With last week’s loss to Southern Cal, LSU has now dropped its last five season openers, including the last three under head coach Brian Kelly.
But Kelly tried to be positive about the 27-20 setback last Sunday in Las Vegas as he looked ahead to the No. 18 Tigers’ home opener against FCS opponent Nicholls on Saturday night.
“We’re going to be a better football team because of what happened,” Kelly said. “It would’ve been better if we had won the game. Our margin for error now is razor thin when you lose a game like this. But we’re developing a football team and this was important. We’re going to be better as a team going into Week 2. We know a lot more about our football team, what we need to do better as coaches.”
LSU is facing a similar scenario to what it faced the first two seasons under Kelly, when the Tigers lost their openers to Florida State.
In both seasons LSU took care of business a week later in its home opener against an in-state FCS opponent. Last season the Tigers beat Grambling State 72-10 to start a three-game winning streak and a stretch of six wins in seven games. Two years ago, LSU beat Southern 65-17 to start a four-game winning streak.
Both teams wound up winning 10 games, and Kelly’s first team played in the SEC Championship Game.
“I’ve got a good feeling about this football team, it’s going to be a good team,” Kelly said. “We’ve got some work to do but we’re going to get this team to the point where we’re balanced in all three phases.”
The Tigers didn’t run the ball as well as Kelly would have liked behind a veteran offensive line that is supposed to be a strength. LSU rushed for a decent 117 yards, but outside of a 39-yard run by John Emery Jr., it averaged 3.1 yards on 25 carries.
“We have to be more efficient with our run game,” Kelly said. “When it’s third down and everybody knows you want to run it, let’s be creative in running the football but let’s execute at a high level. We didn’t execute at the level we’re capable of. … This is not just on our players. This is on coaching as well.”
LSU reportedly lost Emery to a torn ACL sustained in practice on Tuesday, The Advocate reported.
Josh Williams and Kaleb Jackson are expected to see an increase in workload in place of Emery. Williams had nine carries for 33 yards and Jackson rushed five times for 14 yards against the Trojans.
The Colonels are playing their second consecutive game against an in-state opponent after losing their opener, 25-17 at Louisiana Tech last Saturday.
“We weren’t where we wanted to be,” Nicholls coach Tim Rebowe told HTV10 Houma. “But there were so many good things that happened throughout the game. The effort the guys displayed and not giving up until the end, a one-score game going into the fourth quarter.”
Now the Colonels will make the 70-mile bus trip from Thibodaux to Baton Rouge to face the marquee program in Louisiana for the first time in school history.
“It’s going to be exciting for the community, it’s going to be exciting for the school,” Rebowe said. “We’ve got to focus on us. That’s going to be the big concern. I think the game is going to take care of itself.”
–Field Level Media
