…
“We had some really good performances. I thought Alley Broussard played really well in the game, he’s one of the offensive players (of the game). (Craig) “Buster” Davis has played extremely well, really all season, but especially in this game. Kyle Williams and Lionel Turner both played well on defense and had a lot of production points. Daniel Francis has been probably our most consistent special teams player that we have had this year. So, we are pleased with his performance, and he’s the special teams player of the week.”
On the LSU injury situation…
“We’ve got some injuries not maybe significant, but three guys will be out of practice today. (Running back) Jacob Hester has a staff infection. Not really something that happened in the game, it was an old cut. (TE) David Jones has a bruised knee and he will be out of practice today. (Center) Ben Wilkerson has a patella tendon strain, so he will be out of practice today. We do expect (wide receiver) Skyler (Green) to be able to start. He is doing a little more practicing, and we will see how he progresses during this week as to what plan and what role we will play him in. He seems to be a lot better than he was and he has been ever before going into the start of the game.”
On Mississippi State…
“This is as important a game as every other SEC game that we play. I made the statement that we would have never won the national championship, we would have never been in the Sugar Bowl, we would have won the SEC championship, we would have never won the western division if we would have never beaten Mississippi State. So, this is important, it is an important game. I think they played their best football game of the year last week. They turned the ball over three times inside the 20 (yard line) and missed a field goal from about the 20 yard line. But they played with more consistency on both sides of the ball, played the best defense of the year and I think they moved the ball most effectively.”
“I think that Sylvester Croom is doing an outstanding job there. The team is playing hard, they play aggressive, they play with a lot of discipline. Their players are doing a good job, which is a sign to me that their coaching staff is doing a great job and it’s because of his leadership. I think he has done a fantastic job, inheriting what is probably a pretty tough situation, and he is doing a good job of improving that situation.”