re: Confidence we win this first game

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Mine is 5/10 . Hopelessly optimistic but ready for the worst. 5 straight losses to open the season will do that you

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I’m with you on 5/10. I’m usually optimistic, but the 5 opener losses in a row combined with this being on the road is an obstacle that can’t be ignored. This reminds me of how I felt about 2019 LSU going on the road to Bama. I knew we were the better team, but there was more at play there than just one game after 8 losses to them in a row. I was nervous that would come back to bite us again.

I’m not comparing this LSU team to 2019- just that particular situation. That 2019 team was good enough to go out any beat anyone, anywhere, so history didn’t matter that day. It wasn’t getting into anyone’s head. They had the leadership and mental toughness to put all of that aside and just go win.

We have no idea how good this LSU team is beyond paper yet or if they have close to the mental toughness needed to pull this off, so the previous opener losses do matter until they end this streak. The team is laser focused on this game. How will they respond if they get off to a rocky start? We also know they didn’t have the toughness to beat a lesser team away from home last year. Have they grown up enough to win a true road opener now? I hope so, but there’s no way to know that before the game.

Clemson isn’t a word-beater and is only a playoff contender because of their conference, but they are still a very good team. In many ways, they are a lot like this LSU team: Unproven at multiple positions and they have some known flaws. But there is also some elite talent. This is going to be a battle. I know LSU CAN win. It’s just hard to go in believing that they will do everything necessary to get it done in a first game of the season.

2

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THIS iS NOT A TROLL POST:
This game is going to come down to the line of scrimmage I think Clemson has the advantage because of the multiple project 1 rounders on defense
My confidence lsu wins this game is about 33.333%

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I like your post. LOS is going to be the key IMO. I don't really put that much faith in SUPPOSED 1st rounders when the SR/last college season hasn't even been played. But yeah, if LSU OL can't open holes better than last season, looks like a sure loss. BUT let's see what happens on that. I liked the DT last season better than most here. They stopped the RB rushes pretty well. But without a lot of push up the middle, that gave the QB more space to take off and run. I'm hoping the hype about Gooden is justified. Because one thing that can really destroy a QB's ability to run is a guy right up the middle in his face early.

Bottom line: I agree pretty much with your odds for LSU @ Clemson. I'll go 40%, If the game was in BR, I would up it to 75%. Of course out of the most recent season openers only 1 has been a home game. People seem to forget that they whine about 5 losses in opening games in a row.

9/10

If our defense takes a big step and thwarted Clemson we win. I'm at 90%

I was fully expecting to come into this year expecting the team to lose week 1 but it is very hard not to believe in this team. Especially when you see how close they are and all the talent surrounding the team on offense and defense.

However, at this point they need to prove they can go on the road and win the game before I believe they will win so my confidence in them winning is not very strong at this point.

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2, Kelly never has his team ready for game 1, but he will go ballistic and we will win game 2….

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For a game 1, I don’t think we were terribly unprepared last year. That isn’t want lost us that game.

The defense played really well before giving up plays at the end. The OL was a huge disappointment based on all the hype, but we would find out later that wasn’t them not being prepared. They struggled with run blocking all season. They just weren’t as good as we thought. I expected a few procedure issues with Chester in his first start and he obviously wasn’t as good as we hoped he would be.

What really lost the game was a conservative gameplan that we never adjusted out of and a couple of really stupid individual mistakes. We got a lead and tried to run the ball to control the clock and we couldn’t. It was a big mistake to try and stay with that rather than pressing our advantage. Nuss kept checking down all game by design and they tackled well enough to kill multiple drives. Sticking with what didn’t work was not a lack of preparedness before the game. It was a lack of adjustments that were needed to put it away when we had an advantage and the momentum.

LSU had some dumb penalties, but a lot of the worst ones were stupid decisions by individual players. Major Burns took his helmet off after a big play for a penalty, Lacy gave away 15 with his stupid machine gun celebration and then Gilbert had a targeting that set up their winning TD. Those are all experienced guys making stupid individual decisions and that was half of our 99 penalty yards. Without them, LSU and USC would have both had 6 penalties for almost equal yardage- pretty typical for game one. At some point, the players have to be accountable for their own bullshite.

I’m not saying Kelly doesn’t deserve fault for the USC game. He absolutely does. I just don’t think it was as much on the pre-game prep. We played with fewer disastrous turnovers and mistakes than in either FSU game, especially in the first half. If he and Sloan had made the adjustments we needed later in the game, we could have won by two scores.

I do agree with you that the team wasn’t prepared well for either FSU game. I understand all of the roster issues in Game 1 of Season 1, but it was a clown show at times. There was no excuse at all for that in the second game.

3.5

3, playing the 4th ranked team at their place for the first game with multiple transfers that need time to gel with a new team is totally absurd. If you replace Clemson with mediocre team at home, 11-1 or 10-2 becomes very much doable. A Clemson loss, which is likely, makes achieving a playoff berth hard. 9-3 won’t get you there, so you can only lose 1 SEC game.

A four until proven otherwise.
We have the talent but the coaching had been sub par.