College Gameday Crew Makes Picks For LSU Football at UCLA

Herbstreit picks UCLA upset, rest of crew picks Tigers and watch Derek Stingley gameday feature on his road to LSU

LSU football opens its 2021 season tonight against UCLA in Los Angeles and the College Gameday crew had a lot to say about the matchup.

ESPN analysts Desmond Howard and David Pollack picked LSU to get the win in Los Angeles while Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso think UCLA will pull off the upset over the No. 16 ranked Tigers. 

"LSU wants to bounce back from what we saw a year ago, especially defensively," Howard said. "They're gonna put guys on an island, they got [Derek] Stingley and Ricks, they're gonna man those guys up because they know UCLA can run the ball."

The Sports Illustrated's predictions saw LSU winning the game with three analysts, Ross Dellenger, Richard Johnson and John Garcia all picking the purple and gold to win while there were two votes for UCLA.

As part of the college gameday festivities, the ESPN crew produced a feature story on LSU cornerback Derek Stingley's road to Baton Rouge and why staying close to family was so important to him. You can watch the full length feature below. 

The Stingley name doesn't just stretch across the back of an LSU jersey, but also across three generations.@LSUfootball DB Derek Stingley Jr., his dad and grandfather are all connected by tragedy, family and football. pic.twitter.com/nxoMP7UmzR

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) September 4, 2021

To close the feature, ESPN reporter Gene Wojciechowski reported "don't be surprised to see Stingley on offense tonight against UCLA." The idea of Stingley playing offense has been talk behind the scenes since his freshman season. 

It's really come to the forefront this offseason and the team was even preparing some plays for him before a fall injury forced him to miss most of fall camp. With Stingley returning to practice this week, it will be interesting if LSU put some special plays in the offense for Stingley as it's hard to imagine he becomes a significant part of the offensive strategy.