Renowned College Football Analyst Picks Vanderbilt Over LSU
Vanderbilt is coming off their bye week that came at the perfect time for them.
With star quarterback Diego Pavia banged up, they used this extra practice period to get him rest and give reps to the backup in case he was needed this Saturday.
The expectation is he'll be healthy enough to start.
It also allowed the Commodores to reset and focus on these final two games of their regular season after they have put together an incredible year to date that could have this team finishing as one of the best in program history.
For that to happen, though, it needs to begin against LSU.
The Tigers are coming off three straight losses after it looked like they had rebounded from their season-opening loss against USC to become true contenders in the SEC.
However, things have fallen off the rails for Brian Kelly and his team.
At 6-4, they have gone from being College Football Playoff contenders to out of the top 25, a fall that has created tons of controversy in Baton Rouge about where things are heading for that program under Kelly.
Vanderbilt has a chance to throw gasoline on the fire.
The Commodores have an advantage on their side with the duel-threat ability of Pavia, something LSU has struggled with throughout the season.
Perhaps that's why renowned analyst Kirk Herbstreit picked Vanderbilt to upset LSU on ESPN's flagship program "College Gameday."
"I'm going with Vandy. I've called like five LSU games. They got a lot of ability. Something's not right there. Something's not clicking right now with this team. Here comes Diego Pavia. A little bit of an attitude coming in. I don't know, I'm going Vandy. I think they can pull off that upset," he said when the panel was making their game picks.
If the Commodores are able to pull this off, it would be a huge statement.
After their win against Alabama, they were close to upsetting Texas before they came up short.
A win against LSU would be a huge announcement that this program has arrived under head coach Clark Lea.
It certainly will be a tall task.
Vanderbilt is the underdog going into Death Valley, a tough place to play no matter what the circumstances are, but based on what Herbstreit said, they could come out of this one with a victory.
