Ed Orgeron on Battling Alabama in the SEC West

For much of the past 15 years, Alabama, LSU and Auburn have dominated the SEC West with one of those three teams appearing in the conference title game in all but four seasons since 1992.

Last season, the Tigers finished 10-3, second in the division and defeated UCF 40-32 in the Fiesta Bowl.

Looking ahead to 2019, LSU has a huge non-conference road clash against Texas in week two of the season but has most of their key SEC games at home. Auburn, Florida and Texas A&M come to Baton Rouge  while the Bengal Tigers do travel to Tuscaloosa to christen the month of November against Alabama.

For LSU to compete against Alabama and win the division, head coach Ed Orgeron thinks these keys need to happen.

"First thing we have to do is block out the noise. Last year, we came here with a lot of negativity about the program. Now, there's a lot of positive things going on in the program. When we get to camp, we have to forget about that. We got to get back to the fundamentals. In order for us to have a championship football team, we have to score more points on offense, do a better job of run defense and create more turnovers." Orgeron said.

Even though LSU's head coach discussed the importance of playing well against the entire SEC slate, he highlighted one program as the benchmark on their schedule.

"Obviously, you got to beat Alabama. That's the benchmark at LSU." Orgeron said.

Check out what Orgeron mentioned about quarterback Joe Burrow, how dearly he views the home field advantage of Tiger Stadium and the potential of the secondary.