LSU Football: Offensive player has perfect response to Tigers’ season-opening loss

LSU football’s nation-leading winning streak ended this past weekend.

LSU football‘s loss to Mississippi State on Saturday wasn’t expected, but it wasn’t shocking, either.

The Tigers were unable to stop Bulldogs quarterback KJ Costello, who was able to perfectly execute Mike Leach’s air raid offense.

Costello, in his first game at Mississippi State since transferring from Stanford, lit up LSU’s defense for 623 passing yards (a new SEC record).

There are plenty of reasons the Tigers lost. One of the biggest reasons was the absence of sophomore cornerback Derek Stingley Jr, who might be the best player in the nation.

There was also the fact that LSU has missed valuable practice time due to COVID-19 cases/contact tracing. And then there’s the 14 Tigers who were selected in the 2020 NFL Draft.

Plenty of excuses for the loss.

But at least one offensive player doesn’t want to hear the excuses.

LSU football’s Liam Shanahan isn’t here for the excuses

Offensive lineman Liam Shanahan is new to the Tigers. He wasn’t in Baton Rouge for the 2019 title run. The Massachusetts native transferred to LSU from Harvard earlier this year.

But Shanahan still feels a responsibility to pick up where the 2019 Tigers left off.

And he’s not interested in making excuses for LSU’s loss to the Bulldogs on Saturday.

Shanahan told reporters on Tuesday that there are no excuses for the team not being on the same page.

“It’s not like we’re at a disadvantage,” said Shanahan during a virtual media session (via Brooks Kubena).

“Everyone was hurting. Everyone was upset with what happened Saturday. But it was a bit of a wake-up call. We can’t go through the motions.”

I love this attitude from Shanahan. Let the writers, bloggers, reporters and analysts make excuses for LSU. We all know they’re legitimate excuses.

But the fact that the team — specifically Shanahan — isn’t leaning on those excuses is a great sign for the Tigers moving forward this season.