Scott Rabalais: LSU well outside CFP, but Texas Bowl means something to remaining Tigers | Football

HOUSTON — The first thing your eye went to Friday as the LSU Tigers held their final practice session of 2025 were the key players who will not suit up in Saturday’s Texas Bowl against Houston.

There was Garrett Nussmeier in a sweatsuit, chatting with someone only a few feet away from where current LSU starting quarterback Michael Van Buren was launching warmup passes. All-Americans Mansoor Delane and AJ Haulcy, the star cornerback and safety for a defense that more than held up its end with more interceptions (17) than touchdown passes allowed (10), were nowhere to be seen. Neither were key players such as wide receiver Aaron Anderson, and linebackers Whit and West Weeks.

In this expanded College Football Playoff era, bowls such as this one seem superfluous. At the end of a disappointing 7-5 regular season for LSU — one that started with the Tigers in the top 10 and dreaming the biggest of dreams but ended with all of the focus on the future of the Lane Kiffin era — the reward of a bowl game seems like a quaint relic of a bygone, chivalrous era.

Call me a relic as well, but I think there is still value in the non-CFP bowl games. We’ve seen over and over again already this bowl season players battling to the teeth to win one more time and being devastated when they lose. Even as the CFP builds up for the quarterfinals next weekend and we are subjected to slimy-looking announcements from schools about signing their returning players to new contracts (spare me), pride still matters.

So does playing for the purple and gold — or in Houston’s case the red and white — one more time. For many on both sides, the moment will not come again.

“I think it’s important for them to finish what we started,” interim LSU coach Frank Wilson said Friday. “We do have some guys that have options that are out there for themselves, but they’d be remiss if they weren’t able to finish.”

That goes for the Tigers here who aren’t able to play.

“We have some injured guys who are out for the year that will not participate,” Wilson said. “Garrett Nusmeier (for example). But they wanted to be here. They wanted to be a great teammate. They wanted to bond and be here with their LSU family, and they’re here in that capacity.”

LSU is a deserving underdog to Houston, literally playing the Cougars in their backyard inside the Houston Texans’ NRG Stadium. More than 55,000 tickets reportedly have been sold, with Houston athletic director Eddie Nunez (formerly an assistant AD at LSU) calling for Cougars fans to make the stadium “a sea of red.” There is passion on the opposing side, as Houston makes a push for just its sixth 10-win season this century as they rebound from a 4-8 record in former Tulane coach Willie Fritz’s first season.

Can the Tigers match that in their third Texas Bowl appearance in the past five seasons? LSU has more players and talent at its disposal than it did in a 42-20 loss to Kansas State here in January 2022. That bowl forever will be remembered for the Tigers fielding just 39 scholarship players, with converted wide receiver Jontre Kirklin making an emergency start at quarterback.

LSU probably has less going for it than the game here last New Year’s Eve, when Nussmeier threw for 313 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Tigers to a 44-31 romp over Baylor. Nonetheless, there were about 80 LSU players of different levels of fame and distinction on the field Friday, willing to give it one more go for the Old War Skule.

A win or loss Saturday won’t make LSU fans feel differently about the direction of the program, which from early returns appears to be on an upward trajectory under Kiffin. This is first and foremost about the players who stayed, whether they were able to take a snap or not. The final chapter of a deeper bond that, despite the losses and lack of touchdowns and the firings, will mean something personally for them.

“The character of the young men,” Wilson said is what he will remember from his final game coaching on the LSU sideline. “Wanting to hold on to a memory of friendship that will last a lifetime. They’re going to share their lives with one another. They’ll be in each other’s weddings. They’ll be each other’s godfathers for their children. They’ve established a relationship for a lifetime.”

When Wilson takes off that LSU headset for the final time Saturday, it likely will be for good. He basically confirmed he will join Pete Golding’s Ole Miss staff after this game, heading to New Orleans for the Rebels’ Jan. 1 Sugar Bowl date with Georgia.

He took the high road talking about Kiffin, who chose to bring his running backs coach Kevin Smith with him from Ole Miss instead of retaining Wilson. Asked what it will be like when Kiffin and LSU visit Ole Miss on Sept. 19, Wilson won the Understatement of the Bowl Season Award when he said it would be, ahem, “Exciting.”

Excitement awaits next season for LSU, of that there is little doubt. But pour one out for this season, this team, this bowl game, especially for the Tigers who stayed. The ones deserving of respect, if not full-blown praise.