Dooley set to face former boss

BATON ROUGE, La. - Coming off of their highly hyped triumph over Alabama and former coach Nick Saban, it's now time for No. 2 LSU to face former assistant coach Derek Dooley and Louisiana Tech.

This Saturday night's matchup obviously hasn't had the same buildup as last weekend's nationally televised showdown. Only the die-hards willing to splurge on pay-per-view will be able to see the Bulldogs and Tigers battle it out on TV.

LSU (8-1) is about a five-touchdown favorite over Louisiana Tech (4-5), which will be traveling down to hulking Tiger Stadium from Ruston, a small town known for its annual peach festival in the northeastern part of the state.

At least Dooley, son of former Georgia coach Vince Dooley and an assistant at LSU under Saban, won't be too awe-struck to focus on the enormous task at hand.

``We can't worry about them being No. 2 in the nation, having a bunch of NFL prospects, playing in front of 92,000 fans or the fact that we haven't beaten LSU since 1904,'' Dooley said. ``If you start getting caught up in all of that type of stuff, then it works against you. Our deal is to just prepare the best we can and be ready to face one of the best teams in the country.''

Louisiana Tech appears to be improving under Dooley, having won three of its last four, with the lone loss in that stretch coming against well-regarded Boise State.

And what may have been the Bulldogs' best performance of the season came in a loss against Hawaii, which is still undefeated at 8-0 and ranked 14th in the nation.

Tech forced overtime, then scored a touchdown that could have forced double-OT. But Dooley decided to call an all-or-nothing 2-point conversion for the win. It failed, and Hawaii escaped.

``They played Hawaii close and are getting better each week,'' LSU coach Les Miles noted. ``The scores that you see, whether they won or lost, is not really reminiscent of how good they can be. They fly around the ball and are capable. We are going to have to be prepared for their best shot.''

LSU, which is celebrating homecoming this weekend, currently is in the midst of a school record 18-game home winning streak dating back to an overtime loss against Tennessee in their home-opener in 2005.

And they have a lot to play for, especially after Florida State's upset of Boston College last weekend. LSU is now second in the BCS standings, giving them a very good shot at playing in New Orleans for the national championship in January. To get there, the Tigers likely must beat Tech, Ole Miss and Arkansas, then win the SEC championship game in Atlanta next month.

``We feel we have a very good team. If we play our best, everything will work out,'' said LSU quarterback Matt Flynn, who has thrown for 1,619 yards and 11 TDs this season. ``We just have to prepare hard and work hard. One thing this team does well is block everything out. We want to come out and play a complete game.''

Flynn may not have to do too much this game. With a host of strong running backs such as Jacob Hester, Keiland Williams, Charles Scott and Richard Murphy, LSU is averaging 209 yards rushing and has tended to rack up yards on the ground against non-conference opponents.

Tech will likely counter with running backs Patrick Jackson and Daniel Porter, who combined for 209 yards last weekend in a victory at Idaho.

Jackson rushed for 150 yards in that game and now has 1,016 on the season.

Tech has shown some quick strike ability as well behind quarterback Zac Champion, who's thrown for 1,657 yards and nine touchdowns. He connected with Phillip Livas for a 70-yard score last weekend.

Against LSU, however, Tech will face perhaps the best defense the Bulldogs have seen all season, even if standout defensive tackler Glenn Dorsey decides to rest his sprained right knee.

Dooley, who earned is law degree before going into coaching, argued that the challenges his team will face are so obvious they're hardly worth discussing anymore.

``There's no reason to keep saying how good LSU is or how much talent they've got,'' Dooley said. ``On paper, we're mismatched at every position. Everybody knows all of this even my eight-year-old son.

``What I'm looking for more than anything else this weekend is seeing if our guys can go out and earn the respect of LSU,'' Dooley continued. ``Obviously, we're going to be trying to win, but we're also going to be trying to gain their respect and be competitive.''