Podcast: Can LSU prove its a playoff team vs. Vanderbilt?

LSU has a pivotal game against Vanderbilt on Saturday afternoon in Nashville, but are the Tigers up for the challenge? Matthew Brune and Shea Dixon break down every angle of this matchup with their keys to the game, breakout players, and final score predictions.

Will the Tigers get it done? Or will Brian Kelly’s team fall short on the road in the SEC once again? Follow along with all of our coverage at the Bengal Tiger On3.

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On the pod: How does LSU stack up against Vanderbilt?

Matthew Brune: “I’ll start with LSU offense versus Vanderbilt defense. One thing that stood out to me when looking at Vanderbilt is that they’re a physical team. They’re pretty sound and fundamental. That’s always the word you hear when you talk about Vanderbilt: well-coached, fundamental, everything like that.They’ve held teams to 3.1 yards per carry this year on the ground and 90 yards total per game. And I was like, okay, well, they didn’t play the toughest schedule—that’s the first thing you think of, because they didn’t. But they held Alabama to 3.8 yards per carry.

So this is not just a team that benefited from playing Utah State and whoever else they played earlier in the year. They went toe-to-toe with Bama, and when you watch that game, it didn’t feel like they were overwhelmed on the road against the Tide. Now, eventually Simpson and those weapons got loose, but in terms of LSU offense versus Vanderbilt’s defense, I don’t know. I’m not super confident in the run game in terms of being consistent here. We’ve talked about it before, but yeah, I do think they’ll try at least somewhat to be balanced here with Durham and try to build on what they did last week to a degree. But ultimately, this is Nussmeier—this is Nussmeier and the passing game that have to come through.”

Shea Dixon: “Vanderbilt will be among the best rush defenses they’ll face this year. Maybe it could even be seen as one of the toughest. Obviously, Clemson’s got a really good D-line, but I don’t even know—like, you say you don’t expect much there, fair, right? Ole Miss was the “get-right” game. They’re still sitting at the bottom of the SEC in rush defense, and LSU couldn’t do anything on them.

They did more on South Carolina than on Ole Miss. So yeah, I’m with you. That would be impressive to me if they finished with 100 yards on the ground, because it means they probably also stayed committed to it.”