BIRMINGHAM — Following his team’s win over Ole Miss on Saturday evening, LSU coach Ed Orgeron revealed that in his postgame talk to his team he specifically mentioned the approaching Alabama game.
“LSU-Alabama, doesn’t get any bigger than that,” Orgeron said.
Orgeron indicated his team would start preparations for Alabama during Wednesday’s practice.
Monday morning during his talk to the Birmingham Monday Morning Quarterback Club, Alabama coach Nick Saban said the LSU preparation will start later in the week, with a portion of the week’s practice dedicated to quality control.
“Look guys, we spend time on the rest of the season this week,” Saban said. “I know the LSU game is a big game. It always is. We certainly have a tremendous amount of respect for the way they’re playing now. They’re doing a great job. They played very well the last few games.
“But we’re not going to start our focus on them today or tomorrow. The players seem to do well when they’re in a rhythm and a routine for how they get ready for the game. We don’t usually don’t usually change that relative to having a bye week.”
The Alabama game seems to define the LSU program of late. The Tigers last beat the Crimson Tide during the 2011 regular season. They’ve lost six straight.
Orgeron knows a win over Alabama would define his relatively young tenure as LSU’s coach. Saban, however, isn’t focused on LSU, at least not yet.
Saban said much of the week will be spent self scouting and attempting to correct problem areas.
“I think there’s specific things we want to focus on on offense and defense relative to what our quality control is to this point and what our efficiency has been…” Saban said.
We’ll continue try and improve our passing game, our third-down efficiency, our play-action drop back passes as well as some of the run-pass options we have. I think all those areas could stand a little tuning up.”
Reach Aaron Suttles at aaron@tideports.com or at 205-722-0229
