College football is my favorite form of football by far, but it’s still lacking something. Something the LSU Tigers could have used this season.
High school football has its jamborees. The NFL has an increasingly shrinking number of exhibition games.
LSU needed an exhibition, jamboree or something to work out some of its problematic issues before the game against USC in Las Vegas. But the Tigers had to start cold, as the Trojans did, although they took advantage of LSU’s shortcomings in the run game and on defense to pull out a 27-20 victory.
The Tigers returned home for an uneven 44-21 victory over Nicholls State, then scrambled out of a 17-0 hole at South Carolina last Saturday to beat the Gamecocks 36-33 in a wild one, tied for the second-biggest road comeback in program history going way back to 1940.
That brings us to Saturday’s game in Tiger Stadium between LSU and UCLA, the Bruins’ first visit here in football.
UCLA is a faint copy of the team that pushed LSU all around the Rose Bowl three years ago in a 38-27 upset. The Bruins have been woeful on offense in their first two games, scoring just a touchdown in each against Hawaii and Indiana. Of course, the LSU defense — while somewhat improved from 2023 — is still the movable object preparing to greet this resistible force, ranking 14th or worse in the new 16-team Southeastern Conference in five major defensive categories.
Still, this should be a game for LSU to make strides. Fix its mistakes. Gain some confidence. Impose its will, aside from a big play or three that the Bruins are sure to hit on. Treat this game, and next week’s home date with South Alabama, as the exhibition portion of the season, if you will.
Of course, the Jaguars have a very legitimate offense, having outscored Northwestern State and Appalachian State by a whopping 135-24 the past two games. But that’s next week’s worry for the Tigers and first-year defensive coordinator Blake Baker.
For all the uneven play the Tigers have had so far, especially on defense, they’re still making progress. Still ranked No. 16 nationally. Still, at 2-1, in contention for a College Football Playoff berth.
The way LSU looked in its first three games, the Tigers won’t make it into even an expanded CFP. But there is time. And, for now, the schedule sets up beautifully for LSU if it follows this path: Beat UCLA and South Alabama. Take the season’s first open date to heal up and reassess. Jump back in for the season’s toughest challenge: Ole Miss, at Arkansas, at Texas A&M and Alabama in a five-week stretch. A stretch that will define the 2024 season.
The Tigers aren’t ready for the Rebels or the Crimson Tide just yet. But these next two games, if properly utilized, will give LSU a chance.
Extra points
Three are two things that disappoint me about Saturday’s game:
1. The team colors. LSU will wear purple jerseys and traditional gold helmets and pants (OK, yellow, but they call it gold). That means UCLA will wear white jerseys for its first, and perhaps only, visit to Tiger Stadium.
I really wanted to see UCLA come jogging into Tiger Stadium in its traditional powder blue jerseys. What is this? A leftover clause from Ed Orgeron’s buyout: “No sissy blue shirts in Tiger Stadium” (The “sissy blue” reference is Orgeron’s words to that taunting Bruins fan in Pasadena three years ago, not mine).
I get it that this has become LSU’s tradition. For the second home nonconference game, the Tigers wear their purple jerseys. Apparently the players love them, players who were not around to watch all those home games LSU had to play in purple jerseys from 1982-94. That uniform unpleasantness lasted until former coach Gerry DiNardo got the NCAA to tweak the rule going into the 1995 season, saying a team can wear white at home if the visiting team agrees.
Seeing UCLA in blue and LSU in white certainly would have made a classic uniform matchup even more classic (if you notice, the stripes on both teams’ shoulders are virtually identical). It isn’t to be. It will still be quite a sight, though. Having UCLA and Oklahoma visit Tiger Stadium for the first time in the same season is certainly significant.
2. A day game, not night: You knew LSU was going to have to play a day home game eventually, but hey ESPN/ABC, the forecast is for 94 degrees at kickoff Saturday. That’s HOT! The weather here is one of the reasons they put lights in Tiger Stadium way back in 1931 in the first place.
It’s long been my understanding that LSU has asked its TV partners not to schedule day games here in the early part of the season, at least in September. On top of that, the Bruins and their fans will be denied the best experience of Tiger Stadium — a night game.
Just don’t deny them a cold compress and a portable fan.
