Urban Meyer was 3-3 against Les Miles’ LSU teams in his six seasons as Florida coach. Meyer was also 1-2 against Nick Saban’s Alabama squads during his time in the Southeastern Conference.
The former Gators’ coach and current ESPN analyst gives his take on some of the keys to Saturday’s matchup between No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
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Meyer on Saban’s teams:
“They take your top five plays and really do a good job defending them.
“Usually, (they have) very good special teams and ball control offense. And they play field position with that great defense.”
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Meyer on Miles’ teams:
“When you think of a Les Miles team at LSU you’re talking about one of the top three most talented teams in the nation.”
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Meyer on when Alabama has the ball:
“LSU is going to put nine guys (at the line of scrimmage) and try to stop Trent Richardson, and they have the corners to do it.
“At the end of the day, for Alabama to score they’re are going to have to throw it over the top and challenge those LSU corners.”
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Meyer on when LSU has the ball:
“LSU is more traditional now. They have big backs and they’re going to turn and hand the ball to them and that’s going to play right into Alabama’s hands.
“So I think they’re going to have to come up with a trick play or two.”
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Meyer on the quarterbacks:
“I think that’s one of the interesting matchups in the whole game because they aren’t the star-powered quarterbacks. You look at what their job description is, it’s to manage the team. I think they’re doing a phenomenal job of it.”
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Meyer on LSU QB Jarrett Lee:
“The question is when he gets against an evenly matched outfit like Alabama, at some point the quarterback is probably going to have to win a game like this. Can he do that?
“That’s the question the no one knows because he hasn’t had to do that yet. He’s got excellent receivers in (Russell) Shepard and (Rueben) Randle. There are NFL guys all over the place. There’s certainly the talent there to do it. But this year he has not had to step up and go win the game. I certainly think he can, but it’s going to be interesting to see him do it.”
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