LSU’s outlook following win over South Carolina
LSU is 2-1 to start this season after losing their opener but starting conference play with a comeback win on the road. So, with a quarter of the season complete, what can this year still be for the Tigers?
Shea Dixon of The Bengal Tiger assessed their future during a conversation with Kaiden Smith on the ‘On3 Roundtable’. To do so, he thought back to what it looked like in the preseason and saw it from that standpoint.
“I know Vegas had them at 9.5 over/under total wins,” Dixon recalled. “They’ve won nine in each of the prior two seasons with Brian Kelly and gotten to 10 wins through a bowl game but have missed out on a New Year’s Six game.”
“I think that the goal this year, right, is expanded playoffs, 12 teams,” said Dixon. “There’s some thought that, hey, an SEC team can get in at 9-3.”
Based on that compared with their start, Dixon thinks the necessary nine wins are still out there for the Tigers, even if it requires them to be at their very best over the next two and a half months. However, with how they’ve played at times in all three of their first games, the remaining nine opponents could also beat them and keep their record from getting there.
“I don’t think you have to remove that mark yet. You’ve only lost one game, you haven’t lost an SEC game. But you also know that you’re going to have to fight to get there,” said Dixon. “Ole Miss seems like a very tall task, ‘Bama looked very good against Wisconsin. You’re going to have to be near perfect the rest of the way and then find a way to battle in those games just to get to 9-3.”
“I would say, look? Winning 10 games would seem like a stretch at this point – not out of the realm of possibility. Nine wins is what you hope for. But, after watching kind of the opening stretch of games here? I don’t think any LSU fan will say that 8-4 is out of the question with how kind of things have unfolded,” Dixon said. “Maybe I’m taking a step – not back. Just knowing that, hey, look, moving forward, LSU has got to be able to fight in every game to win. There are no gimmes here. Maybe not even UCLA and South Alabama after we saw them right after halftime have a two-point lead against Nicholls.”
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LSU still has playoff aspirations to some extent despite already having a loss. With that said, they’ll also have to be much better to get to the nine wins or double-digit victories that it’ll take to earn themselves one of those dozen berths.
“Overall expectations? I think anywhere from eight to nine would be reasonable and means that they have played very well. Then 10 would mean that they’ve played excellent,” said Dixon.