Before Friday’s media day at the Texas Bowl, here are some news, notes, and numbers:
LSU came into the 2025 season with high expectations. They were a top-10 team, had the No. 1 transfer portal class, and a potential Heisman candidate at quarterback. The Tigers finished 7-5 and 10th in the SEC, fired Brian Kelly after 8 games, made a huge mess with the governor getting involved in the firing, threatened not to pay Kelly’s buyout, hired Lane Kiffin and much of his staff just before Ole Miss’ CFP run, and slumped to the finish line under interim head coach Frank Wilson, who has already agreed to a new job at Ole Miss.
As you might imagine, there’s not a lot of focus or hype on the Texas Bowl right now. Sure, the fans in the stadium will be into it, but LSU world is much more focused on Lane Kiffin, the 2026 portal, and recruiting classes.
As of this writing, LSU has not released a two-deep for the game. They have a handle on most of the opt-outs, but it’s still fluid, I’d guess. There’s a pretty decent chance we see third-string QB Ju’Juan Johnson running some packages for the Tigers. Johnson and UH’s Jordan Allen played together in high school at Lafayette Christian.
At least six defensive starters will not play for LSU – AJ Haulcy, Monsoor Delane, Whit Weeks, West Weeks, Harold Perkins Jr., and Jack Pyburn. They combined for 346 of LSU’s 774 tackles this year and have, by my count, 101 games worth of starting experience at LSU alone (plus, Monsoor Delane started 29 at Virginia Tech, Haulcy started 24 games at UH, Pyburn had 9 at Florida, and West Weeks had one at UVA). That’s 160+ starts lost.
LSU has not handled mobile QBs very well this year.
For the last 29 years, DandyDon.com has been the bible of LSU athletics. Don passed away in 2012, but his son Scott has kept the news flowing (I’m a 27+ year reader). What’s his view of Houston from the LSU side?
The problem is that this Houston offense has been all over the map.
Fair!
LSU scored 13 or fewer points in three of its four November games and 23 points in the other (14.5 ppg).
More fair: LSU has not been all over the map. They’ve been stuck aground.
Schedule for today:
The media gets to watch LSU “practice” from 11 to 11:15 this morning. Mainly, it will be to see who is working out and who is not. It will be the first time this week that the LSU media have had access to the team they cover.
It is a privilege to watch UH practice all season: Between spring ball, fall camp, and the season, there are roughly 70-75 practices the media are allowed to attend each year. In two seasons under Willie Fritz, I think the number is right around 148 total practices we’ve been allowed into. I missed 3 in 2024 (two due to the NCAA Tournament) and 6 in 2025 (the NCAA Tournament accounted for 3 of them). So I’ve seen this team practice just under 70 times and attended 10 games in person in 2025, including two practices earlier this week. I’m thankful that Willie believes in allowing the media in and us talking to players and assistants. It’s helped me, to be sure, but it helps players and coaches, too.
After the Tigers complete practice, families from the DePelchin Children’s Center will pair up with players from both teams to run through drills and stretching. After that, the two head coaches and players (along with their DePelchin families) will speak to the media.
Fun with numbers:
Both teams went 2-2 in November.
For the season, LSU scores 21.8 ppg.
UH gives up 21.8 ppg.
Both teams played six one-score games: UH was 5-1 while LSU was 3-3.
This is UH’s 18th bowl game in Texas (7-9-1). The Coogs are 2-2-1 in Houston (last win: 1973). UH has played in only one Houston bowl game since 1974: the 2007 Texas Bowl. How long ago was that?
It was the first-ever 300-yard game for freshman Case Keenum.
Houston is 2-0 in bowls vs. teams from Louisiana and 2-3 vs. current members of the SEC.
The Cougars are 0-1 in bowl games at NRG. They were 2-1-1 in bowls at the Astrodome.
LSU has not scored more than 25 points vs. FBS competition this season (and those 25 points came in a 49-25 loss to Texas A&M).
Houston is 6-0 away from home. LSU is 1-4 away from Tiger Stadium.
Offensively, LSU is ranked 90th or worse nationally in:
109 – Total offense*
107 – Scoring offense*
120 – Rushing offense*
126 – Passing yards per completion*
103 – 3rd down conversion percentage
103 – TFL allowed
98 – First downs offense
98 – Fewest penalties per game
93 – Red zone offense*
*15th or 16th in the SEC
There are a handful of offensive players for LSU that will not play, including junior WR Aaron Anderson, senior WR Barion Brown, and senior guard Josh Thompson (37 starts at LSU between them and 60 starts at previous schools). Left guard Coen Echols, who started the last 7 games, has announced he is entering the portal and may not be playing.
As of Friday morning, no Houston player has announced plans to transfer (Demetrius Hunter quit the team in early December).
As most bowl teams do, UH has been working on some new offensive packages and a few new wrinkles.
