Alabama Football: 3 Bold Predictions for Showdown at LSU

2. Ed Orgeron pulls out all the stops

It’s hard to overstate how important this game is for Ed Orgeron. He’s said all the right things, and he has LSU rolling in 2018. The Tigers are 7-1 and in firm control of their playoff destiny, despite starting the season as a fringe Top-25 team.

Orgeron got the full-time gig as King of the Bayou mostly on a promise of having a plan to beat Alabama. He said this week people come to LSU specifically to do just that, but all that talk is cheap until Orgeron can walk up to the big, bad bully of the gridiron and plan one on its jaw.

This will be Orgeron’s third try at getting the better of Saban, and LSU’s lack of offense has doomed the Tigers in the previous two meetings, managing just a single touchdown over eight quarters of warfare. The real issue has been ineffective quarterback play, with the normally steady Danny Etling completing under 50 percent of his passes in both meetings.

That’s not certain to change this weekend as Joe Burrow, for all the praise he has gotten from the Baton Rouge faithful, has completed under 54 percent of his passes this season. Only one game, against the porous Ole Miss defense, did the Ohio State transfer complete better than 57 percent of his passes.

With an obvious disadvantage in so many areas, Orgeron is going to pull out all the stops, channeling his inner Les Miles. He’s not coaching for his job on Saturday night, but this win would finally bring him the ever allusive validation he seeks. Deep down, Orgeron’s still that same old Larose kid who landed his dream job and he wants nothing more than to prove he belongs.

Will all the success this season, there’s still a large corner of the college football world that doubts his legitimacy as the head coach of one of college football’s premier programs. Those naysayers won’t go away until he can summit Mount Saban, and plant a purple and gold flag at its peak.

Orgeron rolled the dice on fourth down four times in LSU’s 36-16 win over Georgia three weeks ago, and he’ll do the same against Alabama in Death Valley. He knows it’s going to take points to dethrone the Tide; the traditional field-position war-of-attrition in Bama-LSU games isn’t going to work with the QB standing on the other sideline. He won’t punt from plus territory on makeable fourth down opportunities. He may even eschew sure field goals in search of touchdowns.

Beyond that, the bye week was likely spent perfecting various trick-plays and off-scheduled plays to keep the Alabama defense off-balance. No stone will be left unturned for LSU to do the impossible as Coach O pulls out all the stops to try to spark the upset.