Everything Lane Kiffin Had To Say After LSU’s Unfortunate Loss to Alabama

LSU took an unfortunate blow from SEC rival Alabama, breaking their at-home win streak with a 31-13 loss.

Head coach Lane Kiffin took his sixth loss to Alabama as a coach, a team he has yet to beat during his career.

Here’s everything he had to say after adding another loss to his record.

Full Transcript

Opening Statement

“All right. Really disappointing, you know, into the game. You know, we take the lead actually with all the stuff we did wrong, especially offensively. Earlier in the game, you know, we take the lead with three minutes left in the third quarter and then we play after that. We play really bad 18 minutes of football. So disappointed in that. Disappointed for our fans. I think that point of taking the lead, the stadium was ready to kind of help take over and they went down and scored then you know once once we got some situations obviously having to go for it on fourth downs just to try to have a chance in the game got kind of ugly there at the end but I think the game comes down it's a very unusual statistic game you know yardage wise 457 to 285 you know comes down to red zone and four downs we didn't make 0 for four on fourth downs and we got to the red zone more than they did and so um that that'Il that'Il give you a problem on the scoreboard. You have a lot of yards and not many points when that happens. Also I credit them. They did a really good job. Some good some good stuff with the blitz zero in the red zone.”

Thoughts on run game struggles:

Question: “how much did you guys' struggles in the run game just sort of limit the options of things that were happening for your offense, especially with Bama playing too deep?”

”I mean obviously it makes it tougher. You get really lopsided there, you know 48 pass attempts, but game kind of went like that, but also kind of felt that it would be tough to run in general and our strength really has been throwing the ball.”

”We moved the ball really well at times in the game. Comes down to fourth downs in red zone or it’s much different. I wouldn’t think if I was looking at a sheet and you said Sam had 380 passing yards and Jackson Harris had 11 for 166 and Trey’Dez Green had 10 for 85. But again, you got to score touchdowns in the red zone and make some of the fourth downs.”

Question: Aside from the field getting more compressed and the tight and the tighter coverage, is there anything that you can see right now?

”Well, I think they they did a they went really aggressive. You know, there's a lot of blitz zero in there and manto man and really coming after us and you know that there's risk in that and we didn't make him pay for it.“

Question: Seeing Russell at 206 and that he was able to make plays with his legs?

“I thought he played really well right from the beginning. We had a hard time getting him on the ground and catching him. He outran us a number of times, you know, for first downs and really critical plays.”

”He’s really good. I’ve said it all week. If you don’t get him on the ground and let him extend plays you know, he can play really well.”

Thoughts on team mentality and season outlook:

Question: What do you think it is that's preventing this team from making the winning plays necessary to win games like this?

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“I don’t know. We just didn’t, you know, we had a chance. Like I tell them, there’s usually gonna be a chance in the game. It's not usually going to necessarily be the last minute of the game where you can take over a game. For instance, when we took the lead late in the third and um got momentum and the crowd and you know, if we stop him there and still let him went on and score, game might be really different, but we didn’t.”

Question: Lane, how do you assess big picture at this point? Six and three. I mean, does that reflect what you thought this team was going to be?

“No, I did not think that, but it is where we are right now and we can’t change that. So, we got to go back to work. We got no time to sit around and feel bad. l assume top 10 team coming in here in Texas. And, you know, it's one thing, probably the one good thing about playing, you know, these type of teams in a row like this. Hey, you got a chance to, you know, play another national game.”

Question: being a three- loss team and playoffs and all those things like that, how do you get your team to continue to stay process oriented and not just focused on, hey, we might not make the playoffs, but still wanting to finish the season strong?

”Yeah, I mean, that’s why I don’t talk that way when everybody wants to say, you know, you're supposed to say this game, you know, um, means this and if you don't make this, you're not in the playoffs. And and I don't because sometimes these happen and you don't win. And so they don't think that way that everything is about what that game, you know, where it puts you in a playoff picture. We didn't play we didn't play well and especially in the fourth quarter of the game, and so back and play better next week and have a great opportunity with Texas here.”

Thoughts on fourth down decision making:

Question: How tough were the fourth down decisions and what went into them? It seemed like you were kind of in no man's land a few times with long field goal tries going for it or not?

”Yeah, it kind of felt the start of the game, both teams moving the ball, even though we only got the field goal. It just felt like sometimes field goals weren’t gonna win the game, so I think there's a fourth and five there or something like that that we don't make that probably wonder why we didn't kick. Just cause feeling of it right there was that we were going to need some touchdowns.”

Question: I know that you just walked off the field two minutes ago, but what didn't go right on those those first couple fourth downs?

”I think that they all come up independently of the situation. Um, sometimes that that comes in if it's like short yardage and you're getting pushed back. and then the next short yardage you may either throw or or punt, you know, but it really they were very different ones I feel like that came up and I think most of them outside of maybe the field goal one, you know, the fourth and five, I think most of them are pretty obvious.”

Thoughts on quarterback and offensive execution:

Question: Sam's running game. Is that a little bit more than you would have liked out of that tonight or is that you know you comfortable with where that was?

”Well, I think he he didn't really get the longer ones, you know, but he did he did get himself out of trouble sometimes, too, you know. So, I know everybody wants him to sit there, but there's times that, you know, you don't block somebody and and he makes a miss and keeps the play alive.”

“So, um you know, I thought he was he was really playing well.”

Question: Laying back here, how do you digest a game like this where the offense had a lot of yardage and just kept getting stalled out the way they were?

”Well, I think that I think that that as you look at the game like you're saying, it gives you more hope. You know, over time, you've seen games where, you know, the offense can't move the ball at all. you know, we're up here with, you know, maybe that many but you got 180 yards or something like that.”

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