BATON ROUGE — Despite a 49-7 win over Tulane last week, LSU coach Les Miles said there is still plenty of room for improvement for his team as the ninth-ranked Tigers continued to prepare for Saturday’s Southeastern Conference home opener against Mississippi State.
The Tigers and the Bulldogs meet in a rare morning contest as kickoff is slated for 11:30 a.m. in a sold out Tiger Stadium. The game will be televised to a regional audience by Lincoln Financial Sports. The game serves as the annual Gold Game for the Tigers and LSU fans are encouraged to wear gold to the contest.
The Tigers, who bring the league’s No. 1 rated offense and defense into the Mississippi State contest, stand at 3-1 overall and 0-1 in league play. The Bulldogs are 1-3 overall and 0-2 in conference action.
“We have to improve,” Miles said of his team. “We are working on those things that we need to improve on each day in practice.
“Today’s practice was another opportunity for us to get better as a team. It was a beautiful day and the weather was great. I thought the players did a nice job responding to the nice weather. They played hard and we really had a good practice. I was especially pleased with the sharp throwing of our quarterbacks and the way the receivers caught the football.”
Miles addressed the running game saying that he expects senior Justin Vincent to start against Mississippi State on Saturday. Miles did say that freshman Charles Scott and Alley Broussard will both get carries in the game.
“Charles Scott had a good practice and he’s worked hard every day this week,” Miles said. “We are looking for the running back with the hot hand and that’s who we will go with. If the hot hand is No. 22 (Alley Broussard), we will go with him.”
Last week against Tulane, Scott rushed for a career-best 101 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries for the Tigers.
Miles said that senior guard Brian Johnson has practiced each day this week and will be back in the lineup on Saturday. Johnson missed last week’s game against Tulane with an injury.
Miles said the only player who is questionable for the Mississippi State game is senior tight end Keith Zinger, who continues to be slowed by a stomach ailment. Zinger returned to action last week for the first time since the season-opener, seeing 20 snaps against Tulane. Miles said Zinger’s status for the game will be determined later in the week.