Last week, I ranked the Ragin Cajuns 2016 football season from toughest to easiest (which you can check out right here). So in the interest of fairness, I’ve decided to rank LSU schedule in the same way.
1. Alabama
Could it be any more obvious as to who would be the toughest game for LSU in 2016? The Crimson Tide have had the Tigers number the last five meetings. Yes, it’s another year where Alabama is starting a different quarterback, but there are still some great targets for Cooper Bateman to look towards like Calvin Ridley. This will be the toughest test for LSU and if they can come away with a win, the chances of making it to Atlanta go up.
2. Ole Miss
The Rebels present a bit of a roadblock for the Tigers as they take them on before the bye week headed into the Alabama game. With Ole Miss losing tons of star power, expect a dip. But with Chad Kelly still being under center could cause some problems for LSU.
3. Texas A&M
The Thanksgiving matchup to end the 2016 regular season has the potential to be a real battle, especially with one of the top defensive players in the country in Myles Garrett going up against Leonard Fournette. The Tigers can’t overlook the Aggies especially with Oklahoma transfer Trevor Knight leading the offense.
4. Wisconsin
The Badgers really present a challenge for the Tigers to kick off the season in Lambeau Field as they know the Tigers new defense. Aranda, the former Wisconsin defensive coordinator will be up against his former employer and that could cause some trouble for LSU, but the Tigers talent can overcome that in my mind.
5. Arkansas
Every team that takes on Alabama has that hangover game. The last couple of seasons, that distinction has belonged to Arkansas and it’s been an interesting turn of events that have seen the Razorbacks take down LSU the last two years. That and they were one of the few teams able to hold Fournette to under 100 yards rushing last season.
6. Florida
Jim McElwain has breathed new life into the Gators program after a few years of poor play under Will Muschamp. The Gators could see some improvement with Luke Del Rio leading the offense after the crazy season that saw Will Grier suspended for PEDs and Treon Harris continuing to regress. All that being said this could be a mirror image from last season minus Les Miles digging deep into his bag of tricks.
7. Mississippi State
The Bulldogs are a team that has lost a lot of talent on both sides of the ball and could be one of the underperforming schools only two years removed from being at the top of the college football world. They gave LSU a hard time last year, but this is going to be an entirely different game.
8. Auburn
Last year, the Auburn game was one that they would like to forget as it saw Fournette make their defense look silly. Having a different defensive coordinator in Kevin Steele is a good pickup in the offseason, but it seems to me that LSU could take down the defense once again.
9. Missouri
M-I-Z-zzzzzzz….. But seriously, Missouri is starting to become the cellar dweller in the SEC alongside Vanderbilt. This should be the easiest win for LSU in terms of SEC opponents.
10. Southern Miss
Southern Miss is one of those payday games and the Tigers should handle them easily.
11. Jacksonville State
Last year, Jacksonville State took Auburn to the limit in an overtime matchup, but still lost the matchup. This won’t be one of those games for LSU especially in the home opener in Death Valley.
11. South Alabama
South Alabama is dead last in this list with a lot of issues, most notably having three of their four projected starters on the defensive line out for the season. Add the fact that their schedule has some tough matchups to start the season with Mississippi State and Georgia Southern.
-Clint Domingue