LSU walked out of Tiger Stadium with a third loss and a whole lot of work still ahead in the College Football Playoff race.
The Tigers were beaten 31-13 by touchdown-underdog Alabama on Saturday night, a result that dropped LSU to 6-3 overall and 3-3 in the Southeastern Conference. The loss came in a game that mattered plenty for a team sitting No. 14 in the first CFP rankings, but the door to the postseason is not shut yet.
That’s because LSU still has two ranked opponents left on the schedule, starting with No. 7 Texas at home on Saturday and then No.
13 Tennessee on the road Nov. 21.
The Tigers close the regular season at Arkansas. If LSU can win out, there is still a path, even if it’s a narrow one.
After the game, Lane Kiffin said nights like Saturday are the reason he avoids talking about the big picture and postseason implications with his team before major games. There is still football left, he said, and now the response matters.
Safety Ty Benefield put it more bluntly.
“There should be nothing else in your head but wanting to get that sour taste out of your mouth more than anything,” he said after the game. “Losing is hard, and we all hate that. If you don’t, you’re a weirdo.”
The CFP picture around LSU is messy enough to keep the Tigers hanging around, at least for now. Only two three-loss teams have ever made the playoff, and both came with unusual circumstances.
Clemson got in as the ACC champion in 2024 with three losses, and last year’s Alabama team was the lone at-large three-loss selection after finishing the regular season 10-2 and then losing the SEC title game to No. 3 Georgia.
This season looks different. The top of the sport has already taken hits, and the rankings are crowded with teams carrying multiple losses.
No. 1 Miami fell 31-24 at Notre Dame, while No.
12 Ohio State lost to No. 23 Oregon, 41-28, and No.
10 Ole Miss was blown out 42-7 by No. 2 Georgia.
No. 6 Kentucky got routed 34-6 by Tennessee, and No.
9 BYU lost 28-20 at Utah.
LSU’s own resume is the problem. The Tigers’ best win remains the 51-10 rout of Clemson in the opener, and Clemson is not ranked.
Their other solid win is a 38-17 victory over Auburn. The early losses at Ole Miss, 32-24, and at Kentucky, 35-34 in overtime, at least looked respectable before both opponents were beaten badly on Saturday.
LSU, meanwhile, did not help its case.
The Tigers did pile up 457 yards against Alabama, but the result still turned into a lopsided defeat. And now the schedule gets even more demanding before it gets easier.
Texas is next, and the Longhorns should climb after beating No. 18 Missouri 34-20.
Tennessee follows, and both games give LSU a chance to build something the committee can’t ignore.
Sam Leavitt said after the loss that he and Winston Watkins Jr. had talked about pushing through the final stretch.
“Just as a man in life, you give your all into everything that you do - something that my dad preached to me growing up, and one thing that I live by,” he said. “It’s your makeup, and you try to give yourself every single opportunity you can.
If we got a small chance, and you’re gonna go give it everything you got. If it doesn’t work out, at least you’re able to look yourself at the end of the day in the mirror and say you gave everything you got.”
Even if LSU handles Texas and Tennessee, the Tigers still may need help. A cluster of three-loss SEC teams could form on the bubble, including LSU, Texas, Tennessee, Ole Miss and possibly Kentucky and/or Missouri. Those teams would be tangled up in one another’s results, and LSU would still have to hope its schedule and results stack up well enough in the committee’s eyes.
There are also other power-conference teams with cleaner records. Texas Tech still has only one loss, BYU is likely to finish with two in the Big 12, and Wake Forest has one loss with a matchup against two-loss SMU coming next week. Miami also remains in the mix from the ACC.
So LSU is not done. But the Tigers are clearly on the outside looking in, and they’ll need a lot to break their way from here.
In Other News...
Former LSU Star Voices What Tigers Fans Fear After Alabama Loss
Breiden Fehoko did not wait long after LSUs loss to Alabama to say what plenty of Tigers fans were already thinking. The former LSU nose tackle and member of the 2019 national championship team took to social media to blast the programs current state, airing out his frustration with the teams performance and the direction things have gone under Lane Kiffin.
The comments landed at a time when the Tigers are already staring at a difficult finish, sitting at 6-3 overall and 3-3 in SEC play with a College Football Playoff berth looking unlikely. Fehoko also went after Kiffins recruiting, and the sharp tone of his criticism only underscored how uneasy the mood has become around a program that expected more than this by November. [Read more 🡒]
LSUs Alabama Loss Exposed One Offensive Problem Fans Cant Ignore
LSUs loss to Alabama did more than add another frustrating result to the ledger. It also came with some of the harshest grading the Tigers have seen from Pro Football Focus this season, on both sides of the ball, underscoring how uneven the performance was in a game that never really felt under control.
Jackson Harris earned LSUs top offensive grade in the matchup, while Braelin Moore landed near the bottom for his pass blocking. Those individual marks point to a broader issue the Tigers have been trying to solve, and the film grades only sharpen the focus on how much work still remains as they move on from another lopsided SEC setback. [Read more 🡒]
LSU Still Has One Damaging Problem In The SEC Race
Week 10 did plenty to reshape the national picture, and LSU is still sitting in the middle of the SEC race with the kind of resume that keeps the conversation alive but not settled. The Tigers remain part of the playoff discussion after a weekend that shuffled the top of the AP Top 25 and sent a few contenders tumbling, with the leagues usual mix of heavyweight matchups continuing to define who can actually survive the stretch run.
For LSU, the issue is not whether it belongs in the mix. It is whether it can clean up the one problem that keeps showing up whenever the stakes rise, because the SEC has already made clear there is no room for another slip if the Tigers want to keep pace with the teams around them. With Alabama, Kentucky and the rest of the conference crowding the same space in the rankings, LSUs margin for error is getting thinner by the week. [Read more 🡒]