NASHVILLE, Tenn. – LSU made it through the preconference slate looking like a National Championship contender with an offense averaging 55 points and a Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback. The fifth-ranked Tigers will try to keep that momentum going into conference play when they visit Vanderbilt on Saturday for their SEC opener.
TV: Noon ET, SEC Network. LINE: LSU -23.5.
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LSU remade its offense during spring and summer camp and is scoring at will with the spread attack, but coach Ed Orgeron sees room for improvement and was not pleased with all 60 minutes in last week's 65-14 drubbing of Northwestern State. "A good football team improves every week, and we've got to take the next step this week to get to where we want to go," Orgeron told reporters. "Obviously, we know coming down the road, there will be some very strong opponents coming down the road, and we may run into one at Vanderbilt. We ran into one at Northwestern State the first half. We have to overcome it." The Commodores are still looking for their first win and are coming off a bye after dropping their SEC opener to Georgia in Week 1 and getting crushed at Purdue 42-24 in Week 2. "We've come off a bye week and this group is focused, and they understand what we left at Purdue," Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason told reporters. "There's always that lag time in a bye week when you have to sit on something for a while, but you get back to work."
ABOUT LSU (3-0, 0-0 SEC)
Quarterback Joe Burrow is second in FBS in passing yards (1,122) and is completing passes at an 83.3 percent clip with 11 touchdowns and two interceptions through three games, and he piled up 373 yards in the 65-14 win over Northwestern State despite sitting out a chunk of the second half. "Very pleased with the play of Joe Burrow," Orgeron told reporters. "Joe made a couple of throws out there that you just go, wow. You turn back the film time and time again and say how did he do that? Tremendous athlete. Tremendous touch. Tremendous will to win." Orgeron would like to get more out of the rushing attack, which is averaging 115.3 yards, despite running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire scoring at least one touchdown on the ground in each of the first three contests.
ABOUT VANDERBILT (0-2, 0-1)
The Commodores are still finding their way offensively and enter the week 125th out of 130 FBS teams in scoring at an average of 15 points. Quarterback Riley Neal threw for 378 yards and a pair of scores at Purdue after being held to 85 yards through the air against Georgia, but Mason is looking for more. "It's chemistry and timing," Mason told reporters. "With Riley having a new group of guys, a makeshift offensive line and then the idea of making sure that you've got the same rotational players in consistently, that's been part of it. It's just taking us a little longer to get the chemistry and I think sometimes offenses got to catch up to the defense. I think in this case both groups have got to do a lot of work."
EXTRA POINTS
1. LSU S Todd Harris Jr. (knee) will miss the rest of the season and is expected to be a medical redshirt.
2. Vanderbilt RB Jamauri Wakefield, LB Colin Anderson and WR Amir Abdur-Rahman will all miss the rest of the season due to injury.
3. The Tigers took the last seven meetings in the series, most recently a 27-3 victory at the Commodores in 2010.
PREDICTION: LSU 45, Vanderbilt 13