The LSU Tigers Need To Overlook Southern Miss

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

foxsports

Typically, when a major conference school like LSU faces off against a team like the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, we hear all week from the media and the coaching staff that “we cannot overlook our opponent.”

We see it all the time. A highly regarded team plays one of these Sunbelt or Conference USA teams inbetween their conference matchups. They look ahead a week, and they get upset in humiliating fashion. It’s almost impossible to come back from a loss like that, and that’s why coaches overemphasize the need to stay focused and not overlook the opponent.

Well, I’m telling you this week that the Tigers absolutely need to overlook their opponent this Saturday.

Looking ahead at the remaining schedule for LSU, the Tigers will have to face off on the road against Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and Arkansas, and against Florida at home. The team also gets to play the Alabama Crimson Tide at home, but that is by no means an easy game.

That slate of games is easily the most difficult any team will have to face as we play out the stretch run of the college football season. With LSU in the post-Les Miles era and looking to get back into contention, the Tigers will need to win most, if not all, of the five conference games I mentioned.

If Ed Orgeron and his team are to somehow get that done, they need to devote just about every waking moment to strategizing and preparing themselves for some of the conference’s elite. They need to be mentally sharp and execute as flawlessly as possible, and that takes lots of preparation.

That’s where “overlooking” the Southern Miss game comes into play. LSU needs to be relatively prepared to play the Golden Eagles and put them away early, but spending time this week not focusing on them would be absolutely huge.

The Tigers are clearly more talented than Southern Miss. That advantage should be enough to drastically overwhelm the visitors, so why spend extensive amounts of time this week studying and analyzing everything they do? As long as LSU has a general understanding of what this team does and how to beat them, they should win big.

With a grueling conference schedule ahead of them, one they need to win out in if they are to get back into the SEC Championship picture, I think Ed Orgeron and company need to be a little less worried about Southern Miss than they are. Saturday will be an easy win no matter how many hours the staff puts in, so go ahead and devote that time to readying for the stretch run.