BATON ROUGE — Two weeks ago, LSU came back from a 14-0 first quarter deficit to rally for a 24-21 win over Florida in Gainesville. It’s been said that LSU became a “team” that day. It’s also been noted that the last-minute win over the Gators could be the turning point in LSU’s season.
The Tigers will get their first opportunity to see what type of impact the Florida game had on the team on Saturday as 17th-ranked hosts Troy of the Sun Belt Conference for Homecoming. LSU, 4-2 overall and 2-2 in league play, hasn’t played in two weeks. Troy, 3-3 overall and 1-2 in Sun Belt action, is coming off a 13-9 loss at Arkansas State last week.
The Tigers haven’t been home for a game in 29 days as LSU last played in Tiger Stadium on Sept. 25. Since then, LSU lost at Georgia on Oct. 2, beat Florida in Gainesville on Oct. 9 and then had an open date last weekend.
“It’s important for us to build on the kind of competitive spirit coming out of our last game, which is kind of hard to maintain over a bye week,” LSU coach Nick Saban said this week.”
“I think the key is that we continue to try to compete, impose will, dominate on a consistent basis by the intensity, the intelligence, and the sense of urgency that we kind of play with. I think that’s the identity that we want to try to create for this team.”
That type of play worked for LSU two weeks ago at Florida as the Tigers dominated the Gators in every phase of the game. LSU put together 464 yards of offense against Florida, compared to just 236 yards of offense for the explosive Gators.
This week, LSU goes against a team that has struggled in recent weeks after opening its season with wins over Marshall and then-No. 17 Missouri. Since then, Troy has dropped three of its last four, including a 17-7 loss to South Carolina and a 22-18 defeat to New Mexico State.
“Troy has had some impressive wins,” Saban said. “To beat a top-25 team in Missouri, to beat Marshall at Marshall and to play South Carolina the way they did at South Carolina shows that they have a very good, competitive team, and everybody needs to respect that.”
While Troy comes into Tiger Stadium looking to knock off a top 20 team for the second time this year, LSU will use Saturday’s game as an opportunity to build on the Florida win, a game that saw Marcus Randall emerge as a quarterback capable of leading the Tigers to great heights.
Randall, who was named SEC Offensive Player of the Week following the win over the Gators, connected on 18 of 27 passes for 198 yards and 2 touchdowns in the victory.
“Marcus has continued to show the kind of presence, confidence, and leadership that we look for,” Saban said of his senior quarterback earlier this week. “If that continues, which we expect it will, then he’s going to be our go-to guy. We’re happy that he had a great game when he came off the bench at Florida, and hopefully he can start a game and do the same thing.”
Another key to LSU’s success is that of the Tiger running backs, a group that has combined to rush for 3,657 yards and 34 touchdowns in their career. Joseph Addai, who is coming off a 93-yard effort against Florida, leads the Tigers in rushing with 300 yards on 34 carries for a whopping 8.8 yards a rush.
When the Tigers are throwing the ball, sophomores Dwayne Bowe and Craig Davis have been the favorite targets for the LSU quarterbacks. Bowe has 24 passes for 376 yards and five touchdowns, while Davis has 23 receptions for 376 yards.
Defensively, LSU seems to have regained its form of a season ago as the Tigers lead the SEC in rushing defense, allowing 104 yards per game. The Tigers also rank ninth in the nation in total defense, yielding 268.8 yards per contest, while allowing just 16.7 points per game.
“We have all the respect in the world for Troy and what they’ve been able to accomplish and some of the good teams that they’ve beaten,” Saban said. “But at the same time, we want to build on creating an identity for this team, a team that can compete on a consistent basis, be a dominant team, get after it for 60 minutes in the game, beat the other team down, wear them out playing the LSU way.”