LSU had the most eye-opening performance of the first full weekend of the college football season when it routed Clemson 51-10 last Saturday.
The victory in head coach Lane Kiffin’s debut lifted the Tigers from No. 11 to No. 8 in the country, and made LSU one of the most talked-about teams in the country.
But Kiffin didn’t spend much time dwelling on the performance — other than the scheduled film review and team meeting to start the week — as the Tigers (1-0) prepare to face Louisiana Tech (1-0) on Saturday night in Baton Rouge, La.
“We discussed that what you do the week before, whether that’s good or bad, has nothing to do with what you’re going to do the next week,” Kiffin said. “You need to reset. You need to practice the way that we do, prepare the way that we do and I challenged them to (do that).
“We took two weeks to prepare as far as practicing for Clemson. Now you have one week. You’re not going to have near as much time, so your focus has to be elite.”
Kiffin said after the game that the weather-delayed opener in front of a raucous sellout crowd “felt like I was back at Mardi Gras,” but he’s warning against any kind of hangover.
Transfer Sam Leavitt (230 passing yards, 113 rushing yards, three total TDs) had an impressive debut at quarterback, as did running back Dilin Jones (113 yards, two scores) and a defensive unit which overwhelmed Clemson.
As impressive as the final score was last week, Kiffin is thinking more about the big picture than scores moving forward.
“It’s like a performance, like a concert,” he said. “It’s important in terms of branding, the style of your program and obviously recruiting to have days like that. I’m sure kids around the country were watching and said, ‘I want to go there.'”
LSU isn’t the only team from Louisiana that won by an eye-opening score in its opener last week. Louisiana Tech scored the most points in a game since the program joined the Division I ranks when it routed visiting FCS opponent Northwestern State 80-6 on Saturday.
Blake Baker passed for 232 yards and three touchdowns and, like Leavitt, didn’t play a full game because of the lopsided score. The Bulldogs rolled up 527 yards, allowed 129 yards and scored touchdowns on each of their first 10 offensive possessions.
Louisiana Tech played respectably in a 23-7 loss at LSU last season, but the expectation is that Kiffin’s Tigers are better than the ones that finished 7-6 last season.
“In a game like this, you have to maximize your opportunities every snap,” Bulldogs coach Sonny Cumbie said. “When you have an opportunity for a takeaway, you’ve got to maximize that. When you have an opportunity for (a tackle for loss), you have to do a great job of tackling.
“You have to understand, against an opponent like this, that when those opportunities come by, you have to maximize them, you have to take advantage of them. You have to play clean football. The margin is very, very, very thin.”
