With Halloween approaching, an eerie feeling is floating around campus.
The aura is one of emptiness because, for the first time since August, there will be a weekend without an LSU football game.
The Tigers enter their bye week boasting a 7-1 record and a No. 12 ranking in the Bowl Championship Series standings.
But LSU’s schedule has not been an easy row to hoe, as the team has already played four games in which its opponent was ranked at the time of the matchup — then-No. 18 North Carolina, then-No. 22 West Virginia, then-No. 14 Florida and then-No. 5 Auburn. The Tigers also took on Mississippi State, who was unranked when it met LSU but is currently No. 21 in the BCS standings.
With the brutal grind of a week-in and week-out Southeastern Conference schedule, the Tigers are using the week off to heal before the stretch run of the season.
“The big thing is getting rest on the body,” said junior running back Stevan Ridley. “We have Alabama coming up next week, and it’s always one of the biggest games of the year. We just really have to take it slow and rest and get ready.”
Though the team may recuperate this week and take it easy, Ridley knows the scaled-back tempo at practice won’t last for long.
“I don’t see [LSU] coach [Les] Miles letting us go a whole week without contact,” Ridley said. “As much as I’d like for it to happen, I think we’re still going to get a little bit of contact in there. But we’re not going to be banging as much as we normally would be.”
The week is also one where the players get the chance to cut loose and relax a bit, as displayed by Ridley, who sat Indian-style to do interviews this week and requested reporters join him on the practice field turf before he would answer questions. Senior offensive tackle Joseph Barksdale stood beside Ridley and performed yoga poses while listening to the questions.
Many players are also using the bye as a time to get away from football and spend time with their families. Others will enjoy hobbies that get shoved aside during the season.
“Having a season like this, there are some things you have to put on the back burner,” said sophomore wide receiver Russell Shepard. “Seeing your family is one of those things. You have to make a lot of sacrifices like not seeing your family or having much free time, so this week it’s nice to just be a normal 19- or 20-year-old kid.”
Shepard will head home to Houston on Friday to spend time with his family, who he has not seen since the first weekend of the summer.
Ridley, who is an avid hunter, doesn’t plan on watching much football this weekend but instead hopes to head to his camp in Natchez, Miss., in an attempt to score six points of a different kind.
“I’m going out to hunt deer,” Ridley said. “I really haven’t shot that many big ones, though. I’ve got some six points with nice spreads, but it really wasn’t that big. I’m really more of a duck hunter myself, so I’m waiting on that to open up.”
The Tigers staying in town plan on taking the time off to relax and enjoy a free Saturday.
“I’m going to be doing absolutely nothing,” said junior offensive lineman T-Bob Hebert. “I’m going to sit on my couch and watch TV and football.”
Hebert also plans to take some time to travel to Lake Charles to see his younger brother, Beaux, play for Nicholls State against McNeese State, as well as head to New Orleans for the Saints’ matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
 
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Contact Rob Landry at [email protected]