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BATON ROUGE, La. — Life in 2022 is preparing oneself for the reality of an LSU bowl game with walk-on quarterbacks and wildcat offenses and fourth-string cornerbacks. It’s accepting an already bizarre 6-6 season is only getting weirder with just four 2021 staff members on the trip to coach the Tigers in Tuesday’s Texas Bowl. It’s realizing LSU might have so few scholarship players available that the game would have been canceled if it were using 2020 COVID rules.
This Texas Bowl game against Kansas State is a tricky one to examine, because there’s nothing in it we’ve seen much of. LSU’s head coach is an interim — its offensive line coach Brad Davis — and the roster has been depleted beyond belief due to transfers, opt-outs, COVID and academic issues.
The Tigers have just 39 available scholarship players, by The Athletic’s count, and no scholarship quarterbacks. Its secondary has just one real starter available. The two best defensive players — linebacker Damone Clark and defensive tackle Neil Farrell — opted out to prepare for the NFL draft. All of this in a game against a well-rounded Kansas State team that would have been favored even before the absences.
Kansas State -7 -115