The close call against Oregon State on Sept. 4 gave LSU a muchneeded reality check that played a big part in preparing forArkansas State, Coach Nick Saban said.
The Tigers found themselves correcting mistakes at practice assoon as last Sunday, in preparation for the Arkansas State gameSaturday. Team members said they found themselves making more of aneffort to improve their game and at the same time focusing on theirmental preparation.
“I think we made an effort every day to get better withour execution,” Saban said. “I’m pleased with theeffort during the week to do that and I think it showed today inthe balance we had on offense.”
The offense progressed, Saban said, because of the work thequarterbacks put in this week. All three quarterbacks saw playingtime in the game.
Randall started with JaMarcus Randall and Matt Flynn also sawsignificant time on the field.
“We went in there knowing the mistakes from last week andcame out there focused and ready to go,” senior quarterbackMarcus Randall said. “After last week’s game it almostfelt like a loss to us. We won the game but it almost felt like aloss. After a loss the next best thing the guys can do is just getback out there and play again.”
Team members agree that the wake up call helped the team tostrive in practice and make a better effort last week.
“The thing pushing us this week was motivation,”sophomore running back Justin Vincent, said. “The realizationof knowing we’re better than Oregon State and making it soclose made the team, including myself, realize we didn’t doenough to get the job done.”
The motivation and preparation taken into the game proved to bewhat LSU needed to dominate the game early. After taking a largelead, the Tigers took advantage of an opportunity giving theyounger players, such as Xavier Carter, Early Doucet and JacobHester time on the field. Saban said the young players need moreconfidence and felt the experience helped a little.
“The younger guys needed to develop more and they madeprogress in this game,” Saban said. “The maturity inthis team is still in question.”
Saban said another question mark still left on the LSU team isspecial teams. Chris Jackson handled all kicking duties but hadsome trouble with two extra point attempts. Saban hinted atre-evaulating special teams this week.
“Chris goes perfect in practice with every field goal andextra point he kicks,” Saban said. “Then, he gets inthe game and it’s a thrill a minute — I can’tunderstand it.”
Saban said as a team, they have made an improvement but stillare not where they need to be — which creates concern goinginto Southeastern Coference play next weekend against Auburn.
“We’ve got an SEC game and the players have got tobe able to do whatever they need to do to help this team getbetter,” Saban said. “We are playing a good footballteam and we’ve got to get ready for that.”