Pasquali's Pix: LSU's offense was improved against TCU

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

OTHER PICKSKentucky 26, Miami of Ohio 16Miss. State 48, Alcorn State 9LSU 38, UAB 13Missouri 30, Toledo 21Texas A&M 69, Sam Hou. St. 7Arkansas 37, Samford 14Ole Miss 56, SE Missouri St. 14Boston Coll. 24, Wake Forest 17North Carolina 42, MTSU 25Clemson 44, S.C. State 3Virginia Tech 59, W. Carolina 10Oregon 45, Virginia 14Maryland 43, Old Dominion 12N.C. State 31, Richmond 13Northwestern 20, Syracuse 19Wisconsin 61, Tenn. Tech 18Boise State 55, UT-Martin 26

We'll see how the marriage turns out, but the honeymoon went well.

LSU played its first game with Cam Cameron as offensive coordinator last Saturday night, and the Tigers compiled a healthy 448 yards in a 37-27 win over TCU in Dallas. Terrence Magee and Alfred Blue combined for 184 yards and two touchdowns on 32 carries, while Zach Mettenberger threw for 251 yards and a score.

Mettenberger averaged 200.7 passing yards a game last season and had 120 yards in the Chick-fil-A Bowl loss to Clemson, his final game before Cameron's arrival.

"He brings a great confidence to the throwing game," LSU head coach Les Miles said Wednesday, "and there is a real strong chemistry there. I think he's making a difference with our quarterback."

Mettenberger completed just 16 of 32 passes against the Horned Frogs, but Miles believes that was misleading.

"We kind of saw it as 80-percent accurate," Miles said. "He threw away three balls and maybe as many as five balls, and he correctly threw them away. Those are the kind of things that don't figure into that 50 percentile.

"When you look at an offense that was 13-of-19 on third-down percentage, you have to say that he had a big night."

Pasquali's Pix:

Florida at Miami: Similar hair. Potentially explosive sideline demeanors. Is Al Golden's necktie the only thing that separates him from Florida's Will Muschamp? Hurricanes 20, Gators 17.

Western Kentucky at Tennessee: What if that had been Derek Dooley on the back of Bobby Petrino's motorcycle? Volunteers 27, Hilltoppers 20.

Austin Peay at Vanderbilt: Vandy is the big-boy school in this showdown, though Austin Peay has 4,000 more students. Commodores 49, Governors 3.

Arkansas State at Auburn: Gus Malzahn would really be wise to win the Gus Malzahn Bowl. Tigers 41, Red Wolves 24.

UTC at Georgia State: What are the odds this Georgia Dome crowd tops last week's Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic? Mocs 30, Panthers 13.

South Carolina at Georgia: The Gamecocks have more wins (five) over Mark Richt than any other Bulldogs coach. Bulldogs 34, Gamecocks 27.

Duke at Memphis: If Mike Krzyzewski can devise ways to stop Derrick Rose from penetrating, the Blue Devils should prevail. Blue Devils 38, Tigers 19.

Notre Dame at Michigan: The shuffling conference landscape claims another rivalry as the Irish make their last scheduled trip to Ann Arbor. Irish 17, Wolverines 16.

Last week:

Winners............................21

Manziel signatures........4

Pasquali is 21-4 overall (84.0 percent) this season.

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.

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