Roman Mothershed, a 6-foot-5 receiver moved to tight end after Trey'Dez Green's knee injury at Ole Miss, caught the first pass of his LSU career for a 1-yard touchdown from Sam Leavitt on LSU's second offensive drive Saturday night, and by the fourth quarter of a 63-14 win over McNeese the Tigers had run their replacement parts through almost every situation they could invent.
That is the honest state of LSU's roster at 4-1. Ty Benefield has taken over Dashawn Spears' STAR spot, Mothershed has Green's snaps, and the linebackers behind Whit Weeks have at least a month of SEC football to cover.
The depth chart Kiffin spent Saturday auditing
The offense is not the worry. LSU piled up 731 yards on a program-record 101 plays with 39 first downs, the program's second-most yardage in a game, trailing only the 746 yards gained against Rice in 1977, and it did that with three penalties for 11 yards. Against an FCS defense, sure. But ball security and penalty discipline travel better than yardage totals do, and that was the half of this team fans were worried about a month ago.
The worry moved to the other side. Lane Kiffin said the goal was to "get up and evaluate these guys, because they're going to need to play with the injuries we have down the stretch." The starters obliged, holding McNeese to two first downs on the Cowboys' first drive and none again until late in the third quarter. Boise State transfer Ty Benefield, starting at the STAR spot Dashawn Spears held before his season-ending injury, made seven tackles, five of them in run support, and helped hold McNeese to negative rushing yardage. Kiffin praised his tackling and his work rerouting perimeter and quarterback runs, which is exactly the job Kentucky will test. Then the lead hit 49-0, the starters came off, and the second unit allowed two McNeese touchdowns in the third quarter, a 43-yard touchdown pass and a 64-yard touchdown run by Jamaal Levi inside 76 seconds of each other, accounting for all 14 points McNeese scored in the 63-14 win.
The same week, LSU revealed that Whit Weeks broke his lower right leg in the Texas A&M win. Kiffin said he was "freaked out" by it and that LSU "pulled people really early" against McNeese in part because "we're concerned about our depth and things." He had surgery and hopes to return within 4-6 weeks, while Green is targeting a return against Alabama on Nov. 7, which means Kentucky, Mississippi State, Auburn and a bye all happen without them.
Kentucky, 7 p.m. ET Saturday on ESPN
LSU is the road team at Kroger Field and the model gives the Tigers a 63% chance to win, close to the roughly 10-point favorite's role the market handed them. Kentucky is 4-1 and the first of seven straight SEC opponents; Mississippi State and Auburn follow before the bye.
Win and LSU's playoff odds sit around 26%; lose and they fall to about 13%. Those are two alternative versions of next Sunday, not a number that moves twice.
Watch whether the linebacker group behind Weeks can hold the middle for four quarters instead of three, and whether Kiffin has to leave starters in deep into a game he would rather have put away, because the alternative is the reserve defense LSU just watched.
Texas at Oklahoma: root for Texas
Texas wins this one about 75% of the time, and it is the rare case where a near-certain result is still worth a glance. Oklahoma is an SEC team in the same standings race LSU is trying to climb; another Sooners conference loss keeps a competitor behind the Tigers and nudges LSU's playoff odds up by about 1.5 percentage points. Kickoff is 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC. Put it on while you wait.
Full numbers are in the interactive guide, and the simulation details are in the methodology.