By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE — The best quarterbacks in Tiger Stadium Saturday night when Texas visits LSU for the first time since 1953 won’t have to dodge the fierce pass rushes by the No. 6 Longhorns or the No. 21 Tigers.
Ruston’s Bert Jones will be there getting his No. 7 LSU jersey retired.
Archie Manning will be enjoying that ceremony honoring his pal, but most of all, watching his grandson Arch play for the visitors. Given the choice of home games for his ceremony, Jones chose Texas to assure Archie’s attendance.
Young Manning leads Texas (7-2 overall, 4-2 in the SEC) and will try to avoid an LSU defense that has 36 sacks, third nationally. The Longhorns are surrendering three per game, worst in the SEC.
Sam Leavitt is his counterpart for LSU (6-3, 3-3), and must dodge the Longhorns heat that has produced 27 sacks – 10.5, second nationally, by edge rusher Colin Simmons, who has missed two games with an ankle injury that limited him to 18 snaps in last week’s win at Missouri.
With run games that are nothing to write home about, whose passing attack is more effective will likely dictate the result of a 6:30 p.m. contest televised by ABC that will have great impact on the College Football Playoff chances for both teams.
“Obviously, if Colin plays,” Kiffin said, “he’s one of the premier players at any position in college football.”
The basics of LSU’s plan to calm the Longhorns’ pass rush are simple enough, if they work.
“Throw quick, throw screens, run the ball well,” said Kiffin. “But outside of that, it would be pretty schematical.”
It becomes especially so closer to the goalline. The Tigers’ red zone offense was ineffective in last week’s 31-13 loss to Alabama and is 68th nationally in red zone offense.
“That’s really been our number one problem offensively. We’ve got all kinds of yards,” said Kiffin.
LSU leads the SEC and is sixth in the country in total offense, averaging 504 yards.
“If you look at the SEC games alone, we have 10 drives inside the ten that we did not score touchdowns. That’s 70 more points out of those drives if you’re scoring touchdowns. And five of those drives, we score no points at all.”
Those struggles place a premium on LSU doing what if failed to do last week, and that’s keeping Texas from lighting up the scoreboard.
The Tigers’ defense will get a lift from the return of Evangel product Gabriel Reliford, a tackle who was sidelined after knee surgery this spring. He’s available this week, having recovered ahead of schedule.
Possibly back, listed as questionable (50 percent chance of playing), is defensive team captain Whit Weeks. The linebacker and defensive team captain has missed the last five games with a fractured leg. His ability to provide on-field management of the Tiger stoppers is incomparable on the roster, said Kiffin.
Despite the national rankings, LSU stands as a 4.5-point favorite playing on Saturday night in Tiger Stadium with its back against the playoff wall. No four-loss team will make the CFP, and not many if any three-loss entries will be accepted. But if the Tigers can finish with two Top 10 wins, this Saturday and next (at Tennessee), and polish off Arkansas, they’ll be in the conversation in early December.
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