In their last two trips to Arkansas, the Tigers (8-2, 5-2 Southeastern Conference) have been stuck between a rock and a hard place — Little Rock to be exact.
The Tigers are 0-for-2 in the Natural State under coach Nick Saban, and he said LSU must be ready to compete against the scrappy Razorbacks (5-5, 3-4) again this season.
The Tigers lead the all-time series in Little Rock 6-5 but have not won there since 1996.
“It’s not one of the largest stadiums (with a 53,727 capacity) that we play at when we go on the road, but it’s one that has a lot of character and a lot of passion and they always seem to play fairly well there,” Saban said.
Three of Arkansas’ losses this year came to Top 10 teams, including Texas, Auburn and Georgia.
“I think their team plays extremely hard and competes really well,” Saban said. “And this is kind of a trademark you see with coach Houston Nutt’s team and how they go about doing things. That’s how they play on defense and that’s how they play on special teams.”
Arkansas boasts the SEC’s fourth-ranked offense with 413 yards per game, while yielding 390 yards per game to its opponents.
Nutt, the seventh-year head coach for Arkansas, said the Razorbacks will be waiting on the Tigers in Friday’s 1:30 p.m. clash on a national CBS telecast.
“It has always been a big game,” Nutt said. “It falls on Thanksgiving weekend; everyone is looking forward to it.”
When the border rivals met in 2002, the Razorbacks erased a six-point LSU lead on the last drive of the game with a 31-yard touchdown pass from Matt Jones to DeCori Birmingham, followed by an extra point to win the game, 21-20.
Arkansas also took LSU’s spot in the SEC Championship game with the victory.
“We had a chance to put that game away two years ago and we didn’t,” said Tigers offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth.
That game was the catalyst for the 2003 national championship season and still is a reminder that the team must compete for the entire 60 minutes in every contest, Whitworth said. A win against the Razorbacks on their home turf would be icing on the cake.
“It’s going to be something that’s going to help us go up there and play well this time,” Whitworth said. “It’s what helps us finish games today. It was a big deal for us, and it was a lesson for us and we let it teach us.”
Also remembering the sting of that loss, Tigers center Rudy Niswanger said the team cannot let past history become a mental roadblock on Friday.
“There were a lot of factors that went into the game and reasons we didn’t put them away. And we let them come back,” Niswanger said. “It doesn’t boil down to the stadium because the stadium’s not the one out there blocking and tackling people.”
There is no trip to Atlanta and an SEC Championship at stake this year. But LSU has a chance to improve its bowl destination, while Arkansas will become bowl eligible with a win.
Niswanger said the Tigers must focus only on their motivation to win the season finale.
“Hopefully it doesn’t come down to what they do,” Niswanger said. “If we play our type of game and execute the way we’re supposed to … then it really doesn’t matter how they’re motivated. It’s about us and how we motivate ourselves, and how we prepare for the game.”
Added Saban: “Everybody has to have the mindset that it’s a one-game season just like you look at a bowl game. We’ve got to get ourselves prepared to play probably our best football of the season on the road to be able to have success there.”