Kickoff: 3 p.m. ET, Tuesday, Dec. 30
Where: LP Field, Nashville, Tenn.
TV: ESPN
Westgate Superbook line: LSU -7.5
Les Miles’ had one of his most inexperienced teams of his Baton Rouge tenure this year, but his team has a chance to win nine games for the sixth consecutive season heading into the Music City Bowl.
The young Tigers meet Notre Dame (7-5) at LP Field in Nashville on Tuesday. While the stakes between the two storied programs aren’t as high as they were in their last meeting, the 2007 Sugar Bowl, both teams come in with something to prove to themselves and their fan bases.
LSU’s offense is as one-dimensional as it gets, running the ball 69 percent of the time. That partially stemmed from severe issues throwing the ball, as the team completed an even 50 percent of its passes on the season.
While LSU wasn’t a national contender like they’d been in recent years, they weren’t nearly as disappointing as this year’s Notre Dame team. The Fighting Irish rose into the top 10 in the first half of the season, but collapsed down the stretch and lost five out of six games to finish the year.
Five things to watch
- How will Anthony Jennings play? LSU’s quarterback situation was the sticking point for the season, with Jennings only completing 48.8 percent of his passes, worst in the SEC. Will he show the improvement Miles has talked about seeing in practice?
- How will Malik Zaire perform? Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly was coy on his starting quarterback, finally naming Zaire his starter on Monday. How will he fare in his first career start?
- Can LSU force some turnovers? The Tigers ranked 10th in the SEC in takeaways, but Notre Dame has been generous giving the ball away all season.
- Will RB Leonard Fournette shred a struggling Notre Dame defense? Fournette had Heisman hype as a freshman, but could start a 2015 campaign in earnest with a monster game.
- Will big bowl performances prompt any of LSU’s underclassmen to declare early for the NFL draft? If LSU returns the bulk of its draft-eligible underclassmen they’ll be scary in 2015, but the Tigers have been hurt by early entry the last two years.
LSU
Motivation: It’s cliched, but LSU can really get the ball rolling on next season by coming out with some fire in the bowl game. The Tigers were hurt badly by inexperience all year, especially in the passing game and in the middle of the defensive line. A young team can get ready for a big 2015 season with a strong performance.
If you’ve never seen them: Get ready to watch LSU run the ball and run some more. The Tigers flashed a few new tricks in their regular season finale against Texas A&M, but like to run a traditional power game. Defensively, LSU has a swarming linebacking corps and play-making secondary, but are thin along the defensive line and had trouble slowing the run early in the season. The Tigers didn’t have many sacks in the regular season, but should be able to get after Notre Dame’s quarterbacks.
Weakness: Throwing the ball. Jennings was arguably the worst starting quarterback in the SEC this year and LSU had the 116th-ranked passing offense in the country. While LSU has talent at wide receiver, with deep threat Travin Dural and freshmen Trey Quinn, Malachi Dupre and John Diarse, Jennings hasn’t been able to consistently make the throws necessary to sustain drives.
Notre Dame
Motivation: The Fighting Irish can put a stop to their second-half free fall by beating a team from the vaunted SEC. The Irish have had their issues with opponents from the SEC over the last decade, and the program has been in decline since getting whitewashed by Alabama in the BCS Championship in 2012. Notre Dame can start to reverse that trend with an upset over the Tigers.
If you’ve never seen them: The Irish are nearly as pass-heavy as LSU is prone to running, finishing 16th in the country in passing yards per game. Everett Golson and Malik Zaire, the two quarterbacks that will play in the bowl, both have running ability as well. The Irish are depleted on defense, having lost one of their best linebackers in Joe Schmidt, and finished the season middle of the pack nationally in scoring and total defense.
Weakness: Turnovers. Golson led the country with eight fumbles lost and threw 14 interceptions, giving him 22 turnovers on the season. The defense was in the top half of the country with 22 takeaways, but couldn’t make up for the offense’s mistake-prone ways as the Irish finished with a minus-4 turnover margin on the year.
A former freelance journalist from Philadelphia, Brett has made the trek down to SEC country to cover the greatest conference in college football.
