Entering the 2023 season, there was very real hope that LSU would take another leap forward from last year’s 10-win campaign to compete with the top teams in the country.
After a Week 1 loss to Florida State that sent the Tigers reeling, perhaps we need to reevaluate what we thought this team was going to be.
There’s certainly time for this staff to turn things around, as it did last year after opening with a loss to Florida State. Still, it was a concerning loss, and while Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt said that it’s too early to panic for the Tigers, the performance in the opener was a cause for frustration.
“I don’t quite think it’s time to panic for LSU. But, boy, it’s time to be frustrated,” Klatt said on his show this week, per On3. “How should LSU feel? Frustrated.
“They made mistakes on the field last year that can be explained away because you had a new coach and kind of a new team with some transfers in there. It’s like, ‘It’s okay, we played better by the end. We won the SEC (West)’. And there was this sentiment that it was like, ‘Well, that’s going to change’. And, ‘We won’t make those same mistakes early in this season.’ Guess what? It happened again.”
Klatt said that he didn’t think LSU was particularly overmatched in this game, but the execution in the second half left a lot to be desired.
“Do I think Florida State is that much better than LSU? Probably not. The score got away from them a little bit,” Klatt said. “Why? Because they didn’t execute and made massive mistakes, in particular in that first half.
“They probably could have had a lead by a score or two at times during that game. Their quarterback has got to play better. Their execution has got to get better, their special teams has got to get cleaned up. I would be frustrated.”
The bottom line for Klatt is that the loss decreases the margin for error down the stretch in SEC play.
“Why would I be frustrated? Because this is still a team that’s going to compete in the SEC,” Klatt said. “What I wouldn’t want, if I was a Tiger fan, is to have the same type of year that we had a year ago. Win a special game against Alabama on the road in Tuscaloosa, get to the SEC Championship, and not really be in the playoff picture. Why? Because of some silly game at the beginning of the year where we didn’t play our best.”
LSU will hope for a similar bounce-back from last year’s loss.
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