Lane Kiffin Makes Surprising Admission About LSU's Bye Week Before Alabama

Few teams in the country need a week to rest more than the LSU Tigers. Trey'Dez Green's return to the lineup was a major lift for the offense, but injuries have decimated the Tigers' depth.

After eight consecutive games and two straight wins, LSU will enter its bye week before a massive game against No. 10 Alabama.

But how advantageous is the bye week?

Lane Kiffin Reflects on the Bye Week

LSU Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Two weeks ago, Lane Kiffin said bye weeks are overrated when it comes to a team's odds of winning.

"Analytics and studying (shows) the bye does not mean much as we think it does, you know, according to winning," Kiffin said on Oct. 12. "Numbers don't really even show a large discrepancy of winning and losing off of their byes. So, I think they're a little overrated in that way."

In this case, LSU and Alabama are both on bye weeks, so neither team gets a significant preparation advantage, but Kiffin discussed what he hopes to get out of the bye week.

"We really focused a lot on red zone starting two weeks ago, and that's really paid off for us. So you know just looking at areas (to improve on), one would be turnover margin," Kiffin said on Sunday. "Our offensive and defensive statistics are really good. We lead the SEC in both offense and defense and top 10 nationally in both, but the one glaring thing is turnover margin."

Over the last two weeks, the Tigers have had one turnover on a Stacey Gage fumble. Sam Leavitt has played his best football during this stretch. He's thrown for 676 yards with eight total touchdowns. After throwing an interception in his first six games, Leavitt has played mistake-free football.

LSU is unstoppable when it doesn't turn the ball over. It appears Kiffin is relaying the right messages to Leavitt, but with difficult matchups ahead, the turnover battle is going to be crucial.

After the bye week, the Tigers will play three consecutive ranked games against No. 10 Alabama, No. 11 Texas, and finally, travel to Neyland Stadium to play No. 16 Tennessee before rounding out the year at Arkansas.

LSU would love to return its star linebacker, Whit Weeks, after the bye week. He's missed the last four games and would be a massive boost to the defense. But the bigger question is how will the Tigers look out of the bye? Only time will tell.

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