In honor of MSU coach Sylvester Croom’s 50th birthday, theLSU offense gave the Bulldogs a few gifts — four lostfumbles.
The Bulldogs could not take advantage of those opportunities inSaturday’s 51-0 loss to the Tigers, but LSU coach Nick Sabansaid those mistakes must be cleared up this week.
“There were some things that execution-wise we need toimprove on,” Saban said. “Every one of the fumbles wereeasily corrected and things that are fundamental errors … how youtake the ball from the quarterback, especially with how you carrythe ball. They’re all things that can be corrected andwe’re working hard to teach our players and try to continueto improve from that standpoint.”
Three of the Tigers’ four lost fumbles stalled drivesinside the MSU 30-yard line, with two coming inside the redzone.
Tigers running back Justin Vincent fumbled on the MSU 7-yardline, while redshirt freshman quarterback JaMarcus Russell fumbledon his way to the end zone at the 2-yard line.
Explanations for the fumbles escape LSU offensive tackle AndrewWhitworth. He said mental errors were probably the cause.
“The two [fumbles] down on the goal line were both justkind of freakish things that aren’t very common for those twoguys,” Whitworth said. “I think that they’reeasily correctable and things we work on every day. That’snothing I would think of as a problem or anything I would worryabout.”
Vincent said the plethora of fumbles for the offense in the MSUgame was “shocking” and unusual for a group that hasfew mental errors in practice.
“The fumble I had was definitely a fundamentalthing,” Vincent said. “I didn’t pick my arm uphigh enough.”
But the worst part about fumbling is not dropping the ball, itis facing Saban after the fact, Vincent said.
“No matter what you do, you can’t avoid him,”Vincent said.
Vincent said turning your back to Saban or looking him directlyin the eye are not good solutions.
“When you get into it with a coach, or a guy with a lot ofauthority you don’t know what to do,” Vincent said.”You don’t want to turn your back. If you do look athim and he thinks you’re eyeballing it’s kind of anegative. So you try to look above his head just a little bit orlook to the side.”
Wide receiver Craig Davis said his lost fumble in the firstquarter was a mental problem. He fumbled the ball on the MSU27-yard line after the Tigers had driven all the way from their own26. He said excitement about making a big play took his mind offthe basics of the game.
“It was the way I was carrying the ball,” Davissaid. “It was a fundamental issue — a mental lapse onmy part.”
The key to ball-handling is tucking the ball tightly between thewrist and the elbow as well as field awareness, Davis said.
“Today the first thing we’re going to do in practiceis ball security — what we do every day,” Davis said.”During practice we might be running around with a ball inour hand and coach might try to hit it out of our hand just to haveus alert.”
The Tigers’ ball-handlers will be sure to keep the ballclose by this weekend with No. 3-ranked Georgia on the horizon,Whitworth said.
“You won’t have a problem with intensity and focusin that game,” Whitworth said. “Both sides of the ballwill be very serious and this game’s definitely going to be avery competitive game.”