With the 21-17 loss to No. 1 Alabama in the rearview mirror, LSU coach Les Miles has spent his week trying to keep the Tigers’ focus on Saturday’s game against No. 22 Mississippi State.
The loss all but ended the No. 9 Tigers’ hopes of returning to the BCS National Championship Game, but Miles said his team must remain focused and insisted his team’s goals have not changed.
“A championship-style effort and a championship-style football team are still very much our need and want,” Miles said. “Things have to play out for me. I am an eternal optimist, and if I feel like a door is open to us, we’ll come. That being said, the opportunity to do some very significant things this season is still in front of this team.”
In order to finish strong, the Tigers must quickly forget about Saturday’s loss.
Miles said a big key to keeping the team looking forward is his 24-hour rule. The rule states the team waits 24 hours after a game to watch the film and then puts what happened behind them.
Given the emotional nature of the loss, that might be harder than usual this week.
“The key is don’t prepare any different than you did the week before,” said LSU senior offensive lineman Josh Dworaczyk. “Don’t come out in the games and play any different. Practice hard and play hard and the results will be different.”
Under Miles, LSU has had a hard time rebounding after being knocked out of the national title race.
In 2010, the Tigers came into the last weekend of the regular season needing Alabama to defeat Auburn to have a shot at playing for the Southeastern Conference and BCS championships. Auburn won, and the next day LSU lost a mistake-filled game in Arkansas, 31-23, which cost the Tigers a trip to the Sugar Bowl.
The season before, LSU lost to Ole Miss 25-23 on the infamous “spike play” two weeks after losing to Alabama.
“In years past I’ve been on teams that have had to refocus our goals,” Dworaczyk said. “It always became about how do you want to finish nationally and where do you want to be when all this is said and done.”
Currently sitting at No. 7 in the BCS rankings, the Tigers still have a chance for a BCS bowl bid. They are most likely to play in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.
LSU would need help to make it, with one-loss SEC teams Florida and Georgia currently ahead of them in line for the bid.
“We still have three games to play and they are three big games for our team,” said junior safety Eric Reid. “We just got to stay positive, finish the season strong and hope for the best.”
After entering the season No. 3 in the polls, needing help to get a Sugar Bowl bid is not what this team had in mind from the start, but the Tigers’ goals have shifted and the focus is on finishing strong.
“Things don’t always go your way in life,” said senior wide receiver Russell Shepard. “Things don’t always go as you expect, but you have to put your head down and finish what you start.”
LSU will head into the final stretch of its season Saturday night against a Mississippi State team that has a habit of playing the Tigers tough.
The Tigers defeated the Bulldogs 19-6 last season, the closest margin of victory against any team not named Alabama.
‘Things don’t always go as you expect, but you have to put your head down and finish what you start.’
