BATON ROUGE — LSU’s seventh-ranked football team takes a much-needed break from the Southeastern Conference schedule on Saturday as the Tigers host North Texas of the Sun Belt Conference at 7 p.m. in Tiger Stadium.
In its last two games, LSU has had to go to the wire in wins over Florida and Auburn. Those two games came after SEC road games against Mississippi State and Vanderbilt. In all, LSU has played five consecutive SEC games in as many weeks.
The North Texas game was originally scheduled as the season-opener for both teams. However, the contest was postponed from its original date of Sept. 3 until this weekend due to Hurricane Katrina and the impact the storm had on the state of Louisiana.
Now eight weeks after the postponement, the Tigers and Mean Green appear to be teams headed in opposite directions. LSU has won five of its first six games and is ranked No. 7 in the nation in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches poll. North Texas, on the other hand, has dropped four of its last five games and brings a 2-4 overall mark into Tiger Stadium.
In six games this season, the Mean Green has only scored five offensive touchdowns as North Texas is averaging only 10 points per game, while allowing close to 30 points a contest.
Despite its record, LSU coach Les Miles said his team is preparing for North Texas’ best game of the season on Saturday.
“They’re a good football team that’s had success, and we don’t want to take anybody lightly,” Miles said. “They’ve been to four straight bowls and they can come in here with the idea that they can swing for the long ball, take every cut and have the opportunity to beat us. A team that’s used to being at a bowl wants to mark their season, and certainly a great showing at our stadium will give them a tremendous highlight.”
North Texas brings a pair of running backs into Tiger Stadium who have each led the nation in rushing for the past two years. Patrick Cobbs rushed for an NCAA-best 1,680 yards as a junior in 2003. Last year, Jamario Thomas stepped in for an injured Cobbs and rushed for a nation’s best 1,801 yards.
Cobbs leads the Mean Green with 513 yards rushing this year, while Thomas has rushed for 244 yards. The duo will go against an LSU defense that is allowing only 96 yards rushing per game.
“Those two backs are very talented,” Miles said. “We’ll have to do a good job on defense to contain them.”
Offensively, the Tigers are still looking for that breakout game, one in which they put four quarters together. LSU has shown signs of brilliance on offense at times, but at other times the Tigers have had trouble putting the ball in the endzone.
Still, LSU is averaging 29 points per game and 378 yards of offense per contest. Running back Joseph Addai continues to be the key for the Tigers as he leads the SEC with 107 yards rushing per contest. Addai has rushed for 100 yards or more in three straight games, including 105 yards in last week’s win over Auburn.
When the Tigers go away from the run, quarterback JaMarcus Russell has proven to have big-play capability. Three times this year, Russell has led the Tigers to come-from-behind wins either the fourth quarter or overtime. Last week, Russell guided the Tigers on a scoring drive late in the fourth quarter that eventually sent the game into overtime, which LSU won 20-17.
In six games this season, Russell has connected on 102 of 168 passes for 1,307 yards and eight touchdowns. Russell’s top targets have been that of Skyler Green (22 receptions for 169 yards) and Dwayne Bowe (16 receptions, 323 yards, 5 TDs).
Special teams play has also been critical to LSU’s success this year and last week’s win over Auburn was no different as Green returned a punt 66-yards for a first quarter touchdown. The Tigers led the SEC in both punt returns and net punting.
After the North Texas game, the Tigers again remain out of conference, hosting Appalachian State for Homecoming at 7 p.m. on Nov. 5.
“Our football team is in a good position for the remainder of the season,” Miles said. “We don’t want any letdowns over these next two weeks. We want to use this time and these two games as an opportunity to get better and that’s the same approach we have each week.
“With each game we want to make progress and improve in all three phases of the game. That’s what we are working towards this week and I’ve been pleased with the progress we’ve made on the practice field up to this point.”