re: SI - Ala hasn’t faced even a decent defense, LSU’s is great

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TAMU is only ranked 3 places higher than LSU.

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5 and 7 are three places apart?

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I would tend to agree if Devin White was playing the full game, but when you take away All-American Devin White or Jacob Phillips, it changes the defense. It showed against Florida that LSU needs the downhill thumper at the MLB position that can run and tackle sideline to sideline. If Queen can step in and play well, LSU's defense will be fine. I like Patrick Queen as a player, but he's young and lacks the experience to be fully trusted. Hopefully Aranda can mitigate that with a scheme for the first half that doesn't ask him to do anything he can't do consistently yet.

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I would caveat with this. The 2 weeks between games gives our DL a chance to heal up. Every starter is nursing injuries. We also are starting to work Shelvin into the rotation so that helps as well. That gives us a 5player rotation of Lawrence, Fehoko, Big Ed, Logan and Shelvin. Farrell gives us a 6th.

Queen played some last year and he now has 2 weeks as the starter in practice so that benefits us as well. He's also gotten snaps throughout the year.

The X-factor is Stevens. There has been a push to work him in. He's shown play making ability. Is this his breakout game?

I fully trust Aranda to get this D ready to play with 2 weeks to put a plan in place. We'll see if it's enough to slow down the Bama O.

Does Ala try running the ball more or does it sling the ball against LSU’s secondary?

After the 5 LSU IT’s, 1 was called back, it would make sense for Saban to see how LSU handles the run without White.