LSU has been beaten up during the first two games of its SEC grind.
The No. 11 Tigers (3-1) have lost a few key players to long-term injuries as they prepare to meet FCS in-state opponent McNeese on Saturday night in Baton Rouge, La.
Top linebacker Whit Weeks suffered a broken leg in a 35-6 victory against visiting Texas A&M last Saturday. Weeks underwent surgery Monday and it’s unclear when or even if he will return this season.
The team’s top reserve linebacker, Charles Ross II, was lost to a season-ending knee injury.
A week earlier in a loss at Ole Miss, another defensive leader (safety Dashawn Spears) was lost for the season and the team’s top receiver, tight end Trey’Dez Green, was knocked out indefinitely due to a knee injury.
Quarterback Sam Leavitt was hobbled by a hamstring injury during the game against Texas A&M and it’s unclear if he’ll play Saturday. Even if he sits out Saturday’s game, he’s likely to be available next week when LSU visits Kentucky to start a string of seven consecutive SEC games to finish the regular season.
“This is not disrespectful at all,” Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin said. “This (week) is not about the opponent. This is really about us practicing really well and going and playing really well and not looking at who we’re playing and what division and all those things.
“(The Cowboys) play hard and have good players. This is much more about us playing really well and the challenge to us all week to get better on fundamentals.”
Kiffin said overcoming the injuries isn’t as simple as the commonly expressed “next man up” mentality although obviously players will have to move up the depth chart to replace the ones that are sidelined.
“The coach’s job is to find a way to get other players, get different schemes, get different things to overcome injuries,” he said. “It’s a challenge.”
In LSU’s first full game without Green, it had two 100-yard receivers in Jackson Harris (6-163-2) and Winston Watkins Jr. (5-107).
The Cowboys (2-3) will be facing an LSU defense that is No. 3 in the country in yards allowed per game (226.8) and No. 2 in run defense (47.5) and sacks (18).
McNeese head coach Matt Viator, like Kiffin, said he’s focused on his team rather than its opponent.
“It’s 100 percent about us,” Viator said. “My philosophy has been, like I told our players, No. 1 it’s a challenge and No. 2 it’s an opportunity and you have to look at it that way. It’s a huge challenge.
“We’re going to do what we do regardless of what week it is. We’re going to prepare and we’re going to go down there and play as hard as we can. We’ve got to come back from Baton Rouge a better football team than when we left because we’ve still got another half of a season to play.”
McNeese’s campus in Lake Charles is about a two-hour bus ride east to LSU’s campus where the teams met in 2010 and 2021, both Tigers wins.
