Citrus Bowl: LSU vs. Louisville Predictions

In SEC Football by Blake Lovell

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Location: Camping World Stadium in Orlando, FL

Date and Time: December 31, 11 AM ET (ABC)

How quickly things can change.

For LSU, things changed quickly just four games into the season. After opening up the season with a close loss to Wisconsin, the Tigers fell to 2-2 in falling short at Auburn.

Considering how poorly the LSU brass handled the rumors of Les Miles’ departure last season, it shouldn’t have shocked anyone to see Miles take the fall for the slow start.

So, just four weeks after entering the season with national title aspirations, the Tigers were sitting at .500 and without a head coach.

Insert Ed Orgeron. While replacing a national championship head coach with a guy with a 16-27 record didn’t make a lot of sense at the time, Orgeron brought his best. The team went 5-2 the rest of the way, with the only losses coming to SEC title game participants Alabama and Florida.

And as we all know by now, that was good enough to earn Orgeron the permanent position as LSU’s leader.

His first challenge as the full-time head man will be a difficult one. Louisville boasts the top scoring offense in the country (45.3 points per game), which is of course led by Heisman frontrunner Lamar Jackson.

The explosive sophomore racked up 51 total touchdowns this year and had no trouble slicing through opposing defenses.

However, he wasn’t enough to make the Cardinals invincible.

The 42-36 loss at Clemson on October 1 was expected. But a 36-10 loss at Houston and 41-38 home loss to Kentucky? That left a lot of people scratching their heads.

That leaves Louisville in an interesting spot heading into the Citrus Bowl. The clash of styles is obvious, with the Cardinals boasting a high-powered offensive attack and LSU being all about defense.

Yes, the matchup itself is intriguing. However, which Louisville team will show up? The one that reeled off wins at a rapid pace up until the last two weeks of the season? Or the team that couldn’t find a way to beat a middle of the road Kentucky team?

Orgeron will almost certainly have LSU ready to play. He’s looking to make a statement in terms of showing that he was without question the right man for the job. The toughest task he faces heading into this game is convincing potential NFL-bound players to give it all they have in this one.

And while the Tiger offense has had its fair share of struggles in the passing game, the rushing attack of Leonard Fournette and Derrius Guice will be tough for Louisville to slow down (12/16 Update: Fournette has announced that he will not play in the game, but LSU will be fine with Guice).

Defensively, LSU has enough time to prepare for the challenges that come with trying to slow down Jackson. Or at least it better be since defensive coordinator Dave Aranda earned a new deal that should him the highest paid assistant coach in all of college football.

The Tigers finished seventh in the nation in scoring defense (16.4 PPG) and 12th in total defense (323 YPG), so Aranda knows what he’s doing.

All of that leads to believe that the Tigers will find a way to win what should be one of the best games of the entire bowl season.

The Orgeron era is officially here, and beating Bobby Petrino and Louisville isn’t a bad way to kick things off.

Citrus Bowl Prediction: LSU 30, Louisville 27

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