Nick Saban picked LSU — incorrectly, we now know — before last week’s showdown at Ole Miss.
The Tigers didn’t get it done in Lane Kiffin‘s return to Oxford, and it cost them 3 spots in the AP Poll, where they went from No. 7 to No. 10. Exactly a week later, in primetime once again, LSU will take another crack at a huge SEC showdown, this time to avoid that dreaded 2nd loss before September even ends.
This time, LSU will be in the friendly confines of Death Valley as it welcomes No. 23 Texas A&M, which is coming off its own SEC catastrophe in the form of a shocking home loss to Kentucky. The Tigers and Aggies will kick things off at shortly after 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC, in a battle of 2-1 teams whose SEC openers didn’t exactly go as planned.
Saban has coached a game or 2 in Death Valley, both as the home coach and visiting coach, and he has confidence that the home team isn’t going to allow a 2nd loss in 7 days to happen. He’s going with favored LSU for the 2nd time in a row, and here’s why:
“I think both teams will bounce back, but there’s a stat in the SEC that when you play at home at night in the SEC, I mean it’s like an unbelievable percentage of the home team winning. And LSU is obviously one of the most difficult places to play, and Lane is going to do a really good job of trying to get this team to come back. … But I think LSU’s defense will carry them,” Nick Saban said during his weekly Friday afternoon appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.
“What I’m concerned about with A&M is, quarterback didn’t play very well last week and the defense was not very good at all, and Kentucky just controlled the game against them. They’re going to have to get the defense fixed if they’re going to have a successful season, and obviously Marcel Reed’s got to come around and play really well as well.”
Saban is going with the home team in Saturday night’s showdown, and here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about Texas A&M’s chances to go on the road and hand LSU its 2nd straight loss:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
