It’s time for LSU to change its approach to season openers | LSU

It is said that a person learns more from failure than from success.

But how many times do you have to fail before you learn that you have to do something else?

LSU football is in a similar situation when it comes to scheduling. In five straight years (a half-decade of love) the Tigers have lost their season opener. That streak is the worst in program history, along with the five straight opener-less games LSU had from 1991-95.

The first loss of the streak, in 2020, was due to a situation beyond LSU’s control. Because of the pandemic, the Southeastern Conference reconfigured the 2020 season to a 10-game, all-SEC format, and coincidentally had LSU open at home against Mississippi State.

The Bulldogs destroyed LSU through the air in a 44-34 upset.

Next came a 38-27 loss in 2021 to UCLA in the Rose Bowl. Then, in Brian Kelly’s first game as LSU coach, a 24-23 loss to Florida State in the Caesars Superdome, ultimately decided by a blocked extra point. Last year, the Seminoles defeated the Tigers 45-24 in Orlando, Florida.

And now this: On Sunday in Las Vegas, LSU lost another close game, 27-20 to USC on a last-minute touchdown.

It’s safe to say that none of these LSU opponents were great teams, with the exception of 2023 FSU with quarterback Jordan Travis before his season-ending injury. But all of them were good enough and dangerous enough to beat the Tigers if they didn’t play well enough to win.

In every case, LSU didn’t. The five season-opening losses were marred by poor or nonexistent pass defense, offensive mistakes, blocking and tackling issues, special teams breakdowns and questionable coaching decisions or strategies.

While the Tigers were getting blown out by the Trojans last weekend (a team that will at best finish fifth or sixth in their new Big Ten home), here were some tomato cans crushed by other SEC teams:

• Ole Miss 76, Furman 0

• Auburn 73, Alabama A&M 3

• Arkansas 70, UAPB 0

• Tennessee 69, Chattanooga 3

• Alabama 63, Western Kentucky 0

• Mississippi State 56, Eastern Kentucky 7

• Texas 52, State of Colorado 0

• Missouri 51, Murray State 0

• Oklahoma 51, Temple 3

• Notre Dame 23, Texas A&M 13

Okay, I added that last one for comic effect. Not every SEC team paid for a glorified scrimmage in the season opener.

But consider the plight of the schools that didn’t win this weekend. LSU fans, who traveled to Las Vegas by the tens of thousands, groaned upon returning across the country Monday. Florida is greasing the springs of Billy Napier’s ejection seat after a 41-17 rout at home by Miami. And South Carolina coach Shane Beamer isn’t on much firmer ground after beating Old Dominion 23-19.

At his Tuesday news conference to kick off Nicholls State week, LSU coach Brian Kelly (0-3 in LSU’s opening games) disagreed with the idea that it’s time to change scheduling tactics.

“I don’t think so,” Kelly said. “We’re going to be a better team because of what happened (against USC). Our margin is very close now, but we’re developing a football team. We know what we have to do better as coaches.

“I don’t think winning the first game 73-0 will do you much good.”

Kelly is right — to a point. If LSU had opened the game against Nicholls and beaten the Colonels 50-7 or something, would the Tigers have gained a lot of knowledge about themselves before playing USC?

Maybe not, but players and coaches would be much better prepared and wouldn’t feel like the ultimate goal of the season, which was to reach the newly expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, had gone down the drain.

Pete Fiutak of CollegeFootballNews.com, speaking Tuesday on Hunt Palmer’s radio show on WNXX-FM 104.5, made the compelling argument I’m making: that LSU would benefit from the football version of a test cruise like the ones given to Navy ships and Carnival cruise ships before they are put into service.

“For the fifth year in a row, LSU looked like a team that if they had to play an easy team to start the season they would have been a lot better,” Fiutak said. “All those timing issues, all those other things, would have gone away.

“I think we will have a very different team here very soon.”

Maybe, but this is a team that has already suffered one defeat. Two more and the Tigers can kiss their hopes of winning the CFP goodbye.

That said, football scheduling, like an aircraft carrier during sea trials, can’t be changed overnight. LSU has scheduled a home-and-away series in 2025 and 2026 against Clemson — Aug. 30 next year there and the following Sept. 5 at Tiger Stadium. I don’t think Clemson would agree to LSU inserting a Week 0 FCS opponent into the schedule at this point.

However, eventually a change will be necessary. The Tigers should play a team that is clearly beatable and then move on to the main part of the schedule.

LSU has learned from enough failures.