The 2018 LSU Tigers football team represented

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

during the

2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the highest level college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 2018. The regular season began on August 25, 2018, and ende ...

. The Tigers played their home games at Tiger Stadium in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of count ...

and competed in the West Division of the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

(SEC). They were led by second-year head coach

Ed Orgeron Edward James Orgeron Jr. (; born July 27, 1961) is an American football coach. He was most recently the head football coach at Louisiana State University (LSU), a position he held from midway through the 2016 season until the 2021 season. Org ...

. The Tigers, coming off a 9–4 season in Orgeron's first full season, began the year ranked 25th in the preseason

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broa ...

. In the first game of the year, the team defeated No. 8 Miami (FL) in the Advocare Classic played at

AT&T Stadium AT&T Stadium, formerly Cowboys Stadium, is a retractable-roof stadium in Arlington, Texas, United States. It serves as the home of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL), and was completed on May 27, 2009. It is also the hom ...

Arlington, Texas Arlington is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Tarrant County. It forms part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal city of the metropolis and region. ...

. LSU won its next four games, including on the road against then-No. 7 Auburn, and rose to fifth in the AP Poll, before falling on the road to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

. The team rebounded with wins over No. 2

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

and No. 22

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univer ...

before being shutout by eventual SEC champions

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

. In the last game of the regular season, LSU lost on the road against

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M Unive ...

in an FBS record-tying seven overtimes. The final score of the game, 74–72, set the FBS record for combined points in a single game (146). The team finished the regular season tied for second in the SEC's West Division and was invited to the

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been playe ...

to play UCF, which the Tigers won by a score of 40–32 to end UCF's active win streak of 25 games. LSU finished the season with an overall record of 10–3 and was ranked 6th in the final AP Poll. The team's defense featured three consensus All-Americans in defensive backs Grant Delpit and

Greedy Williams Andraez Montrell "Greedy" Williams (born December 3, 1997) is an American football cornerback for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at LSU and was drafted by the Browns in the second round o ...

, and linebacker Devin White, who was awarded the

Dick Butkus Award The Butkus Award, instituted in 1985 by the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando, is given annually to the top linebackers at the high school, collegiate and professional levels of football. The award, named in honor of College Football Hall of Fame ...

as the nation's best linebacker. On offense, the Tigers were led by redshirt junior quarterback

Joe Burrow Joseph Lee Burrow (born December 10, 1996) is an American football quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). Following a stint with Ohio State, Burrow played college football at LSU, where he won the Heis ...

, who finished with 2,894 passing yards and 23 total touchdowns (16 passing and 7 rushing). Senior running back Nick Brossette led the team in rushing with 1,039 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Previous season

The Tigers finished the 2017 season 9–4, 6–2 in SEC play to finish in third place in the Western Division. They were invited to the

Citrus Bowl The Citrus Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The bowl is operated by Florida Citrus Sports, a non-profit group that also organizes the Cheez-It Bowl and Florida Classic. The ...

where they lost to

Notre Dame Notre Dame, French for "Our Lady", a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, most commonly refers to: * Notre-Dame de Paris, a cathedral in Paris, France * University of Notre Dame, a university in Indiana, United States ** Notre Dame Fighting Irish, th ...

Recruiting

Position key

Recruits

The Tigers signed a total of 22 recruits.

Preseason

Award watch lists

Listed in the order that they were released

SEC media poll

The SEC media poll was released on July 20, 2018 with the Tigers selected to finish in fifth place in the West Division.

Preseason All-SEC teams

The Tigers had five players selected to the preseason all-SEC teams. Offense ''2nd team'' Garrett Brumfield – OL Defense ''1st team'' Devin White – LB

– DB ''3rd team'' Rashard Lawrence – DL Specialists Zach Von Rosenberg – P

Schedule

Roster

Game summaries

vs Miami (FL)

Southeastern Louisiana

at Auburn

Louisiana Tech

Ole Miss

at Florida

Georgia

Mississippi State

Alabama

at Arkansas

Rice

at Texas A&M

Highest scoring game in FBS History

vs. UCF (Fiesta Bowl)

Rankings

Players drafted into the NFL

References

{{LSU Tigers football navbox LSU LSU Tigers football seasons

LSU Tigers football The LSU Tigers football program, also known as the Fighting Tigers, represents Louisiana State University in college football. The Tigers compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and ...

Fiesta Bowl champion seasons