Despite youth up and down the depth chart, LSU’s defense was nasty in 2014. Seemingly out of nowhere, they went from getting run over early in the season to have one of the SEC’s best defenses by the end of the year.

There was only two areas the Tigers didn’t excel in, and they could remedy that in the Music City Bowl against a Notre Dame team that shot itself in the foot over and over again in the second half of the season.

LSU finished the season ranked at or near the top of the SEC in many big categories, including leading the conference in total defense and finishing second in passing yards allowed.

One area the Tigers did not excel was in forcing turnovers. With 20 takeaways, LSU ranked 10th in the SEC, despite being third in the conference in deflected passes. LSU also didn’t get home to the quarterback often, coming in 13th in the SEC with 19 sacks.

The Tigers pass rush and secondary should both be licking their lips at the matchup with the Fighting Irish. Quarterback Everett Golson, who returned to the team after a year suspension for academic issues, was supposed to be a Heisman contender. Instead, he struggled in the latter half of the year, with coach Brian Kelly announcing before bowl practices that Golson and backup Malik Zaire would share snaps in the game against LSU.

While Zaire’s body of work is far from complete — his only passes of the year came against Southern California in garbage time — Golson had serious issues as the year wore on. He threw an interception in nine straight games to finish the season, with 14 picks in total, and had the most fumbles in the country with eight.

Add in Notre Dame’s relatively poor offensively line, which allowed 28 sacks this year, to the team’s quarterback issues, and LSU’s two weakest areas on defense could finally break through in the last game of 2014.