Paul Finebaum: LSU 'no question' has the best bounceback capability of SEC's Week 1 losers

LSU’s season isn’t over. On Saturday, the Tigers kicked off their 2023 campaign on the wrong foot in a 45-24 loss to No. 8 Florida State. Although the outcome wasn’t what LSU was expecting in its storybook season, the SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum still believes the team can find a fantastic ending.

“LSU can come back. I’m not concerned,” Finebaum said on “McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning.” “Brian Kelly is a superior, elite coach. [I’m not sure] whether he can completely fix all the problems, but he’s not going to see a team like [FSU] for a while. And I think that’s to his advantage.”

After last night, LSU won’t want to see another team as good as the Seminoles for a while. LSU gave up 483 yards while allowing Florida State to convert eight of its 13 third-down attempts. With each snap, LSU’s chances seemingly got worse.

This downward spiral culminated in the Seminoles outscoring the Tigers 31-7 in the second half. While LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels did boast 347 passing yards, he struggled to find consistency. The 6-foot-4 QB completed just 22 of his 37 (59.5%) pass attempts.

Like Finebaum said, Daniels and Co. won’t see another team like FSU for a while. Next week, the Tigers will have a chance to recover against a subpar Grambling State squad. Following that, LSU will ease itself into SEC play with matchups against unranked programs such as Mississippi State, Arkansas, Ole Miss and Missouri.

Brian Kelly on LSU’s disappointing showing

In fact, the Tigers won’t face another program currently ranked in the AP Top 25 until Nov. 4 when they take on No. 4 Alabama. Kelly and his staff have plenty of time to right their ship. They intend on doing just that.

“Congratulations to Florida State. Tonight they were the better football team,” Kelly said during the postgame press conference. “We certainly are not the football team that I thought we were, and we’ve got to do a much better job obviously in developing our football team.

“This is a total failure from a coaching standpoint and a player standpoint that we have to obviously address and we have to own. And we’ll see — I know adversity is always going to strike at some time in this game and this is our first real piece of adversity, if you will, that we have to address. I’m confident our guys and our coaches will rally in the manner that they need to.”

LSU will look to bounce back in its matchup against Grambling State on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.