I just want to get there. Any team in the running, including us, can easily lose another game....which turns all the what-ifs into a hairball of possibilities.
Just concentrate on LSU. Then turn our attention to Oklahoma. Then get out of Eastern Illinois without any injuries.
Then deal with the voodoo of that haunted burial ground of a stadium in East Alabama -- and a fired up barn team who will have been preparing for us for at least three weeks -- the off week, the Mercer week, and the week leading up to our game. I wouldn't be surprised if the barn has given up on the Vandy game and is preparing for us already.
So concentrating on today; I'll be really interested to see how LSU plays. I could argue for hair-on-fire emotion. In days before the portal, that's what I'd expect. Even with the portal, I'd expect it if they hadn't had an off week after Kelly's firing.
But it's been two weeks, what passes for an administration clearly didn't have a succession plan at all, and the governor has turned it into a clown car circling a dumpster fire that was started by a train wreck. Don't think any agents or coaches have been in touch with a pretty talented roster do you?
So the "all-for-one-one-for-all" rallying cry could easily have devolved into a team with a gazillion distractions, each player far more concerned with his personal future than today's game. I'm sure what's left of the coaching staff has been beating the “us against the world”drum -- but they have their own distractions regarding paychecks starting in January. Will all that hold up for two weeks?
I just don't know what to expect from them.