Tigers can win SEC West title with a win over the Hogs and a little help

There is a simple reason why a football program that went 11-12 the last two seasons after winning the 2019 national championship and had just 39 scholarship players as of late January is on the verge of winning the SEC Western Division title.

It hired a confident and mature head coach with a proven track record of building championship programs and a rock-solid plan that boosts his players’ confidence.

When Brian Kelly coached Notre Dame for 12 seasons, it’s likely he never believed in the luck of the Irish or that Touchdown Jesus gave his team an edge.

Just like this season in his first year as LSU’s head coach, he doesn’t believe day home games in Tiger Stadium lessens the homefield advantage or that 11 a.m. kickoffs are a detriment to his team. Or that the Tigers can’t play in cold weather. Or fretting over a “trap game.”

Or subscribing to the historical approach the Tigers have always taken when annually playing perennial national championship contender Alabama.

“Listening to everybody around here,” Kelly told his team last week, “when it’s Alabama week we kind rise to the level of our competition. That’s B.S.”

What Kelly believes is proper and thorough practice preparation removes most doubts and any historical excuse why his team can’t win. It’s how he constructs consistent winners, not just one-hit wonders who win a championship and can't maintain.

“No matter who we play, Coach Kelly has done a great job of getting us prepared each week,” said LSU wide receiver Jaray Jenkins. “He’s the leader of us, we just follow him. The way he carries himself has been great.”

Kelly’s refusal to panic, to work through some of his team’s weaknesses, is why LSU (7-2 overall, 5-1 in SEC West) has gone from unranked after losing at home 40-13 to Tennessee on Oct. 8 to the No. 7 in the College Football Playoff rankings heading into Saturday’s 11 a.m. ESPN-televised game at Arkansas. A combination of an LSU win and an Ole Miss loss to Alabama gives the Tigers the SEC West championship and a seventh appearance in the league title game in Atlanta on Dec. 3.

After a season opening game 24-23 loss to Florida State in Superdome on Sept. 4 in which all of LSU’s problems were on display – kicking game gaffes, fumbled QB-center exchanges, no running game – almost every Tigers' weakness has been reduced, strengthened and eliminated in three straight wins.

LSU’s disastrous special teams, which couldn’t find a punt returner who didn’t fumble, was turnover-free in wins over top 10 SEC West foes Ole Miss and Alabama.

The Tigers’ offensive line, which had four players who started in new positions in the FSU loss, solidified when true freshman Emery Jones joined the starting lineup in game three and Garrett Dellinger moved from center back to his natural guard position.

The biggest defensive adjustment has been figuring a way to get freshman linebacker Harold Perkins, last week’s SEC Defensive Player of the Week, into the starting lineup rather being a situational player.

Finally against Florida in the Tigers’ seventh game of the season after they were pounded by Tennessee, LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels finally overcame his reluctance to throw the ball downfield.

During its current 3-game winning streak over Florida, Ole Miss and Alabama, LSU’s offense has scored on 10 of its 13 second half possessions (8 TDs and 2 FGs). The Tigers punted on consecutive second half possessions since the Tennessee game in week six.

Also in that trio of wins, Daniels has also accounted for 14 TDs (7 rush, 7 pass). He’s only FBS QB to have 600+ rushing yards (619 yards, 10 TDs) and 1,700+ passing yards (1,994 yards, 14 TDs, 1 interception) this year.

Daniels certainly jumped out of game film watched by Arkansas coach Sam Pittman.

“I think he understands the offense,” Pittman said of Daniels. “The thing about it is they’ve played good teams, good coordinators and they’ve schemed up some nice plays and they have him dead to rights and don’t touch him, and he goes for a long run or a touchdown or what have you.

“I think he’s always been a really outstanding runner, but I think it’s his throw game. He seems to be playing more confidently and his passing has really been on point.”

Daniels has managed to stay relatively healthy, but Arkansas starting QB KJ Jefferson has been battered and bruised. He’s nursing a bruised clavicle in his throwing shoulder and didn’t play at all in Arkansas’ Oct. 8 loss at Mississippi State because of a head injury.

Reserve Malik Hornsby started vs. MSU and completed 8 of 17 passes for 234 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions and ran for 114 yards. Jefferson started in last Saturday’s 21-19 home loss to Liberty and struggled completing 23 of 37 passes for 284 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

The Razorbacks’ offense has been sadly lacking. After opening SEC play with a 44-30 win over South Carolina, the Hogs have lost three of their next four league games and averaged 18 points in the defeats.

Defensively in SEC games only, Arkansas has sunk nearly to the bottom of the 14-team conference.

The Razorbacks are 13th in league (116st nationally) in total defense, 12th (101st nationally) in scoring defense and 13th (123rd nationally) in third-down conversion defense.

Even with the Hogs’ downward slide and the Tigers’ hot streak, LSU is just a 3½-point favorite.

“Our team is just evolving, and they're playing with more of the traits necessary to be a consistent team that plays every snap the right way,” Kelly said. “I trust that they're going to execute because they've been consistent over the past five months. I expect them to do the same.”