Louisiana Tech coach Derek Dooley wasn't surprised LSU maintained its No. 9 ranking after losing at Alabama last weekend.
Dooley saw no reason voters should punish the Tigers for having only close losses to No. 1 Florida and the third-ranked Crimson Tide.
"I kind of see it the other way," Dooley said. "If you lost to the best team in the country, who's to say you're not No. 2. I would have moved them up when I watched them against Alabama. They've taken the two best teams in the country to the fourth quarter."
It may be debatable whether Florida and Alabama are indeed the two best teams in the country, given that second-ranked Texas also has yet to lose. Those arguments are irrelevant at this point to Dooley, whose main concern is the enormous challenge he sees for Louisiana Tech (3-6) against LSU (7-2) in Death Valley on Saturday night.
Tech doesn't have much of a winning history against Louisiana's most storied college football program. LSU is 17-1 all time against the Bulldogs since the teams first met in 1901. Tech's only win came by a 6-0 count back in 1904.
"We need to get the awe factor out when we kick off," Dooley said. "The good news is we've played in (a big game) environment before ... and I thought we played well. We just didn't make the plays at the end of the game to finish, so hopefully we can build on that."
A little more than a week ago, Tech hosted then-No. 5 Boise State on national television and was as close as 30-28 in the fourth quarter before the Broncos pulled away to win 45-35. The closer-than-expected result hurt Boise State in the polls as the Broncos dropped to No. 6.
Now the Bulldogs play a second straight Top 10 opponent.
Tech has been decimated by injuries and is in the midst of a three-game losing streak, but LSU coach Les Miles doesn't see evidence the Bulldogs have quit.
"This Louisiana Tech team's record is not as good as they would like, but I can tell you that they play better and better," Miles said.
