By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – LSU holds the dubious distinction of being the only SEC school to open all of its last five football seasons against Power 4 conference opponents.
The Tigers are also currently the only Power 4 conference member to lose five straight openers after last Sunday’s disappointing 27-20 loss to USC in Las Vegas.
That happened this past weekend when 13 of 16 SEC schools that won averaged 52.5 points against two Power 4, five mid-major and six FCS (Division 1-AA) opponents.
With the now-No. 18 Tigers (0-1) set to open their home schedule Saturday at 6:30 p.m. against in-state FCS opponent Nicholls State (0-1), the argument can be made that LSU should stop scheduling Power 4 foes for season-openers.
“I don’t think so,” said LSU head coach Brian Kelly, who faces future season-openers against Clemson of the ACC in 2025 and 2026 and Houston in 2027. “I don’t necessarily think winning the opener 73-0 gives you much benefit. You go into Week 2 with a lot of questions about who you are.
“All of us wanted to win the (USC) game. But we’re going to be a better football team because of what happened. We know a lot more about our football team. We know what we need to do better as coaches and as a development of a football team.”
LSU’s offense, with new starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, produced the second-lowest scoring output in Kelly’s 28 games as the Tigers coach.
While Nussmeier completed 29 of 38 passes to 10 teammates for 304 yards, 2 TDs and a game-closing interception, he rarely threw the ball deep downfield. Also, he didn’t have a single rushing attempt.
“We had our opportunities to step on their (USC) throat,” Nussmeier said. “We’ve got to play cleaner.”
The only bright spot in LSU’s rushing attack – graduate student running back John Emery Jr. who had 61 yards on 10 carries including a 39-yard burst – sustained a season-ending knee injury in practice on Tuesday.
It means true freshman Caden Durham, rated as the eighth-best high school running back in the nation last season, steps into RB rotation behind sixth-year senior Josh Williams and sophomore Kaleb Jackson.
Meanwhile, the Tigers are already down two receivers after Kyle Parker sustained an ulnar nerve arm injury vs. USC and Chris Hilton is still trying to recover from a preseason ankle sprain.
Though Aaron Anderson (5 catches for 64 yards, 1 TD) and Zavion Thomas (2 for 23 yards) had nice performances off the bench vs. USC, Kelly said he needs freshman redshirt Sheldon Sampson in the receivers’ rotation.
“The guy that we’ve got to get ready is Sheldon Sampson,” Kelly said. “He’s got to be able to play for us, and we got to get him on the field. When we have him in our rotation, it allows us to slide some people around.”
Defensively, LSU held USC to 14 points and 271 total offense yards through three quarters before collapsing in the fourth period when the Tigers allowed 14 points and 176 yards on 21 plays.
The Tigers’ defense never put USC’s offense in a third-down conversion situation on their last two possessions.
Yet defenders like junior defensive end Sai’vion Jones, who had 5 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 pass breakup and 1 forced fumble vs. the Trojans, said improvement over last year’s defense was already evident.
“I feel like one of the main ways we’ve improved is the trust we have in each other,” Jones said. “I trust the backfield is going to be able to do their job, and they trust that we’re going to be able to do our job.”
Kelly hasn’t wavered in his confidence about his team.
“I got a good feeling this football team is going to be good,” he said. “We got some work to do, but we’re going to get this team to the point where we’re balanced. When we complement each other offensively, defensively (and special teams), it’s going to be a good football team.”
GO FIGURE
5: Nicholls takeaways (3 interceptions, 2 fumble recoveries) in a season-opening loss to Louisiana Tech
9: True freshmen played for LSU in the season-opener vs. USC
10: Straight Nicholls losses to FBS (Division 1-A) teams
18: Wins vs. 0 losses for LSU vs. Southland Conference opponents
36: Consecutive LSU wins over in-state opponents
80: Receiving yards needed by Kyren Lacy Jr. to become the 43rd receiver in LSU history to reach the 1,000-yard mark.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com