BATON ROUGE – A week after cruising to a 41-14 win over North Texas in the season-opener, third-ranked LSU will face a must stiffer test on Saturday as the Tigers host Washington in a rare matchup between the two teams.
Kickoff between the Tigers and Huskies is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. CT from a sold out Tiger Stadium. The game will be televised to a national audience on ESPN with Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe calling the action.
The game will also be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network and on the internet in the Geaux Zone on LSUsports.net with legendary announcer Jim Hawthorne and a pair of former Tiger standouts in Doug Moreau and Gordy Rush on the call.
Both teams enter the game with identical 1-0 records as the Tigers opened the year with the win over North Texas, while Washington posted a 21-12 win over San Diego State in Seattle. It will be just the third meeting between the two teams with LSU holding a 2-0 advantage in the series. LSU won the first meeting, 40-14, in Baton Rouge in 1983 followed by a 31-23 Tiger win in Seattle in 2009.
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“We’ve had a good week of preparation,” LSU coach Les Miles said. “Our team understands that we have to do some things better this week in order to have success. We made some mistakes last week that we have to correct, including 10 penalties, two of which cost us touchdowns.
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“Our focus on the game plan has been good and I think we are ready to go out and put together a 60-minute effort. This is a very talented Washington team. They have playmakers on both sides of the ball and their quarterback is a very good player.”
A week ago, the Tigers rolled up over 500 yards of total offense, including 316 on the ground, in the win over North Texas. LSU running backs Kenny Hilliard (141 yards, 2 TDs) and Alfred Blue (123 yards) led the offensive charge for the Tigers.
Quarterback Zach Mettenberger completed 19-of-26 passes for 192 yards and one score against North Texas in what was his first start for the Tigers. Sophomore Jarvis Landry hauled in eight passes for 92 yards to lead the Tigers in receiving.
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“I thought Zach did a nice job of managing the game and throwing the football,” Miles said. “It was his first start here at LSU and I thought he responded very well. He had a good week of practice this week. I’m looking forward to watching him to see how he responds against Washington.”
The Tiger running back corps will add another body this week as junior Spencer Ware is expected to return to action after missing last week’s game. Ware, who has been slowed during camp with a minor injury, is LSU’s second-leading returning rusher from a year ago.
The Tiger offense did receive a blow this week as left tackle suffered what appears to be a season-ending injury. Faulk, a preseason All-Southeastern Conference selection who was expected to contend for All-America honor this year, will be replaced in the lineup by sixth-year senior Josh Dworaczyk.
LSU’s offense will be matched against a Washington defense that held San Diego State to 327 total yards and forced three turnovers in the season-opener. Washington also managed four sacks a week ago.
“We have to do a good job of protecting Zach,” Miles said. “Washington is very active up front on defense. Last week they put a lot of pressure on the quarterback and they did a nice job of creating turnovers. We have to guard against both this week.”
Defensively, the Tigers will face perhaps the best dual threat quarterback that they will see all season in Washington’s Keith Price. Last week against San Diego State, Price completed 25-of-35 passes for 222 yards and a score in the win over San Diego State. Last year, Price set the school record for passing TDs with 33 and he ranks first all-time in Washington history in career completion percentage (.659) and passing efficiency (155.0 rating).
Last year in the Alamo Bowl, Price threw for four TDs and rushed for three more as he tied an NCAA bowl record with seven touchdowns in Washington’s 67-56 loss to Baylor.
Price’s top target is 6-foot-6 tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins, who caught nine passes for 82 yards in the season-opening win.
The Tigers will counter Washington’s offense with a defense that limited North Texas to just 219 total yards and only eight completions a week ago. The total yards could have been much lower as a busted assignment on defense allowed for an 80-yard TD for the Mean Green a week ago.
Linebacker Lamin Barrow with eight tackles and safety Eric Reid with seven stops led the Tigers against North Texas, while defensive end Barkevious Mingo accounted for six total tackles, including a tackle for a 4-yards loss and a quarterback hurry.
LSU will look to tie a pair of records on Saturday – one national and one school – as the Tigers bring the nation’s longest non-conference regular season winning streak into the game at 38 straight as well as a nation’s best 18-game home field winning streak.
A win over Washington will tie Kansas State for the NCAA’s all-time mark in consecutive non-conference regular season wins at 39 in a row. The Tigers will also tie the Tiger Stadium record for consecutive wins at 19 with a victory over the Huskies. LSU hasn’t lost a non-conference regular season game a 26-8 defeat to Virginia Tech to open the 2002 season.
LSU hasn’t dropped a game in Tiger Stadium since October of 2009 when top-ranked Florida beat the Tigers, 13-3.