Latest bowl projection for LSU football is not encouraging

Will LSU football be able to reach the College Football Playoff again in 2020?

After dominating college football in 2019, there’s some skepticism surrounding LSU football in 2020.

The Tigers lost a lot of talent from their championship squad to the NFL (14 players drafted and numerous others signed as undrafted free agents). For that reason, there’s plenty of college football analysts who are down on LSU entering this upcoming season.

And look, I get it.

It’s impossible to replace players like Joe Burrow, Justin Jefferson, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Patrick Queen, etc.

But the Tigers still have a lot of talent. In fact, I think LSU has college football playoff-caliber talent.

However, it doesn’t seem like anyone is ready to go out on a limb and predict the Tigers to reach the playoff for a second straight season.

College Football News’ Pete Fiutak recently updated his 2020 bowl projections and it’s not encouraging for LSU.

Where Fiutak has LSU football going bowling

According to Fiutak, the Tigers should make plans to visit Florida this winter.

Fiutak has LSU landing in the VRBO Citrus Bowl, taking on Wisconsin.

This isn’t a bad bowl game by any means. It’s just outside the New Year’s Six bowls.

But after winning it all in 2019, this would be a bit of a letdown in 2020.

If LSU ends up in the Citrus Bowl, it would likely mean they lost at least three games.

And one of those losses would likely be against Florida since Fiutak has the Gators in the Peach Bowl against Notre Dame.

(Fiutak’s playoff prediction is Ohio State, Clemson, Georgia, and Alabama).

It appears that LSU is being viewed by most analysts on the same level as Florida (not much separates the SEC Citrus Bowl team and the SEC Peach Bowl team), and just behind Alabama and Georgia.

I’m not sure that’s totally fair, considering Alabama and Georgia also had to say goodbye to their respective starting quarterbacks.

But maybe this is a good thing for the Tigers. Ed Orgeron’s squads always seem to play better when their back is against the wall.