Credit Nicholls State, but LSU funky in home opener with work to do quickly starting SEC | Takeaways

[Music] for Louisiana vers all Jett rose with a couple of quick takeaways from LSU's 44 to 21 defeat of nickels State on Saturday September 7th in Tiger stadium and I guess I'll start where LSU coach Brian Kelly started in the postgame press conference with some credit to Nichols State who showed up the Tiger Stadium for the first time and were ready to compete at that level and give LSU some some trouble a team that theoretically uh should have overmatched the colonels just from an SEC to FCS standpoint and some of the differences in and resources and talent Dynamics and whatnot there but that Tim REO Leed program once again um able to to compete at a high level uh they you you talked about it on an episode of podnas last week going into the Louisiana Tech game up in Rustin that the colonels were going to be a pesky opponent for that FBS Bulldogs team up there and they they gave Louisiana Tech some fits they gave LSU quite a bit of fits on Saturday night as well left uh left a lot of frustration for folks in in purple and gold in that matchup and um mean Colin Guggenheim the former John Curtis quarterback now a a running back for the colonels was a big piece of that he had the career-long 67 yard touchdown run in the third quarter ends up with 145 yards two touchdowns and 25 carries that's not been uncommon for nich State regardless of who they're playing against so I think probably a lot of LSU fans find out a little bit about Colin gugenheim for the first time on Saturday night when he has a chance to come up to Baton Rouge and do it in Tiger stadium but um that's I mean the type of player he is he is and the type of performance he's capable of putting out there um Pat McQuade the quarterback an efficient 12 for 16 for 113 yards just kind of did what he needed to do most often uh to to kind of keep the chains moving and so a lot of POS POS takeaways for them including Brian Kelly admitting afterward that that he felt like Nicholls for a lot of the night was the more physical team and kind of controlled some things controlled time of possession ends up with a three minute Edge that was uh you know a bigger disparity for for chunks of that game and that's where guess you start the transition to for LSU great you turn things on down the stretch open that thing up and and win 44 to 21 but it just felt like such a funky night in terms of perform performance and Vibes even postgame just sort of the way that Brian Kelly approached some of his comments and talking about how the team looked fatigued and they were um you know tired after a short week coming back from that emotional loss to USC and all those things and I mean there's something to be said for that but obviously part of the equation is is being prepared to not have that be the case you're going to have turnarounds and have to play every single week pretty much all season and this was a game where you go in and you know you're you're supposed to be far better suited uh from a roster standpoint and resources and all those things to go out and handle this game and instead nickel state was right on LSU's heels uh well into the third quarter of that game until really Garrett nus me and kyen Lacy were able to kind of put on a show at some times and you started to see a little bit better performance um in the in the trenches on both sides of the ball to to help take control and and hold nickel state to that 21 points and so credit to LSU for finishing the game this week in in a strong way that was obviously something that was frustrating for them a week ago against the Trojans um but they worked through some of the frustrations for the first two and a half quarters of this game to be able to uh to lock it down there down the stretch um it's just going to be interesting to see you know how this team grows and how quickly this team grows cuz now they head on the road and SEC play up to South Carolina this week it'll be on college game day and so a lot has to be progressed really quickly and all the leaders on this team you know talking to Mason Taylor and Greg pen and Company all afterward they said that there is an understanding of the strides that need to be made and it's just a matter of executing some things uh you know a little bit more cleanly that they're not making excuses they're not talking about this being a fatigued team that they just need to execute some things better uh on a Saturday night and so they'll have another opportunity to do so here this week Brian Kelly said he still believes that this team can be a really good football team this season I think there is certainly something to be said for that uh I mean a couple of notes he mentioned if you take out that 67 yard run by Guggenheim then Nichols who is a an incredibly effective rushing team is is suddenly you know down around three yards a carry which you'd love to be that much lower as an FCS opponent if you're an LSU fan but is a lot more manageable than what it ends up looking like at the end where uh because of that big run nickel state is is on its way to damn near tripling LSU on the ground um and that play even you know it looks like kind of a simple situation of from my vantage point that a linebacker kind of overruns a gap doesn't squeeze a gap uh with some of the things that you're trying to do up front uh for LSU and leaves that lane open and and Guggenheim does what he does and makes the most of of that laps and is Off to the Races a little bit um and then on the flip side as as concerning as that 64 yard rush total is for LSU and you'd love to see them be able to dominate up front as an offensive line and control things on the ground with this rushing attack that we expected to be a really big piece of this offense that uh the LSU coach and players after the game were talking about the fact there was a lot as well that they may have been going to the line expecting run but because what they saw from the defense and some of the numbers that Nicholls was putting in the Box to force LSU throw that they checked out of some things and took to the air where Garrett nus Meer ends up becoming just the third quarterback in LSU history to throw for six or more touchdowns in a game Joe burrow holds the record with his seven against Oklahoma in that 2019 National semifinal uh burrow also had six against Vanderbilt on the road that season Jaden Daniels had six against Georgia Southern at home last season and so great company for Garrett nus me with six touchdown passes in a single game completes 27 of 37 for 302 yards that's you know nearly three qus of his passes um Ken Lacy really involved and so a lot to like from where they're clicking from a passing game standpoint um you'd certainly just love to to see some more consistently with consistency with being able to establish the Run um you know clean up some of those mistakes and and contain the run against the nickel State team knowing that the level of competition is about to rank up drastically the rest of this season um that's not a knock to Nickel State at all it's just a credit to what the rest of this SEC slate is about to look like for the tigers um obviously nickoll State tried to control a lot on the ground but I I mean did attempt 22 passes and LSU wasn't able to create a whole lot of pressure up front on the other side of the ball either I guess sliding over to uh those defensive numbers you're looking at zero sacks two tackles for loss one quarterback hurry and so those are all numbers that you would expect to be uh better for an LSU defense against an FCS opponent um probably as concerning to me as as anything coming out of uh Saturday night was just how banged up this LSU team continues to look um we talked last week about losing John Emery Chris Hilton still trying to work his way back Kyle Parker has been banged up um and now coin gillery looks like according to reports he may be out for the season after suffering injury on Saturday there was a point where nus Meer had to leave he was banged up on Saturday same thing with kyen Lacy Jordan Allen who had already been banged up going into the weekend had to be um you know looked at and and helped off a little bit at one point and so that when you look at where this team was from a health standpoint week and a half two weeks ago where Brian Kelly talked about how well they were coming through camp in terms of having every available um really disappointing for those guys that have been banged up um guys like Emory uh Giller and Princeton malaru those three who it sounds like are out for the season in particular just hate to hear that for those guys um all of whom have worked their tails off to be leaders in their respective uh you know position rooms and on this team and then from a you know an overall team standpoint you you get thin in a hurry there at the running back spot when em looked like the most effective guy in that room coming out of the the USC game um and so you end up moving a freshman former quarterback arrives to camp and works at DB in Jawan Johnson he's now at running back and so that's promising and suddenly a defensive tackle position where you were a little bit uncertain coming into the year and looked at Jacobin gillery as the the biggest certainty that was a leader for that group and a leader of that defense you could build some things around now suddenly without him and so just it's tough on top of for those guys it's tough from a a football standpoint to continually be shuffling on the Fly this much this early when You' fa two opponents one in FCS team where you you end up with a lot of your starters playing well into the fourth quarter in that game um so we'll see you know it's college football or it's football in general there's another game fast approaching uh they just keep on coming for for months uh on end and so how this team responds to the season opening loss and now a in a home opener where they felt they left some things to be desired how they respond and go open SEC play now um it'll it'll be a new week and they'll have that opportunity to to take a step forward and look that much better and we'll look forward to seeing exactly what kind of steps they're able to take now moving forward from week one to week two make sure you keep up with the Louisiana vers all y'all Channel hit that subscribe button below we'll talk a little bit more about uh you know the this nickel State game as well as this upcoming South Carolina game on some episodes of podnas with Daniel Hawks this week as well as have some interviews Brian Kelly and some of the players throughout the week as always thanks y'all for stopping by until next time y'all be well I'm jet Roser this is Louisiana vers all y'all [Music]