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LSU opens title defense against upset-minded Appalachian State

Aug 30, 2008 - 10:11 AM Appalachian State at No. 6 Louisiana State, 11:00 am EDT

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Ticker) -- Appalachian State dashed Michigan's title hopes in last season's opening week. If Les Miles and reigning national champion Louisiana State want to avoid the same fate, they will have to find a way to contain Armanti Edwards.

The sixth-ranked Tigers begin their title defense Saturday when they host Edwards and Appalachian State, the three-time defending Football Championship Subdivision national champion.

The game figures to have a festive atmosphere, as LSU will take the field for the first time since routing Ohio State in last season's BCS championship game.

However, with Tropical Storm Gustav bearing down on the Gulf of Mexico and expected to intensify into a hurricane, LSU officials have moved up the kickoff to 10 a.m. local time - six hours earlier than originally scheduled.

The Tigers will have to remain focused against the high-scoring Mountaineers, who shocked then-No. 5 Michigan in last year's season opener and went 13-2 en route to their third straight FCS title.

The preseason FCS No. 1, Appalachian State is led by Edwards, a junior who ran for 1,588 yards and 21 touchdowns while also passing for 1,948 yards and 17 scores last season.

Edwards stole the show against Michigan in Ann Arbor last September, running for one TD and passing for three scores in the Mountaineers' 34-32 upset of the Wolverines. The multi-talented Edwards once again will quarterback a Mountaineers team that scored 641 points last season - the highest total in both the FCS and FBS.

Although the Mountaineers exposed the weaknesses of the defensively-challenged Wolverines last year, they will be hard-pressed to repeat the feat against LSU, which yielded a total of 279 points en route to a 12-2 record and a national championship last season.

It was the second BCS title in the last five years for the Tigers, who reached last season's championship game in New Orleans despite suffering regular-season losses to Kentucky and Arkansas.

But courtesy of their victory over Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference championship, the Tigers jumped to second in the BCS rankings, setting the stage for their romp over the Buckeyes.

Miles, who turned down overtures from Michigan - his alma mater - last season to remain at LSU, will coach another talented squad in Baton Rouge this season. The Tigers return 12 starters from last year's team and boast one of the nation's most talented and complete defenses.

But while Appalachian State has a proven quarterbacking commodity in Edwards, LSU will have an unknown under center since Miles dismissed Ryan Perrilloux this past winter for repeated violations of team policy.

Andrew Hatch, a redshirt sophomore who transferred from Harvard, will make his first career start at quarterback for the Tigers.