LSU Tigers

LSU Football: Implications Of The Alabama Game

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Next Saturday, one of the biggest games of the 2016 College Football season will be played in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The number one team in the nation will come to town as the LSU Tigers battle the Alabama Crimson Tide.

This game will be a season-defining game for both programs and has massive impacts at both the conference and national level. So much is at stake in the November 5th meeting for each team. From an LSU standpoint, here’s the impact this game could have on Tigers down the stretch.

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Conference Title

As it currently stands, the LSU Tigers sit in fourth place in the SEC West standings. The Alabama Crimson Tide and Texas A&M Aggies are 5-0 and 4-1 in conference play respectively, and while LSU is tied record-wise with Auburn, Gus Malzahn’s team won the head to head matchup.

With a 3-1 SEC record, this team is by no means out of contention for the SEC Championship game. If they are to get that far and play in Atlanta, they need to win out, and that starts next Saturday at home against Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide.

If Ed Orgeron’s team can escape with a victory, they are set up nicely for the rest of the way. Doing so would move them up in the standings and tie Alabama in the loss column at one. The Tigers would still have to beat Arkansas, Florida, and Texas A&M, but knocking off the conference’s best team is certainly a great place to start.

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National Title

It may sound crazy, but this LSU team is not out of contention for the College Football Playoff. If I would have told you that after the loss against Auburn and subsequent removal from the top 25, you would have told me I was insane. But here we are, and as the 19th ranked team in nation and with several big games left on the schedule, the Tigers are still in the race.

As I said, they’ll have the opportunity to play several ranked teams as the season finishes up, but no game is bigger than next Saturday’s meeting with the number one team in all of football.

It will by no means be an easy feat to accomplish, but beating the top-ranked Crimson Tide would boost LSU astronomically in the polls. We could potentially see them move up into the top ten, and they would have a signature for the Playoff Committee to consider as they begin to meet.

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Ed Orgeron

When Ed Orgeron took over as interim head coach of the LSU Tigers, not many gave him a serious shot to win the job long term. The schedule was daunting, and he looked to be at the very bottom of a large list of very intriguing big names who could be potential candidates.

But Orgeron has led the Tigers to three straight wins and has them back in the polls as the season comes upon the stretch run. He has proven to be a worthy candidate for this job, and will have the opportunity to steal the permanent coaching spot away in these last few games as LSU takes on several ranked conference teams.

Their daunting slate of games opens next Saturday against Alabama, a game that will be critical to Orgeron’s future. If he is able to lead this team to an upset victory over the Tide, the job is all but locked up. If not, he might have an uphill battle the rest of the way.

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Leonard Founette’s Future

Leonard Fournette is the best running back in all of college football, and is considered to be one of the best NFL prospects we have seen at the position in quite some time. He has all of the raw physical tools and abilities that teams at the next level desire, and he will undoubtedly be the first running back taken in next year’s draft.

That statement is as close to factual as it gets, but Fournette’s draft position is as far from a lock as it gets, and that’s due to one thing.

Last season, the star LSU tailback was putting up historic numbers every single week until the Tigers traveled to Tuscaloosa to take on this same Alabama team. Fournette was shutdown completely, leading many to question how well he could do against an NFL defense. The Crimson Tide D is about as close to an NFL unit as there is in college football, and his ineffectiveness against them raised a lot of questions.

Leonard is running as well as he ever has heading into this year’s installment of the rivalry. For his sake, he needs that to continue. If he can have a nice game and prove that he is still effective against an elite defense, it could do wonders for his draft stock.