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Will LSU use 'Terrible Thursday' practices, considering how things went Saturday?

The Tigers had a terrible practice on Thursday, yet somehow destroyed No. 2 Georgia, 36-16, on Saturday at a rocking and sold-out Tiger Stadium.

BATON ROUGE - "No Repeat Thursday" may have to be officially changed to "Terrible Thursday" in LSU football coach Ed Orgeron's Monday-through-Friday practice themes.

And there may have to be an addition for home game weeks - "Tiger Stadium Saturday."

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The Tigers had a terrible practice on Thursday, yet somehow destroyed No. 2 Georgia, 36-16, on Saturday at a rocking and sold-out Tiger Stadium, handing the Bulldogs their first loss of the season and out-gaining the Southeastern Conference's best defense and best rush offense, 475 yards to 322.

Then LSU (6-1, 3-1 SEC) jumped from No. 12 in the USA Today coaches' poll and from No. 13 in the Associated Press media poll to No. 5 in both on Sunday. The top four in both polls has Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and Notre Dame with LSU as the highest ranked team that is not undefeated. Georgia (6-1, 4-1 SEC) fell to No. 8 in A.P. and to No. 6 in USA Today. The first College Football Playoff rankings of 2018 will not be out until Tuesday, Oct. 30, just after LSU's open date on Oct. 27.

So far for LSU, the "Allen Iverson Method," referencing the former Philadelphia 76er guard who hated practice, worked wonders. LSU practiced like dogs, then dominated the Dogs.

"On Thursday, we honestly had our worst practice of the year," said LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, who still completed 15 of 30 passes for 200 yards and rushed for another 66 on 13 carries with a 59-yard run.

LSU offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger agreed.

"He said it was the worst practice in eight years," Burrow said. "Sometimes, you kind of focus more after you have a practice like that, and it showed today."

Well, with No. 22 Mississippi State (4-2, 1-2 SEC) coming to town for a 6 p.m. ESPN game Saturday against No. 5 LSU (6-1, 3-1 SEC) in Tiger Stadium, why not add "Terrible Thursday" to the repertoire?

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"Tell The Truth" Monday is for being honest about mistakes made in the previous game. "Competition Tuesday" is so named for what is the most difficult practice of the week. "Turnover Wednesday" focuses on ball security on offense and takeaways on defense, which worked great on both ends Saturday as the Tigers had no turnovers and collected four from Georgia. "Focus Friday" involves zeroing in on the key details of the game plan.

Orgeron took this menu from his mentor, Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, whom Orgeron coached under from 2001 through 2004 at USC when Carroll won two national championships as the Trojans' head coach.

"It was just focus," Burrow said. "We had a really good practice on Tuesday and Wednesday. I think the loss at Florida (27-19 on Oct. 6) really changed our attitude, and more importantly, it changed our attitude in practice."

Except on Thursday.

The atmosphere and crowd noise at Tiger Stadium, which was full with 102,321 people, leading up to the 2:30 p.m. kickoff on CBS against a touchdown-favored Georgia in its first game at LSU in a decade, may have helped erase the "Terrible Thursday" practice.

RELATED: It's going to be one of those games at Tiger Stadium

Orgeron noticed something in the air early Saturday.

"When I walked out, I could feel it walking down in Tiger Walk," he said of the team's march down campus streets to the stadium. "You could just feel it all week. This was going to be one of those games for the LSU Tigers."

Other than the home dates against Alabama and Florida, this was not a typical LSU home game, where there are usually thousands of empty seats and not as much noise.

"Night and day," Orgeron said. "Night and day. Our players feed off of it. I mean, you could see it in our guys' eyes. There was not a lot of having to get guys hyped up in the locker room or nothing. They were hyped up and ready to go."

Then Orgeron realized something. He did not want his team to use too much energy before kickoff or early in the game and hyperventilate.

"I told the coaches, 'We're going to have to remain calm today because the crowd is going to do the motivation for us,'" he said. "And they did it. That's a big advantage."

LSU tailback Clyde Edwards-Helaire noticed a difference in the crowd right off. There were people at the very top of the stadium.

"I've been here 19 years, my whole life, and I've been to hundreds of games," he said. "But being able to see the stadium like that, come out and look all the way to the top, and it's filled, that's something. I'll never forget that moment."

The Tigers do not always have a 12th man, but they did on this afternoon.

"Now, everybody understands what type of team we are, and how much the fan base helps us with these type of games," Edwards-Helaire said.

"I think that says we're pretty good," said LSU linebacker Devin White, who had a game-high 13 tackles with a fumble recovery and a quarterback hurry. "We shouldn't have lost last week. But we threw everything behind us. and we knew we were going to come out here and outplay the next opponent. We're just going to keep that mindset, and we're not going to let up. You know, we had a let-up last week, and we fixed those things. Now we're back on pace, and we're going to keep it going."

LSU led 16-0 at the half before Georgia cut it to 19-9 late in the third quarter. Then the Tigers pulled away, but the fans stayed. There was no early rush to beat traffic as usual.

"Having the fans there for the full 60 minutes gives us that extra boost, and it helps us tremendously," Edwards-Helaire said.

Then the fans didn't want to leave. They poured onto the field after the game, which has happened on only a few occasions at LSU - after the 28-21 upset of No. 1 Florida in 1997, after the 38-31 overtime upset of No. 11 Tennessee in 2000 and after the 10-7 upset of No. 3 Ole Miss in 2014 to name a few. The SEC is expected to fine LSU today.

Orgeron did not seem to mind, though.

"Great crowd. Great LSU football," he said. "That's the way it's supposed to be."

"SHADE TO SHADE, BABY": Georgia came out running against LSU in the first quarter Saturday, much like Florida did when LSU allowed a season-high 215 rushing yards in the loss last week.

The Bulldogs had rushes of 12, 18, 17, 7 and 9 on their second drive of the game before trying a fake field goal on fourth and nine from LSU's 14 that safety Grant Delpit stuffed for a 2-yard loss. Georgia had just three rushes for double-digit yards the rest of the game, though, and punted four times in the second quarter alone, including three straight after three-and-out possessions. And the Tigers took a 16-0 lead into halftime.

Georgia finished with a season-low 113 rushing yards after coming in No. 1 in the SEC in rushing at 245 yards a game. Orgeron said defensive coordinator Dave Aranda made some adjustments.

"We mixed it up. Dave did a great job," he said. "We mixed up the personnel groupings that we use. We gave them some stuff that they hadn't seen. Obviously, everything was built on stopping the run and the deep pass, and we did it. We were playing one certain defense, and it wasn't working. And we changed to another one, and it worked."

Asked to be more specific, Orgeron smiled, "Do you really want to know everything?"

When told, "Yes" by the reporter, Orgeron said, "I'm going to tell you. You ready? We were shaded one way, and then we shaded another way. And that was the change."

Orgeron winked as he finished that sentence, and added, "Shade to shade, baby."

QUOTE OF THE GAME: "We were going for it as hard as we can today, and we are throwing out the kitchen sink, man. Everything we had, we did. And I was a little pissed at myself for not going for it against Florida last week (when LSU kicked a field goal for a 10-7 lead at the Gators' 15-yard line)."

... LSU coach Ed Orgeron on why he chose to go for it on fourth and one four times, making it each time.

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