It’s hard to believe but this is LSU’s final home game week, as the No. 24-ranked Tigers (6-3, 3-3 Southeastern Conference) host No. 8 Texas (7-2, 4-2 SEC) at 6:30 p.m. in Tiger Stadium on ABC. It will be the Longhorns’ first visit to Baton Rouge since 1953. Here are three things from LSU coach Lane Kiffin’s Monday news conference to open the week:
1. THE DARK SIDE
Kiffin told his team Monday to block out the noise and negativity after Saturday’s 31-13 defeat to Alabama. “One of the hardest things to do is letting go of the previous outcome. That’s hard both ways. You can play really good, too, and you’ve got a lot of work to do not to listen to that noise.” Of the loss, Kiffin added: “That’s not the expectations we have and not what it’s going to be like here.”
2. ON CFP EXPANSION TO 24
Kiffin has long been a proponent of expanding the CFP, so the official word Monday that the playoff will go to 24 teams next year — with the SEC finally willing to agree — was pleasing to him. “I think it is what they had to do. They had to when they saw how the nine-game (SEC schedule) would affect the SEC teams in beating each other. I think that went a lot into, ‘We’d better give into the 24.’ ”
3. THE HOUSE OF MANNING
Kiffin joked about his relationship with the Manning family, Ole Miss and Tennessee, where Archie, Eli and Peyton Manning played. “It’s probably unique because I left them twice,” Kiffin said. He added he’ll occasionally text with members of the family, including Archie, who once said Kiffin made a “cameo” appearance as the Tennessee head coach in 2009. “He called me a few names. That’s OK. I’ve been called worse.”
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