GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
There is no place like Tiger Stadium on a Saturday night.
And on this Saturday, there will be no place like LSU on a Saturday morning.
With ESPN’s College GameDay pre-game show televising live from The Quad on campus from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., LSU is putting on its game face and then some before the No. 15 LSU football team (6-2, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) hosts No. 11 Alabama (6-2, 3-2 SEC) at 6:30 p.m. on ABC in Tiger Stadium. The game has huge stakes as a chance to stay in the 12-team College Football Playoff race will be on the line.
Former LSU pitcher Paul Skenes, who won the National League Rookie of the Year award Thursday from Baseball Digest, will be a guest picker of various major college football games on GameDay Saturday along with his girlfriend, LSU gymnast and social media superstar Olivia Dunne.
Skenes, the first player picked in the 2023 Major League Baseball Draft shortly after leading LSU to the national championship in Omaha, Nebraska, went 11-3 with a spectacular 1.96 earned run average and 170 strikeouts in 133 innings for the Pittsburgh Pirates last season. And Dunne was part of LSU’s first gymnastics national championship last spring.
Meanwhile, LSU has been scouring the Live Tiger Transfer Portal and has located one that will be on the field Saturday night, after repeated requests by Governor Jeff Landry. LSU’s live starting Tiger mascot, Mike VII, does not do games on the field in Tiger Stadium as LSU ended that practice in 2015 for reasons having to do with political correctness.
So, Omar Bradley, a live Tiger from Florida, will be at the game on the field as a pinch-growler, so to speak, according to several reports.
“I am a huge Tiger fan,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said, jokingly, at his usual Thursday night press conference when asked about the transfer portal tiger. “Go Tigers!”
Kelly will also make an appearance on GameDay at 9:20 a.m. LSU women’s basketball star guard Flau’jae Johnson will also be interviewed on the show after 9 a.m.
LSU will be hosting GameDay for the 14th time.
It will be the first GameDay at LSU with new GameDay analyst Nick Saban, who retired as Alabama’s coach following last season after winning six national titles with the Crimson Tide from 2009-20. He coached at Alabama from 2007-23. Saban won his first national title as LSU’s coach in the 2003 season. He was LSU’s coach from 2000-04 before coaching the Miami Dolphins in 2005 and ’06.
After all the fun, Kelly will try to become the first LSU football coach in history to beat Alabama twice in a row in Tiger Stadium. The No. 7 Tigers beat No. 6 Alabama and Saban, 32-31, in overtime on Nov. 5, 2022, in Kelly’s first season at LSU.
“We’re making sure our guys clearly understand that our focus needs to show itself when it’s time to perform,” Kelly said. “We’ve done it at times for a few quarters. This has got to be four quarters of consistent play.”
Kelly may have injured starting wide receiver C.J. Daniels (knee) back after he missed the second half of LSU’s last game at Texas A&M. Kelly listed him as probable on Thursday. Starting left guard Garrett Dellinger will not play after recently having an ankle procedure. He has a chance to play next week at Florida. Redshirt freshman Paul Mubenga (6-5, 311) is expected to replace Dellinger in the lineup.
Be the first to comment