To see a video from Les Miles’ press conference, click here.
LSU coach Les Miles is eager to move forward after suffering the biggest blowout loss of his LSU career Saturday against the Gators.But a 51-21 thrashing at the hands of Florida is difficult to ignore, and he faced numerous questions at his weekly press luncheon Monday about what went wrong in The Swamp.”We met this morning at 6:45 a.m., and it was a little bit less enjoyable to show up at 6:45 in the morning to review a game where you were unsuccessful,” he said. “Our team’s resolve and want to prepare is pretty strong.”But the question looms: Will the Tigers be able to shake off the mistakes, jitters and out-of-sync nature that plagued them in The Swamp?The odds are in Miles’ favor as he leads LSU (4-1, 2-1) to Columbia, S.C., to face the Gamecocks (5-2, 2-2) at 7 p.m Saturday. He has never lost consecutive games while at LSU, holding a 6-0 record coming off losses. But the same can’t be said for his career at Oklahoma State. Miles weathered two straight 35-plus point losses at the hands of Oklahoma and Texas.”I remember very specifically. I was wearing orange,” Miles answered in response to a question about previous lopsided losses.Miles said he remains confident in the Tigers’ abilities because of the effort he saw on film.”I painstakingly looked at every snap, and I wrote down numbers of guys who I thought were giving great effort, and my sheet was full,” he said. “Guys that fight like that, they have confidence.”UNFAMILIAR FOESLSU has faced South Carolina least often out of all other Southeasten Conference opponents. The teams will meet Saturday for the 19th time, and LSU holds a 15-2-1 series lead. Tiger fans likely remember last year’s contest because of kicker Colt David’s fake field goal touchdown off a flip pass from former quarterback Matt Flynn. LSU posted a 28-16 win against then-No. 12 South Carolina in Tiger Stadium.INCREASING OPTIONSRedshirt freshman quarterback Jarrett Lee ranks No. 3 in SEC pass efficiency rankings, despite a shaky two-interception performance against Florida.”He wasn’t really comfortable early on at all, and at a time where we didn’t have the run greased and ready to roll, we kind of expected a quarterback to hit a pass or two to keep a drive alive while we get it fixed and start making the adjustments,” Miles said. “He was uneasy, and we were getting three and outs.”Lee said he hopes to get more receivers involved in the Tigers’ offensive scheme, especially since the Gators limited junior running back Charles Scott to 35 rushing yards.”We have other players like Richard Dickson or Chris Mitchell who had a touchdown catch and Brandon LaFell and people like that who we can go to. Terrance [Toliver] also made a great catch,” Lee said Monday. “So we’ve got other playmakers out there on the field, so we’re going to work this week in practice on getting everyone on the same page.”Mitchell, whose sole reception was a 6-yard touchdown catch, said he’s just eager to help the team.”When a receiver asks for the ball and keeps telling the quarterback ‘Throw it to me,’ it takes the quarterback’s eyes off of what’s really going on,” he said. “If I’m open and you throw me the ball, fine. If not, I’ll just go to the next play.”Sports writer Casey Gisclair contributed to this report.—-Contact Amy Brittain at [email protected]