BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Arch Manning has a chance to make a triumphant homecoming to his native Louisiana and keep No. 8 Texas firmly in contention for a College Football Playoff berth when the Longhorns invade No. 24 LSU's Tiger Stadium on Saturday night.
For LSU coach Lane Kiffin, it's an opportunity to reassure increasingly restless Tigers fans that hiring him to a contract paying about $1 million per month should still be seen as a good idea.
LSU (6-3, 3-3 SEC) is coming off of a demoralizing 31-13 loss at home to No. 7 Alabama — a result that left the Tigers' hopes of qualifying for the 12-team playoff at somewhere between slim and none.
“The loss at Tiger Stadium — yeah, that’s bad; I feel bad for our fans and for the state,” Kiffin said this week. “We’re supposed to win. We’re certainly not supposed to score 13 points in a game, ever.”
But Kiffin added that, “Because we lost," hosting a team like Texas (7-2, 4-2) this weekend is “a good thing.”
“It gives you a chance right away to play a top-10 team,” Kiffin said. “We have a great team coming in with great players and really challenging matchups, and we get to play them here.”
In the meantime, Kiffin said he has advised his players to ignore the inevitable heightened criticism of the way he runs their program, including some of the arguably gimmicky visuals he packs into game days at Tiger Stadium (such as a basketball hoop on the sideline where players can celebrate with flamboyant dunks).
“The basketball hoop’s stupid, and they shouldn’t have a little kid on the smoke machine,” Kiffin said while summarizing some of the criticism he expected. “I just know all that’s what comes when you lose. When you win, it’s all different. That’s just part of it, and I’m making sure they understand not to listen to that.”
A Longhorns win would be Texas’ fifth against a ranked opponent this season, something coach Steve Sarkisian likes to note in discussing his program's playoff credentials.
A month ago, a CFP berth looked doubtful after Texas lost consecutive games to unranked Oklahoma and Florida.
LSU, Sarkisian said, may be the most talented lineup Texas has faced this season.
“You could argue this is the most talented defense we’re going to go against this year, and arguably the most talented team,” Sarkisian said. “It’s hard to see how they lost three games.”
Manning, who grew up in New Orleans and attended a number of big LSU home games as a kid, isn’t shy about acknowledging how surreal it’ll be for him to play a high-stakes November game on a Saturday night in Death Valley.
But it could start to feel like a bad dream if the Longhorns don’t protect him better; Texas has given up a whopping 27 sacks this season.
Manning has made better use of his scrambling in the three-game winning streak, but he’s still on the run a lot. He’ll face a Tigers defense, led by edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen (8 1/2 sacks), that has sacked opponents 36 times, ranking third in the country.
Kiffin and Sarkisian were assistants together at Southern California under Pete Carroll and both served under Nick Saban at Alabama, overlapping for one season (2016) in Tuscaloosa. They also faced off against each other when Kiffin was head coach at USC and Sarkisian at Washington.
In that context, Sarkisian called this week's matchup “a big ball game for both of us.”
“I always go back to something Coach Carroll used to talk to us a lot about: You love competing against your friends and that there’s nothing more gratifying than beating your friends," Sarkisian said. “I’m sure Lane feels the same way. We were raised kind of the same way in the profession.”
Kiffin called his relationship with Sarkisian “really unique,” noting not just the number of times their careers crossed paths, but how, on a personal level, how both now consider themselves recovered alcoholics and have supported each other on that front.
“A major change in my life was getting sober almost six years ago, and he was a big part of that,” Kiffin said. “I owe him a lot for that and will always be appreciative of that.”
Kiffin has taken note of how LSU and other teams seem to have responded well to losses by bouncing back with strong performances a week later. LSU has posted lopsided victories after each of its previous two losses this season to Mississippi and Kentucky.
Kiffin also referenced how much Auburn struggled at home against LSU just one week after posting a stunning upset at Georgia.
“I don’t know what has changed with kids nowadays, but I think a lot of times you’re seeing teams actually rebound much better than they handle success,” Kiffin said. “You see a lot of these games that don’t make sense to you on paper if you look at the week before.”
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AP Sports Writer Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.
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