Better catch some Zs if you want to catch Johnny Manziel.
That's LSU's strategy this week anyway. Coach Les Miles has brought in a sleep doctor this week to help prepare No. 6 LSU (6-1) for Saturday's noon ET kickoff against No. 20 Texas A&M (5-1) in College Station, Texas.
"Without giving away trade secrets, we're going to change our body clock a little bit and get used to going to bed early, getting up early," Miles said.
The Tigers have a 7 a.m. wakeup call Saturday, and Texas A&M's big wakeup call could soon follow.
The Aggies are 2-1 in the SEC, though those two wins have come over Ole Miss (1-2) and Arkansas (2-2). In the season opener they lost a close game at home to Florida, which forced A&M to punt on all five second-half possessions. Florida's defensive line made it a point to stay back and just keep Manziel from running, and Texas A&M was stuck.
That was A&M's first and most recent experience with the kind of defense the SEC is known for. But it is important to note that was Manziel's first college game, and he appeared reluctant to throw the ball down the field, particularly over the middle. Either that or coach Kevin Sumlin was reluctant to let him try it.
But things have changed a little since then. Manziel threw for 453 yards on 38 attempts against Arkansas, and had a career-high 40 attempts (for 395 yards) last week in a win at then-No. 23 Louisiana Tech. He also has 676 rushing yards this season, which has put him into the Heisman discussion just six games into his career.
"On things that we couldn't get done in the first game, we've really made some strides," Sumlin said. "He's been in the pocket and gone through some progressions in the past couple of weeks on early downs and on third downs. We've demonstrated the ability to get the ball down the field vertically now."
LSU's defense, of course, has a tendency to make the game look difficult for opposing quarterbacks. Florida's Jeff Driskell threw for just 61 yards and was sacked five times in a 14-6 Florida win earlier this month. South Carolina's Connor Shaw went 19-for-34 and was sacked four times in an LSU win last week.
The Tigers are No.2 in the nation in total defense, allowing an average of 220 yards per game.
"They have such great athletes and players that they can do whatever they want and it's going to be a challenge," Texas A&M offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said. "I don't think you can just point out one area. They are in the top in every category."
On the other hand, LSU hasn't yet faced anybody like Manziel, who is second in the nation in individual total offense. Confidence has never been a problem for Manziel, but now he has some chemistry, especially with receiver Mike Evans, a rangy 6-foot-5 freshman who leads the Aggies with 36 catches for 549 yards.
"You look at their big plays in the last couple of weeks, you've got a redshirt freshman throwing to a redshirt freshman," Sumlin said. "You've got to be able to understand coverages and things like that by both of them to be on the same page. There have been some strides with that."
So that's the situation. That's the matchup when it comes to Texas A&M this year. Can you corral Manziel or can't you? So far, only Florida has been able to.
"I think they're very efficient on offense," Miles said.
That was about as effusive as he got. A pretty standard response for a coach aiming to say something nice about that week's opponent. And if the Tigers aren't particularly concerned about Texas A&M's scheme and quarterback, it would be tough to blame them. The second-best defense in America worries about itself more than its opponent.
Don't expect the Tigers to lose any sleep over it.
