The Friday 5 comes your way every Friday, following Ed Orgeron‘s weekly meeting with the media after Thursday’s practice. Here are five things of note ahead of Saturday’s kickoff, with special guests: ESPN Gameday’s Rece Davis and David Pollack.
DBU Challenged
David Pollack doesn’t beat around the bush.
The former Georgia Bulldog defensive lineman turned ESPN Gameday commentator issued a challenge to the secondary of third-ranked LSU, as they prepare to defend the productive passing game of No. 1 Alabama on Saturday night.
“It’ll be fun to watch,” Pollack said of the matchup between the Tigers’ secondary and the Tide passing game. “LSU, you call yourself DBU? Let’s see what you got. I’m very curious. Are you going to flinch?”
It’s the Run-Pass Option game of the Tide Pollack is most intrigued by. The Tide average 347.4 yards per game through the air, utilizing a style popular across college football Pollack jokingly calls “cheating.”
“To be clear, RPOs are cheating,” he said. “I’m a defensive player. It’s the worst thing in college football. It’s why offenses go bananas. The offensive line blocks run. If I’m a linebacker and I see run, I fit run. You got a fat guy that’s 330 pounds running at you? If you don’t get some momentum going, you’re going to get hit in the face and it’s not going to feel good. So if I see run, I have to go play it. Well, now, the quarterback sees you play run, and they’ll throw a slant behind you, and now it’s a pass. You can’t win.”
For LSU, the nation’s leader in interceptions with 14 and fourth nationally in pass defense efficiency, Pollack says the key will be going man across the board and daring the Tide to run.
“This is the stupidest opinion you’ll hear all week,” he said. “I would let Bama run the football. Never have we said that in a million runs. I would take them running the ball five yards a pop down the field, seven yards down the field, and try to win in the red zone. Try to play man coverage where the field shrinks and (Bama QB) Tua (Tagovailoa) can have as much magic and the deep ball can’t come into play. I know that sounds stupid. It probably is. I’m not very bright.”
Regardless of the scheme taken, Pollack made no bones about it: the burden is on LSU’s secondary to keep making plays as they’ve done all year.
“Greedy Williams, are you going to come up and play press on (Jerry) Jeudy? You going to follow him around? Those RPOs are miserable to defend,” he said, “and the best way to play against them is jam wide receivers and play man coverage and win outside. We’ll see if LSU can do it.”
Davis’ Take
Pollack wasn’t the only Gameday figure available Friday. Host Rece Davis also outlined the things he’ll be looking for, which includes how the Tigers plan to defense the passing game of the Tide inside the lines.
“I want to see how LSU covers Irv Smith and the inside receivers,” Davis said. “If they can take that and the run away, Alabama has to take chances against Greedy on the outside.”
Ed Orgeron spoke about the challenges presented by Smith, Alabama’s tight end, on Friday. Much of the responsibilities will fall on young linebackers stepping up for Devin White, who will miss the first half due to a suspension for a targeting foul against Mississippi State. Whether that’s Patrick Queen or Micah Baskerville, Orgeron knows his players will be ready, but he doesn’t expect them to be perfect.
“We’re going to see,” Orgeron said. “They’ve done well in practice. They’ve made some mistakes. I know they’re going to get tested. We’re going to see. Going to have to make adjustments. We’re going to see how they’re going to try and attack us. I do believe they’re going to do well, but they’re going to make mistakes.”
Davis made one bold prediction: Alabama won’t score on its first drive for the first time all season, he said. That would fit with the production of an LSU defense that has yet to allow a first quarter touchdown this season. Davis, an Alabama alum, also spoke of the atmosphere he’s expecting Saturday night.
“There’s a mystique that goes with a night game here,” he said. “It’s certainly a little extra when Alabama is here. It’s been as meaningful a rivalry as there’s been in college football in terms of the stakes over the last decade.”
Noise Blocked
Asked Thursday night if he had any thoughts on the predictions analysts have offered on the game this week, Orgeron laughed.
“That doesn’t matter,” he said. “We don’t pay attention to that. Whether they pick us across the board to win or not doesn’t matter. I have a feeling they picked against us across the board in other games, and it didn’t work. That doesn’t bother me at all. We’ve got to play the game.”
Analytically Speaking
A recurring storyline all week has been the expanded staff of analysts LSU possesses this season, up from five last year to 10 this season. The benefits have been clear all season in expanded scouting reports, and Orgeron knows that will help as much Saturday as it has in the eight games preceding this one.
“I think it’s helped all year,” he said. “We have more information. We’re dissecting guys from part to whole. We have more information to give to (defensive coordinator) Dave (Aranda). Dave runs it, but we have guys in the meeting with all the coaches in there making decisions.
“I knew other schools – not only Alabama – other schools in the SEC had a lot more analysts than we did, and we were not prepared properly.”
Running Joe
One weapon Orgeron would like to utilize as much as possible is the running of quarterback Joe Burrow. The junior has 331 rushing yards (not including sack yardage) and averages 5.8 yards per carry this season, but lack of depth at the spot makes Orgeron and offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger selective about when they will run Burrow.
“We’re going to pick and choose times we can do it,” he said. “I would like to be able to run him more. We can’t. We don’t have another quarterback. We have Myles (Brennan) and I think he’d do very well, but if we go down to one (scholarship quarterback), it gets dangerous.”