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LSU and Alabama set for Nov. 3 primetime on WWL-TV

"Honestly, I don't think we ever dropped out of it," LSU tailback Clyde Edwards-Helaire said. "But no doubt, we're back up there. I think the loss to Florida was a wake-up call for us."
Credit: Derick E. Hingle
Photo Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

CBS and the SEC made official Monday what has been suspected for some time, that, once again, LSU and Alabama's annual meeting will be the network's lone primetime SEC game of the year.

Nov. 3 LSU v. Alabama - WWL-TV

Pre-game Show 6 pm

Game broadcast 7 pm

Post-game show (immediately following game)

BATON ROUGE — No. 4 LSU is back in the elite of college football entering the Alabama game a week from Saturday for the first time since the 2015 season when it reached No. 2 in the nation with a 7-0 start.

That team fell at Alabama, and lost three straight in all - each by two touchdowns or more - and finished 9-3.

After beating No. 22 Mississippi State, 19-3, Saturday, the 2018 Tigers (7-1, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) remained the highest ranked one-loss team in the nation in both the USA Today coaches' poll and the Associated Press media poll at No. 4. They were No. 5 before a 27-19 loss at No. 22 Florida and returned there after a dominating, 36-16 win over No. 2 Georgia on Oct. 13. LSU had never defeated a No. 2 or higher ranked opponent by that much.

The first College Football Playoff poll will be come out on Oct. 30.

Four days after that, LSU will host No. 1 Alabama (8-0, 5-0), which ripped Tennessee, 58-21, on Saturday afternoon. The Tigers have an open date Saturday as usual before Alabama.

Since the win over Georgia, LSU has been routinely mentioned nationally as a possible College Football Playoff contender.

"Honestly, I don't think we ever dropped out of it," LSU tailback Clyde Edwards-Helaire said. "But no doubt, we're back up there. I think the loss to Florida was a wake-up call for us. We felt like everything was coming together, but coming easy. So being able to buckle down and beat Georgia was important. That was on display."

LSU will likely have to be at the very top of its game to have a chance against Alabama, which has defeated the Tigers seven straight times, including five by double digits. The Tigers' last home win over Alabama was by 24-21 on Oct. 23, 2010. LSU's last win over the Tide was In a "Game of the Century" on Nov. 5, 2011 when No. 1 LSU beat No. 2 Alabama, 9-6, in overtime in Tuscaloosa.

Alabama will be the second top two team LSU plays in three games. The Tigers already have three wins over top 10 teams at the time of the game — No. 8 Miami in the season opener in Arlington, Texas, at No. 7 Auburn on Sept. 15 and No. 2 Georgia on Oct. 13. Georgia, though, is the only one still in the top 10. Auburn (5-3, 2-3 SEC) has not been ranked at all in weeks. Miami (5-2, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) had fallen out of the polls, but returned Sunday at No. 25. Mississippi State (4-3, 1-3 SEC) is also no longer ranked.

LSU was ranked No. 24 and No. 25 entering the season in addition to being picked fifth in the SEC West at the SEC Media Days in July amid such overall predictions as 6-6 or 7-5. The Tigers are alone in second in the West behind Alabama.

"You just have to handle it one week at a time," LSU coach Ed Orgeron said. "That's why we don't make projections. That's why we don't read the newspaper. I'm sure my guys read it. Projections — you know it didn't do Georgia anything to be ranked where they were. That doesn't win football games. we take it one week at a time, one day at a time and see what we can do. We're going to move on."

With the open date, the Tigers hope to get starting left guard Garrett Brumfield back in time for Alabama while fine tuning other parts of their game, including avoiding targeting penalties. Linebacker Devin White drew the team's third of the season against Mississippi State and will miss the first half of the Alabama game. There is no chance for an appeal.

"We're an up and coming football team," Orgeron said. "We still have a long ways to go, but we want to lead LSU to a championship. Where this takes us, we don't know, but hopefully beating a team like Georgia gives us some confidence that we can play with anybody in the country."

Alabama, meanwhile, looks as good or better than any of its teams in its current national championship run under Coach Nick Saban with titles in the 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017 seasons.

"Let me tell you something," Orgeron said. "If we play well and do the things we can control, we can be in there with most teams in the country."

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