Inside the numbers: LSU

By Steve Lansdale

The nation’s marquee matchup this weekend takes place in Austin, where No. 6 LSU faces No. 9 Texas. The matchup pits two of the nation’s traditional powers against one another.

The game will mark just the second time UT and LSU face each other when both teams are ranked in the top 10. The last time LSU faced a top-10 team on the road in a non-conference game was against Notre Dame in 1998.

But what[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] do we know about this year’s version of the Bayou Bengals, who have won at least eight games in each of the last 19 years?

Each team enters the game with a 1-0 record. Texas, of course, rolled over Louisiana Tech, 45-14, while the Tigers whipped Georgia Southern.
That LSU held the Eagles to just a field goal should be no surprise, as the Tigers traditionally feature one of the nation’s premier defensive teams. But the 58-point outburst was notable, and the most points LSU had scored since crushing Western Carolina, 58-0, in 2000. LSU scored touchdowns on its first five drives.

It is true that nobody will confuse Georgia Southern with Alabama or Auburn or any of the other national heavyweights LSU regularly faces. But with the exception of a 74-72 loss to Texas A&M that went to seven overtimesbefore being decided, the Tigers scored more than 40 points only one other time last season and once in 2017. LSU traditionally is a nationally ranked program, but 55 points is an indication that the Tigers might be even better on offense than usual.

LSU head coach Ed Orgeron is a colorful character who looks like he still could suit up and play along the line of scrimmage, but make no mistake: he can coach.
In 35 games since he took over in Baton Rouge, he has compiled a 26-9 record while coaching in the Southeastern Conference, which is widely accepted to be the nation’s best conference. Equally impressive is the fact that 20 of his 26 victories have been decided by margins of 10 or more points. The average margin gets inflated against the Georgia Southerns that appear on LSU’s non-conference schedule, but the fact that the average remains in double digits with some combination of teams like Alabama, Georgia, Auburn, Florida and Texas A&M on the schedule is extraordinary.

LSU is a recruiting factory, so freshmen have to earn their spot in the lineup in Baton Rouge as much as anywhere in the country.
When recruiting wonks put out their analysis of recruiting classes for schools across the country each year, LSU always is listed among the nation’s best, and it has been that way since well before Orgeron’s arrival. The Tigers traditionally take the field with a roster stacked with NFL hopefuls, so it’s not surprising that even the most heralded freshmen start their LSU careers in limited roles.

Orgeron played 14 true in the season-opening rout of Georgia Southern, and to be fair, recent changes in the NCAA’s redshirt rules have encouraged more programs to play freshmen, knowing they still can assign a redshirt to players who don’t play in more than four games.

The most notable freshman in the Tigers’ season opener was cornerback Derek Stingley, Jr., who became just the 10^thtrue freshman to start a season opener for LSU since 1986. One of the most heavily cornerbacks in the country, Stingley is the grandson of Darryl Stingley, the former New England Patriots receiver whose career was cut short by injury.

When he’s playing well, LSU quarterback Joe Burrow can put up yards and points in bunches.
… and Burrow is playing well. Admittedly, the Tigers’ seven-overtime game against Texas A&M was an outlier in which the defenses took the night off and the offenses like they were in a video game. But that does not change the fact that Burrow was an offensive machine against the Aggies, establishing an LSU record by accounting for six touchdowns (three rushing and three passing).

He followed that by tying the program record with four passing touchdowns against UCF in the Fiesta Bowl, and then opened 2019 by tying the program record with five touchdowns in the season-opening rout of Georgia Southern. Do a little math and that’s 15 touchdowns in three games. For good measure, he also has completed at least 20 passes in each of the last four games, the first time any LSU quarterback has accomplished that feat.
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