LSU Football: The good news for the Tigers after season-opening loss to Mississippi State
By Zach Ragan
LSU football was stunned by Mississippi State on Saturday in Baton Rouge.
It’s been a long time since LSU football fans watched their team lose a game.
In fact, the last time the Tigers lost a game was nearly two years ago on November 24, 2018, against Texas A&M.
So the feeling that LSU fans felt on Saturday was undoubtedly unfamiliar.
But if fans are being honest, they knew this feeling would return at some point in 2020. The Tigers were never going to go undefeated this season — not after all the talent the team lost from their 2019 national championship-winning squad.
The feeling of losing, however, wasn’t supposed to return this soon. It was supposed to happen later in the season against Florida, Alabama, or Auburn.
But that’s how it goes in the SEC. Every game is a battle. And Saturday’s loss to Mississippi State was a stark reminder that what LSU accomplished last season is not typical. It’s not the norm and it’s never going to be the norm.
The Tigers have a lot of work to do. They need to get better up front. The young defensive backs need to perform at a higher level. And Myles Brennan has to improve.
Fortunately for LSU, there’s some good news after the loss to the Bulldogs on Saturday.
The good news for LSU football after the loss to Mississippi State
Initially, I thought starting the season against Mississippi State was a good thing for the Tigers.
A team that just fired its coach, has a new quarterback, and isn’t nearly as talented as LSU. Seemed like a recipe for a win, right?
Wrong, obviously.
I don’t think I gave Mike Leach enough credit for his offensive genius when it comes to running the Air Raid offense. Leach knows what he’s doing. And it was ultimately a terrible matchup for an LSU team with a new defensive coordinator and mostly new personnel.
And then throw in Derek Stingley Jr not playing (due to illness) and you have a recipe for disaster.
The Tigers have a lot of things to fix — on both sides of the ball. They should be able to fix plenty in their next two matchups, which come against Vanderbilt and Missouri.
Those two programs won’t present the same challenges that Mississippi State presented. I don’t like making guarantees, but I feel confident that LSU will look much better in those two matchups.
In addition to looking better, it will give the Tigers two weeks (before they play Florida in three weeks) to work out the obvious kinks that are present with a new defense and an offense that hasn’t played much together.
LSU is going to get better. Ed Orgeron and his staff are too good for there not to be improvements.
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And those improvements will start next Saturday night in Nashville when LSU takes on Vandy.