LSU Won by 31, But Lane Kiffin Sees Problems Before Ole Miss

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1:02Hit it! When you need a team that will do whatever it takes on game day, it matters where you stay. Hilton, for this day. So what caused LSU's issues against Louisiana Tech? Earlier from Lane Kiffin, it's Locked on LSU. Here we go. You are Locked on LSU. Your daily podcast on the LSU Tigers. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Okay, let's get it. It is Locked on LSU. Your team every day. I'm your host, Matt Muscona. LSU beats Louisiana Tech 45-14. Normally a 31-point win in that final score and all of the statistical, the gaudy statistical numbers that LSU put up in this ballgame would create a lot of goodwill. Tigers put up 528 yards. Louisiana Tech only had one offensive touchdowns.

2:03The Techsters in the game, negative three rushing yards, just eight first downs. It was a great performance by LSU's defense. The offense put up 45 points in over 500 yards. You would think, great night for the Tigers. But if you watched the game, you knew there were some real underlying issues for LSU that maybe got exposed that they had to work on. Maybe the best thing that Lane Kiffin said after this game, and this is just quintessential Nick Saven is that playing a game like that might have actually been exactly what LSU needed. It was perfect for us. You know, that we needed something like that because if the game, if we played good on offense in the games 70 to 7 or something, you know, then we don't have their attention. So maybe it's what we needed. And we're in a good place. We're winning by 31 points and we're really upset. You know, we got a good standard going. You know, for him to say, if we win 70 to 7, you know, it feels differently.

3:03And you might roll your eyes at 70 to 7. But if you think of this, LSU did win 45 to 14 and the Tigers ended up with 10 red zone to 10 red zone possessions, 10 possessions inside of the 20. If you convert those red zone possessions into touchdowns, then you're talking about 70 points in that ballgame. So it's not like that's some pluck from the air on herd of number. And the other thing that I'll point out obviously is that in those red zone possessions, three times you ended up with goal to go situations and you ended up kicking field goals of 29, 25 and 23 yards, 29, 25, 23 yards, which obviously speaks to the big issue you had. You moved the football, you drove the football, but when you had an opportunity to finish a drive, you didn't do it. And Lane Kiffin pointed that out as the biggest issue in this game. There's an offensive production issue about how we finish drives and taking care of the ball.

4:04You know, the yards are still up there, you know, 528 yards, but, you know, we've got to finish the drives and do a better job in the red zone. Typically, if you just look at statistics, what you'll generally hear from the best teams, is they want it, when you get into the red zone, you want to be a hundred percent on red zone conversions. I mean, you want to score points, a hundred percent of the times. It's touchdowns, a hundred percent of the times is also an unrealistic number, but typically, the best teams convert touchdowns on about 75 percent of those trips. So if you score on 90 plus percent close to 100 percent of your red zone trips, and if 75 percent of those are touchdowns, you're, you're elite. So you look at LSU in this game, they scored on eight of their 10 red zone possessions. The eight of 10 red zone possession is, is a good number. Now, we're going to talk about the two interceptions here in just a second, because that's obviously not okay to get the gold to

5:04go situation and turn the ball over, which LSU did twice. But settling for three field goals, basically in only half of those possessions of the 10 possessions, did you end up scoring a touchdown? So you're at about 50 percent touchdown conversion in your red zone possessions. That's just not good enough. You've got to be able to finish drives. So then Lane was asked the obvious question, which was, why weren't you able to finish those drives? The ability to run the ball, again, credit to them. You know, they did a really good job. A lot of pressure is down there, and then we didn't execute on assignments, and then the turnovers eventually certainly didn't help, but the inability to run the ball, you know, in direct runs, something that week before was really, really good for us. And so as you saw later, I had to start going around them with things because they were so everything was up in the middle. Let's sort of illustrate this a little bit. And that's what he's talking about. And he talked about a good bit with tech running at 335 stack. And to his credit, Lane Kiffin did talk about that from

6:06his Monday press conference. And at his Thursday coaches show, and they're in the post game, he pointed it over and over again. Text defense runs a 335 stack that just condenses. You just put so many bodies in the middle of the field. It makes it hard to run between the tackles because there's just a massive humanity. There's numbers right there. So you heard Lane say, you had to go to the outside. They tried their traditional running game and it really didn't work. Like, let's look, for example, if we can at LSU's first sequence, whenever they ended up kicking the kicking the field goal to, when they had kicking the first field goal of the game to get on the board. So LSU went three and out. They forced a three and out Tigers get the ball. And they, there's a 17 yard past when he Watkins, Sam Levitt scramble, Dylan Jones runs a seven yard catch the tray Wilson. You're moving the ball. Levitt 11 yards to tray Wilson. So now you're at the tech 24 yard line. And then Sam Levitt scramble for 17. So you have first and goal at the six. Okay,

7:09first and goal at the six. And this is the sequence. Dylan Jones run up the middle for one yard. Dylan Jones run up the middle for no gain. Sam Levitt sacked for a loss of six. And you ended up kicking the 29 yard field goal. You had first and goal at the six. And you went one yard no gain, sack minus six. And just like that, boom, you're kicking a 29 yard field goal. That's what Lane Kiffin is talking about is the inability in the red zone to run the football. And that story played itself out time and time again in this football game for LSU. And their inability to convert those situations in the red zone and even in goal to go situations where LSU ended up in those situations kicking short field goals like they had to do multiple times throughout the course of the game. So then the obvious point becomes well, you got to talk about Sam Levitt because there were the two interceptions there at the goal line, but there's also the offensive line. So let's start with the offensive line and then we'll get to the questions about Sam Levitt.

8:09Lane Kiffin was asked a point blank question. How do you assess the offensive line? Good. You know, five sacks. How to negative plays. So again, when they're bringing everything up there, it is going to be a little bit big little that way. And so in the third quarter, some of those runs finally broke, you know, when they're kind of selling out the way that they are, you know, you're going to have some, you know, zero one yard plays. And then hopefully you break something like what happened in the third quarter. So they did do some good things. So let's talk about what Lane Kiffin said point blank there. When you're facing this defense, and a lot of this was specific to tech, they deserve a lot of credit. Remember LSU a year ago, beat tech 23 to seven. It was a lot of similar there. The inability to get going against this tech defense. Well, if they're selling out to clog the middle, then you get a lot of one yard no gain runs. Eventually, you'll pop a big one. So remember what happened there at the start of the third quarter. LSU first possession of the third quarter after they forced the three and out tech punted.

9:13The first play of the third quarter was a four yard completion of Dylan Jones on the right side. So it's second and sixth at the tech 48. And what happens? Boom Dylan Jones 46 yards up the gut. And he couldn't quite get in the end zone. He gets dragged down at the two yard line. So here we go again. First and goal from the two, you got to be able to get in the end zone. Dylan Jones loss of a yard. Second and goal from the three Dylan Jones no gain. Third and goal from the three. Sam Levit tell me this looks familiar. Sac for a loss of eight. And just like that, boom, you're kicking a field goal. So and that's the one by the way where they blocked the field goal. But the guy was five yards off sides and they had to re kick it ultimately and they made it. But anyway, the point being in the situation, you saw the sequence. LSU ended up with Goldigo situations. They tried the power running game. It didn't work. And then ultimately had to pass and they gave up sacks and five sacks. 11 TFLs was hideous. You you can look at the numbers in totality.

10:19And you can look at LSU's total offense numbers that Lane talked about. You put up five 28. You threw for 381. You ran for 147 yards running for 150 yards is a good day. But what wasn't there was the consistent running game between the tackles. And that that's what is unfortunate. So the real question that we have to ask is which is more likely the real thing the real sequence. We're going to see from this LSU offensive line. Is it the ability to run between the tackles like you showed against Clemson a power four team a week ago or is it the struggles that you had Saturday against Louisiana Tech a G 16 with a different type of scheme. Now, a lot of people say one more teams run a 335 stack because it's Lane has described it best. The way he said it this week is is prepare an offense preparing for a 335 stack is like a defense preparing for the triple option. It's just not something you see very often. You don't prepare for it often. So it's different. So it's not like a team can just just like an offense can't just start becoming

11:23a triple option offense. A defense can't just start running a 335 stack. You were crude to it. It's how you coach and teach and develop. And that's not what every team is going to do. It's not what Ole Miss is going to do next week. So is an Ole Miss team LSU is going to face that the last two weeks has given up an awful lot of yards on the ground to the two to the two opponents it's facing both Louisville and Charlotte. So in theory, LSU should be able to go get this ground game going again. It'll be a good test to see if they are able to get the ground game going again. So something worth keeping an eye on. Now, there is the question about Sam Levit. And then there's also a couple of positives from this game that Lane Kiffin talked about. What you want to dive into as we continue its locked on LSU your team every day? Protein seems to be everywhere these days in popcorn cereal coffee bars powder snacks. But when it comes to feeding a family keeping protein simple can mean choosing quality meats that you can trust. Oma steaks makes it easy with high quality proteins butchered and

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14:27Visit Fandool.com to get started and make this your most rewarding season ever with Fandool. College football is full of games you plan for all year, but sometimes the best memories come from the games you almost missed. Game time makes it easy to find tickets to college football matchups you want to see with prices that include fees. So you know your total cost upfront. You can browse games, see a panoramic view from your seat before you buy and get tickets in just a couple of taps plus zone deals. Let's you choose the section and then you let game time choose the seats to help save even more, whether it's a rivalry game, a matchup featuring a player you must see in person or an underdog ready to make some noise. Game time makes getting to the game simple. Think about the games on the schedule you absolutely don't want to miss certain games where watching on TV just isn't the same. I think a lot of people noticed that with LSU and Clemson this past

15:28week and think of what is coming this week with LSU traveling to Oxford to take on Ole Miss Lane Kipton return. Do you really want to watch that on the couch? If you want to be there, get your friends together, get your tickets and tell them it's game time. Download the game time app, create an account, use the code locked on for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account, use the code locked on for $20 off. So Sam Levin has been the big question that everybody's asked. After a dynamic debut for the Tigers in which of course he primarily used his legs running for 113 yards. He did hit the touchdown pass when he walked in against Clemson. It was the turnovers on four straight possessions that had everybody talking after Louisiana Tech. It was well, three of the turnovers were levels. One was the fumble by Tray Wilson and then back to back to back possessions were level. Turn the football over. One was an overthrow on Traydez Green on

16:28a sideline route and then back to back turnovers in the red zone. One resulting in a 100 yard pick six that allowed Tech to get within 10-7. When LSU looked like they were about to take over the game and put a lot of distance between them and Tech. Well, Lane Kiffin after the game had this to say about Sam Levin. Very competitive and you can see that in some plays trying too much there because we're not doing well and we before did a good job not doing that and you know, you've got to not be frustrated in that. And you know, I even said at half as it is, you know, we had a game at Ole Miss, Chris Arkansas, where I crawled through six interceptions, you know, and a bunch of drop eight and a bunch of zone and, you know, so just you're running charlie at halftime like, hey, you know, we've got to be patient and we've got to win the game regardless of what that looks like. There's obviously teams that learned that lesson the hard way, Oregon among them that went on the road to Oklahoma State and lost to an unranked team and lost that

17:31game and overtime. So the bottom line is you had to do what you had to do to win the game and ultimately LSU did that. Now, here's the interesting thing about Levin because you can go look up Sam Levin highlights Mara's owner state and you will see some perplexing plays. You will see Sam Levin evading a rush and then throwing ill-advised football as they get turned over. But what I'm point out with Sam Levin is in his career, those are the exceptions, not the rule. So for example, he played, he had limited playing time as a freshman in 2023 at Michigan State. He only had 23 past attempts. He became the starter at Arizona State in 2024. That's the year they went to the playoff. In 350 past attempts, Sam Levin had just six interceptions that season. 24 touchdowns, six interceptions. So he did protect the football that season. Now you can see some high-light real interceptions that are head scratching, but the volume of interceptions weren't there. And then a season ago, 239 past attempts, so about 100, about 100 fewer past attempts because

18:33of the injury, but had just three interceptions. Ten touchdowns, three interceptions. So he's pacing for a very similar type season. So this year, he's already got four interceptions through two games. I guess all that to say, you know, what we see from Sam Levin and what we saw from Sam Levin on Saturday really is the statistical outlier for his career. Last year against Mississippi State, he had two interceptions. So he had one in the opener against Northern Arizona, two against Mississippi State. And then the next five games, Texas State, Baylor, TCU, Texas Tech Houston, he didn't throw an interception in any of those games. Two, three, four, five, six, seven touchdowns, no interceptions for the rest of the games until he was injured. Go back to 2024, the season when Arizona State went to the cost of a playoff. He did not have a game with multiple interceptions. 24 touchdowns, just six interceptions. So all that to say, what we saw from Sam Levin on Saturday,

19:35the three interceptions is only the second multi-interception game of his career. And the first time he's ever thrown three interceptions in a game. So while it was disgusting to watch and head scratching and an annoying and frustrating and all of those things, it's also an outlier for Sam Levin. That's not who he has been over the course of his career. So it is plausible to think that this will be a really good learning lesson for him. He's not likely to replicate that performance again. He'll learn from it. Now coming off of that game, there were two real positives that I, you, we, anyone who watched what talk about in Lane Kifft acknowledged in both after the game. The defensive performance in trade-ass, go to, you know, that was awesome. You know, I really, now that I understand the seven and you know what those guys talk about and it's when you need a play. And the old sevens tell the new sevens, you know, when they were talking to them like, that's what it's for. And there's going to be games that are rough and things aren't going on, you got to find a way.

20:35And that's what he did, just breaking through tacklers on big third downs like that. As I was watching, I was thinking that's exactly what they talk about. The number is really cool. Trayda's green, if you caught our post game show was just awesome. The way I described it, it was actually I think malpractice not getting him the ball and not even getting him a target until midway point of the second quarter. That was the first interception that Sam Levit through. It was a left sideline route where they threw it to the sideline for let for a green. He overthrew Trayda's by probably about five yards and it was intercepted. So that was the first target after that every single time they went to Trayda as it was a big play. His of his six receptions four went for first downs, one went for a touchdown. The only one that didn't was on a third and seventeen where Trayda's got 14 yards and set up the fourth down conversion to Winnie Watkins on the shallow out route. So Trayda has made impactful plays and then also they ran a direct snap to him in the fourth quarter yet to rushing attempts which both went for first downs in the game.

21:36So it was awesome to see Trayda as get involved the way that he did and it just it's a thing where no matter who you play, he is going to create a giant mismatch and he has got to be targeted more. And the thing that I love and we've talked about this on the post game as well if you caught it. If you didn't please go check out our post game episode. The touchdown pass that Trayda's green caught. The goal to go sequence all three plays. He caught the ball on the third down third and goal. All three plays went to Trayda's. The first was a fade to the left side line. It was under thrown. It was incomplete. The second they ran a pass to the right where Levitt threw it out of the back of the end zone and then finally the touchdown somehow he found a soft spot in the zone or what Louisiana Tech was doing leaving Trayda's green alone but they went back to him and he caught the touchdown. He was open. The point is it took three plays but they got to him eventually and you you got the touchdown. So if that's what it takes moving him around the formation and continuing to take advantage of the six foot seven giant you have that's a mismatch then do that especially

22:37on days where you tried running the ball with Dylan Jones you tried running between the tackles and it didn't work. Now one more that Lane Kiffin was asked about which Tray Wilson who had a really strong day for the Tigers. The matter of fact Trayda's green led LSU and receiving with six catches for 104 yards in score. Well Tray Wilson was right behind him with six catches for 93 yards and also did a pretty good job in the return game as well but Lane Kiffin while he acknowledged that also acknowledged the one issue with Tray Wilson. Tray really good you know frustrated with his turn over he had the ball on his inside hand which we talked about not doing but he's the right hand dominant player and he cost him so but he's very electric with the ball you know we tried to set up some returns in the punt game because of that and so we're really excited about him. It's very nice to see LSU have a competent return game again now Philip Wright has been back returning kickoffs and else you did not have the opportunity to return a kickoff on Saturday but Tray Wilson I mentioned the six catches for 93 yards. He also returned four puns for 44 yards

23:41with a long of 27 so he averaged 11 if you just play out that average logically right if you average 11 yards on a punt return that effectively is an additional first down you're effectively negating one first down that your offense needs to get in order to score so you catch the part of the 20 it's putting you at the 30 if you catch about 30 putting you at the 40 you understand you can do math but the point is when you have a competent return game that's consistently yielding you that type of yardage advantage that's a huge benefits of something worth watching and it's good to see Tray Wilson also secure the football because that was a problem when we got to watch special teams that there was one practice in particular right charted three consecutive muffed puns by Wilson in one of those punt return drills so the fact that any and he fumbled and you heard Lane say it there he had it he's right hand dominated he added to the field side me had it his left hand going at the right side lines we should have had the ball in the outside hand his dominant hand pinned on the side line which is unfortunate that it happened that way he's got to be more mindful

24:43of of that ball security but the his ability so far to make plays in the passing game and then also in the punt return game I thought was good to see we'll see how much of a factor that may come into play when LSU plays Ole Miss on Saturday in Oxford of course we're going to be counting you down to that game right here on locked on LSU hey thanks so much for hanging out with us here do me favor if you're listening on podcasts please subscribe in your favorite podcast app rate is leave a review if you're on YouTube smash the like button subscribe to the channel hit the bell so you're notified whenever we post a new video and let a friend know that if they love the Tigers we got you every single day for locked on LSU it's your team every day every game day you show up for your team now it's your time ask your prescriber about we gov some maglatide injection 2.4 milligrams a GLP one call 1 8 3 3 4 we gov or visit we gov.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about we gov why wait

25:48college football is back so Hilton called me the superstition concierge to make your fan rituals a reality need a room to match your lucky number we got you want to make sure our team doesn't wash your lucky jersey oh that smells lucky Hilton's unmatched hospitality can keep up with any superstition even a marching band wake up call at 555 and 55 seconds hit it when you need a team that will do whatever it takes on game day it matters where you stay Hilton for the stay that's the sound of Lego Pikachu training for battle that's the sound of Lego Pikachu enjoying a post training snack and that's a reminder to not let Lego poke him on in the recording studio Lego smart brick brings Lego Pokemon play to life Lego Pokemon with smart play you're the trainer now Hey it's Isaac Shade your host of amazon fire tv's college football kickoff

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