LSU handled business in practice much better this week than it did in game preparations after its first bye week when the Tigers lost to Florida on Oct. 11, 19-7, coach Nick Saban said at his Wednesday press gathering.
“I think we’ve practiced really well just about every day since the Florida game,” Saban said. “You’d like to think that would help you play well in the game, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to win the game.”
Saban said a letdown can stem from more than just a bad week of practice.
“I think the players always want to play,” Saban said. “I think they always want to do well. Sometimes those intangible feelings that you have affect you a lot. Sometimes when your mind gets thinking about the wrong things it can affect you in the wrong way.”
One thing the Tigers definitely must not focus on is results, Saban said. He said last year’s 31-0 loss to Alabama in Baton Rouge stung last year, but he will not use it as motivation to improve results in this season’s game.
“I haven’t used it [as motivation] but I remember it,” Saban said. “That’s as bad as we’ve had our butts spanked since we’ve been here by anybody.
“I think one of the worst things to do is to think about … what the results are going to bring and things that are result-oriented. And I think that creates a lot of anxiety. I think that in itself does not enhance performance in anything.”
Saban will coach against an old friend in Charlie Harbison who is now at Alabama as the receivers coach. Harbison served as the Tigers’ defensive backs coach from 2001 to 2002, but Saban said he cannot say if that will give the Crimson Tide an advantage in the game.
“Charlie did a great job for us here, and if it weren’t for his personal circumstances he’d still be here,” Saban said. “I truly love the guy. He’s a class guy. I know he’s doing a great job for them there. What advantage or disadvantage it is for them, I don’t know. He’s obviously familiar with some of the stuff that we do, but I don’t know how much that helps.”
Saban said Harbison returned to Alabama, where he coached defensive backs from 1998 to 2000, because of his wife’s serious illness. Saban said he encouraged Harbison to find a coaching job with more flexibility to give him more time to take care of family obligations.
“I could just see the pain in his eyes once it got to a point where somebody needed to be there,” Saban said. “I told him … one of these days you’re going to wish you would have spent more time taking care of your personal business rather than worrying about recruiting and all that kind of stuff.”
LSU vs. Southern
In other football news, LSU athletics director Skip Bertman met with Southern athletics director Floyd Kerr on Wednesday about the possibilty of the Tigers meeting the Jaguars during open dates in the 2004 and 2005 seasons. Bertman said LSU is more interested in playing a Division I-A team.
“It is very clear that strength of schedule is a major component of the Bowl Championship Series rankings,” Bertman said “And if we are going to continue to play at this level of competition, we have to schedule accordingly. Unfortunately, that allows us to only schedule Division I-AA opponents as a matter of last recourse.”