247Sports calls LSU football a team ‘on the rise’
By Zach Ragan
LSU football is a program “on the rise” according to 247Sports’ Chris Hummer.
This shouldn’t necessarily be a surprise after the Tigers finished the 2020 season with a lackluster 5-5 season.
Finishing with a .500 record obviously isn’t acceptable for Ed Orgeron and his staff.
LSU has high standards. And 5-5 is far short of those standards.
247Sports sees LSU football rebounding in 2021
The fact that LSU fell short of expectations in 2020 wasn’t a shock.
The Tigers reached the pinnacle of college football in 2019, going 15-0 and beating Clemson in the national championship.
Coming off that season, combined with losing 14 players to the 2020 NFL Draft, made success this past season nearly impossible for the program.
LSU, however, is in much better shape in 2021. The Tigers have talent and experience. And they have a new-look coaching staff.
As a result, 247Sports is high on Coach O and his squad in 2021.
“It’s very easy to project LSU to return to the mean as a program,” says Hummer. “For the Tigers that’s meant eight-plus wins every season this century beside 2020.”
“Given the talent on the roster and layups in non-conference play, eight wins seems like the minimum of what should be expected,” added Hummer.
Eight wins certainly feels like the floor for the Tigers in 2021.
There are three “automatic wins” on LSU’s schedule (McNeese, Central Michigan, and ULM). Then there are three conference games that I feel extremely confident about the Tigers winning (Mississippi State, Kentucky, and Arkansas).
That’s six wins. The games against Ole Miss and Auburn will be tough, but I tend to think those will go LSU’s way.
Opening against UCLA on the road is a toss-up. And the matchups against Alabama, Florida, and Texas A&M could always go either way.
(Florida, by the way, is a program that 247Sports sees as “tumbling” in 2021.)
This is a year where LSU could go 8-4, or they could surprise some folks and go 11-1 (in the regular season).
Next. Game by game predictions for LSU in 2021. dark
Either way, watching the Tigers return to their typical standard of play in 2021 will be refreshing.