LSU welcomes the unranked Arizona Wildcats to town tonight.
Does not stand for "Alabama."
The 'Cats come in with a little momentum, according to Coach Stoops at least, after having knocked off BYU 16-13 last week on a last second field goal. The current line on the game sits at LSU -16 to -17, depending on where you go. Sorry I didn't have time this week to do any sort of in depth preview. I will say for the record once again that I still don't feel comfortable with the notion that we will play four quality quarters of football against a non-directional school opponent (unlike say, ULL, which still qualifies as directional in my book). While it'd be fantastic to see something approaching a repeat of our 59-13 victory in Tucson in 2003, I'd be satisfied just knowing we can put on a decent running display against a well-coached defense (coming off what Stoops called their best effort during his tenure). I'll be away from my computer during the game, but will be back with commentary afterwards. My prediction: LSU 27, Arizona 17.
Meanwhile, some quality reading:
- Family connections run deep - UA head coach Mike Stoops and LSU defensive coordinator Bo Pelini grew up together in Youngstown, OH.
- This Tucson Citizen writer more or less compares AZ's task at hand to that of the 1980 US hockey team vs Russia, Buster Douglas vs Mike Tyson, or the '04 Red Sox vs the Yankees after going down 3-0. A little heavy, given the Wildcats do get the benefit of an opposition coached by the not-entirely-reliable Les Miles, but I guess it fits his story.
- I'm guessing this Durrenberger fellow, an insurance salesman from Tucson, won't be the most popular guy around town after quotes like this:
"Tucson is a front-runner town," Durrenberger said. "People here only follow teams when they win because there's nobody here who's from Tucson. The bars here each have a team. This one's the Packers. This one's the Dallas Cowboys. You don't see that in a real college town."- Not directly related, but kinda: the blogosphere hath spoken and moveth LSU up a notch to 5th.