After its first game against McNeese State was cancelled following a four-hour weather delay, the LSU football team shifts its focus to its official season opener, a primetime showdown on the road against Heisman candidate Dak Prescott and the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
The Tigers now head to Starkville with no live game experience this season besides a five-play series on offense and a quick three and out on defense after the season opener was called off.
Young players that figure to be key contributors on this year’s team saw little to no action against McNeese State before LSU dives into conference play. First year players like freshman cornerbacks Kevin Toliver II and Donte Jackson would have benefitted from game experience against McNeese, said junior defensive lineman Christian LaCouture. It also would have been beneficial for sophomore quarterback Brandon Harris, whose only other official start as a Tiger was in a 41-7 road loss to Auburn last season.
“It would’ve been good for those young guys to get their reps in,” LaCouture said. “But at the same time, we just have to go on to the next week, and we couldn’t do anything about it. We really wanted to play that game. It was our home opener. The crowd was amazing, and our team was ready to go. We just have to move on and play the next game.”
The Mississippi State game will also mark the Tigers’ fourth straight contest away from Tiger Stadium. With Auburn looming the following week, LSU will open its season against two Southeastern Conference schools for the first time in school history.
Stopping Dak and the Bulldogs
LSU will look to avenge last year’s 34-29 loss to the Bulldogs, Mississippi State’s first win against LSU in the 21st century and its first in Tiger Stadium since 1991.
Prescott led his team to 570 total yards on offense, the most yards ever given up by LSU since Les Miles took over as head coach in 2005.
Prescott had his way with a young LSU defense for the majority of the game with 268 yards passing and two touchdowns. He added 105 yards on the ground, including a 56-yard touchdown run to add to his Heisman hype tape.
LSU returns six starters on defense this season while Mississippi State only returns four offensive starters from 2014. LaCouture said that containing Prescott will be the defense’s main emphasis this week in practice.
“We have to collapse the pocket and make him feel uncomfortable back there, and if we do that, we should have a great game plan this week,” LaCouture said. “We have to contain him. That’s one of the biggest things. Me and [Davon] Godchaux have to push up the middle and get off the blocks. Dak [has the ability] to run and throw, and we just have to make sure we can prevent those big plays.”
LaCouture said tackling Prescott one-on-one is a challenge. Another big emphasis for the Tigers this week will be swarming to the ball on defense and getting as many helmets on him as possible.
“He’s a bigger guy,” LaCouture said. “He’s not one of those guys that you can hit and he just goes down. We’re gonna have to wrap up. We have to make sure we’re flying to the ball and always have two or three guys bringing him down. If we do that and just play our game, I think we’ll be OK.”
Notebook: LSU freshmen would have benefited from playing a game before SEC play
September 8, 2015
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