The No. 20 LSU football team has had a couple days to digest the outcome of its overtime loss to No. 4 Alabama, but junior offensive lineman Vadal Alexander’s penalty late in the fourth quarter Saturday was still tough to talk about Monday.
The now infamous penalty has been widely discussed since the final whistle blew. Everyone from LSU coach Les Miles to sophomore quarterback Anthony Jennings weighed in on the officiating late in the game.
Both Miles and Jennings were unhappy with the officiating during their postgame interviews, but senior center Elliott Porter decided to take a different approach when commenting on the call Monday.
“When it’s tight, and it’s a tight ball game, that’s what they look for so we can’t do it,” Porter said.
The penalty came after a fumble by Alabama junior running back T.J. Yeldon that put the Tigers on the Crimson Tide’s 6-yard line with 1:13 remaining. The 15-yard penalty pushed the Tigers back to the 21-yard line, forcing them to settle for a field goal three plays later.
The rivalry between Alabama and LSU is as intense as it gets in college football, but Porter said they had to play disciplined in a game of that magnitude.
“That’s why you never leave it in the referee’s hands. That’s how I feel about it,” Porter said. “[We] can’t make those penalties.”
Porter said regardless of the call on the field, the Tigers had to move on.
“It’s football. It happens — got to think about it like that,” Porter said. “Everything happens for a reason, and that’s how God wanted it to be. That’s how I look at it.”
Players look to bounce back
It has been four straight games of heartbreak and defeat for the Tigers against Alabama, and while the Tigers’ loss may sting, it’s a defeat they have to bounce back from.
LSU is set to take on Southeastern Conference rival Arkansas on Saturday, and it will have to bounce back after an emotional defeat to prepare for the Razorbacks’ physical run-first attack.
“We really hate the outcome of Saturday,” said sophomore defensive tackle Christian LaCouture. “It was something that really devastated us. I didn’t get much sleep that night, so it’s something we have to rebound from.”
The Tigers have what players call a “48-hour rule.” The rule means the team can keep its previous game on its mind for two days, but after that allotted time, the Tigers have to move on to the next opponent.
“It’s an immediate bounce back,” Porter said. “We have a game on Saturday. The 48 hour rule, got to get over it and just roll into next week.”
After losing in the last seconds at home for the second straight time against the Crimson Tide, the Tigers face extreme adversity heading into their next game.
Junior defensive back Jalen Collins said this team has been through adversity throughout the season, and this week shouldn’t be different.
“I don’t think it should be. It’s something we’ve done before,” Collins said. “We’ve overcome adversity plenty of times this season, so I don’t think it should be that bad.”
Preparing for the cold weather
When the Tigers make the trip to play Arkansas in Fayetteville on Saturday, it won’t be the weather they’re accustomed to down in the bayou.
The predicted weather forecast for Saturday’s game is in the 30s with a 50 percent chance of precipitation, meaning a high chance for snow or sleet when the game kicks off.
“It’s going to be cold,” LaCouture said. “I’ve never been to Arkansas personally. I know it’s supposed to snow, so we’ll do something about it. We’ll probably get in the cold tub and do something, but we’ll figure it out.”
LaCouture, who played Pop Warner in the New England area before moving to Texas and Nebraska for high school, is used to playing in winter conditions. While playing eighth grade football in Barnstable, Massachusetts, LaCouture played in four inches of snow, sleet and hail.
LaCouture said while the Tigers will face conditions he has been through before, it’s something he hasn’t been used to in a while.
“The one thing I was telling a couple of my buddies was ‘Put your A/C a little bit lower than usual. I know the bill might be too expensive, but that’ll really help you,’” LaCouture said. “‘Get your body accustomed to it, get in the cold tub a little bit more than usual.’ It’s something that your body really won’t like it going whether you wear leggings, long-sleeves, whatever you have to do.”
Many of the Tigers hail from the south, making this weather an unknown obstacle. But both Porter and senior safety Ronald Martin said they believe it’s more of a distraction than anything else.
“It’s just a mindset to me,” Martin said. “Once you think it’s going to be cold you’re going to be cold, so you just have to have a mindset that you came to play football.”
While the cold is newfound territory for the Tigers, the game Saturday will come down to execution and game planning.
Porter said he doesn’t read too much into the conditions and believes the Tigers will be ready come Saturday night.
“I don’t think it’s going to bother anybody you have to be weatherproof here,” Porter said. “We’re weatherproof, it wouldn’t bother us at all.”
Notebook: LSU football reacts to Alexander’s late penalty against Alabama
By Jack Chascin
November 10, 2014
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