Little confidence in LSU
Media likes Alabama, Georgia; picks Tigers fifth
If LSU is to live up to any lofty football predictions this fall, those expectations will have to come from within.
The media isn’t expecting much from the Tigers this year.
Those who voted at Southeastern Conference Media Days in Atlanta this week picked the Tigers to finish fifth in the SEC West ahead of Ole Miss and Arkansas.
If the predictions hold true — and they usually don’t — it would be LSU’s worst finish in the division this century. The Tigers were sixth in 1999, Gerry DiNardo’s last year as head coach.
Alabama, as expected, was picked to win both the SEC West and the overall conference championship.
Georgia was picked overwhelmingly to win the SEC East ahead of South Carolina. Georgia was also tabbed as the team most likely to deny the Tide the overall title.
Auburn was the second pick in the West, followed by Mississippi State and Texas A&M.
It’s hardly an exact science.
Only six times in the last 25 years has the media’s preseason pick gone on the win the SEC championship.
Last year was another misfire even though the pick, Alabama, went on to win the national championship.
But Auburn upended the Tide to win the West and Georgia beat Auburn in the conference championship game.
LSU finished 9-4 last year and was third in the SEC West at 6-2.
This year the Tigers had five players selected to the preseason all-SEC unit, including two on the first-team defense — linebacker Devin White and cornerback Greedy Williams.
Others were offensive lineman Garrett Brumfield on the second team, and defensive lineman Rashard Lawrence and punter Zach Von Rosenberg on the third team.
LSU linebacker Devin White during an interview at NCAA college football Southeastern Conference media days in the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, Monday, July 16, 2018. (AP Photo/John Amis)