BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — LSU coach Lane Kiffin can relate to what Louisiana Tech coach Sonny Cumbie has been preparing to do this week, but doesn't have much advice for his opposing coach.
“I don't know that I'm the right answer of how to do that,” Kiffin said, laughing at himself while recalling how he fared against power-conference opponents while coaching at Florida Atlantic.
FAU, where Kiffin resurrected his head-coaching career from 2017 to 2019,
lost 31-14 at Wisconsin, took a 63-14 pounding at Oklahoma and fell 45-21 at Ohio State.
The way No. 8 LSU played in a 51-10 demolition of Clemson last weekend, it would appear Louisiana Tech might be in for a similar drubbing at the hands of Kiffin and Co. in Tiger Stadium this Saturday night. Oddsmakers certainly seem to think so, having favored LSU (1-0) by about five touchdowns.
Louisiana Tech (1-0) opened its season against Northwestern State of the second-tier Football Championship Subdivision, but their 80-6 victory seemed to impress Kiffin.
“Any time you score 80 points, you’re doing a lot of things right on offense,” Kiffin said. “They’re really well-coached.”
Meanwhile, Kiffin said designing offensive plays to counter Louisiana Tech's unconventional defense is no simple task.
The Bulldogs tend to field just three defensive linemen, three linebackers and five defensive backs.
“They’re really different on defense,” Kiffin said. “It creates a lot of challenges.”
Cumbie took Louisiana Tech into Tiger Stadium a year ago and the Bulldogs were reasonably competitive in a 23-7 loss. But a lot has changed at LSU since then.
Kiffin has replaced Brian Kelly as coach and the Tigers have a new QB in Arizona State transfer Sam Leavitt, who ran for two TDs and passed for another last week.
“The team they have this year looks pretty complete,” Cumbie said. "Obviously, we have a huge challenge ahead of us.
“With every challenge comes a great opportunity,” Cumbie added, noting that his players are eager to compete against ”some of the best (players) in the country" and "won’t be backing down from it.”
On the heels of a big win in a long-hyped season opener against a power conference opponent, the transition to a Week 2 game against a mid-major program brings with it concerns about maintaining intensity and focus, Kiffin said.
“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.
“Everything’s got to be the same,” Kiffin added. “Don’t let the opponent dictate how you’re preparing.”
Louisiana Tech starting QB Blake Baker saw his previous season end with a major knee injury last Nov. 8 and spent much of the past offseason recovering from that.
Baker impressed Cumbie in his first outing since the injury, passing for touchdowns of 75, 27 and 9 yards against Northwestern State.
“He threw the ball with conviction. He played with confidence,” Cumbie said of Baker. "He played within himself. He made really good decisions. And so I was really pleased.
“He was determined to come back. He put a lot of work into it,” Cumbie added. "His teammates really rally around him. Obviously, they made plays around him. And our offensive line did a nice job of protecting him. So, it was a huge bright spot to see Blake start the season the way that he did.”
The Tigers' top two returning running backs from a year ago — Caden Durham and Harlem Berry — saw little action in LSU's season opener.
Dilin Jones, a transfer from Wisconsin, received the majority of snaps, carrying 23 times for 113 yards and two TDs against Clemson. Next up was Stacy Gage with eight carries for 33 yards, followed by Berry's four carries (for 9 yards) and Durham's three (for 3 yards).
At Wisconsin last season, Jones rushed for 300 yards on 75 carries and scored two TDs before a toe injury limited his availability. But Kiffin believed he would be a good fit and moved decisively to bring Jones in despite his relatively modest statistics.
“Dilin wasn’t a big name coming in, had the least stats of some other people coming into the (running back) room from last year,” Kiffin noted. “We just go off of what we see.
“Dilin did a great job” against Clemson, Kiffin added. “But again, that’s how he had performed in camp with us."
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