Even though it is a bye week for the LSU football team, coach Nick Saban had a lot to talk about Wednesday in his weekly press gathering.
With three games remaining and LSU controlling its own destiny in the Southeastern Conference Western division, Saban reminded everyone it is imperative the Tigers focus on one opponent at a time.
“We need to win the games and play one game at a time,” Saban said. “That’s what we can control and that’s what we can do. So that’s what we’re working to do.”
Saban said the Tigers have practiced well since their 49-10 thrashing of Louisiana Tech Saturday night and need to continue to do so.
“We had a good practice today,” Saban said. “And we had a good start yesterday.”
However, Saban was not pleased with LSU’s effort in the second half of the Tech game, as the Bulldogs outscored the Tigers 7-0 in the second stanza.
“I was disappointed in the way we played in the second half of the last game,” Saban said. “After I watched the film, [I saw] a lot of mental errors that stopped ourselves. We need to get those things straight.”
Saban said the Tigers have started preparing for their last three opponents – Alabama, Ole Miss and Arkansas – during the bye week. While the Tigers are not specifically preparing for those teams, Saban has started to give his team a little taste of all of their systems.
“All three teams that we play are good football teams,” Saban said. “So we have lots of work to do.”
After LSU’s last bye week, the Tigers lost their only game of the season, falling to Florida 19-7.
Saban was happy with the bye week psyche of his players, but was displeased with the way his team prepared for the Gators the next week.
“The attitude was good of the last week,” Saban said. “We practiced really, really well during the bye week. We didn’t play well coming off the bye week and we didn’t practice well for the preparation of the Florida game.”
Because the Tigers’ next two games are on the road, he talked about a sign in the LSU locker room that extends a message the players should follow.
“We put a sign in the locker that says, ‘It’s not the fans in Tiger Stadium, it’s the Tigers in Tiger Stadium that make it a tough place to play,'” Saban said. “That means sometimes our players kind of feel like when they’re playing at home, that maybe everything is going to work out … we’re not focused on the right things. You’ve got to focus on your performance, bring your “A” game and you’re playing well. And you’re affecting the other team. I think when people go on the road, they’re much more conscious of, ‘I’ve got to overcome. We’ve got to pay attention to detail, we’ve got to do things right.'”