Will key LSU players sit for McNeese game? Here's what Lane Kiffin said

BATON ROUGE — What has transpired for LSU football over the past two weeks has had Lane Kiffin feeling down.

Three key players have gone down with significant injuries. Despite losing stars Trey'Dez Green , Whit Weeks and Dashawn Spears , No. 11 LSU (3-1) was able to go 1-1 while the injury bug took a big bite of the team, with LSU most recently taking down Texas A&M 35-6 at home Saturday night.

LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt also tweaked his left hamstring in the win over the Aggies .

Because of the injuries and how the schedule sets up after facing McNeese State on Saturday, Oct. 3 for Kiffin's team going forward with seven SEC games remaining, four of those being road contests, it has caused the head coach to have to think differently.

One of those thoughts is possibly sitting some of LSU's key players against McNeese (6:45 p.m. CT, SEC Network) on Saturday inside Tiger Stadium.

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"Yeah, I've been going through that all day yesterday," Kiffin said Monday when The Daily Advertiser asked if he considered sitting some of the team's key players this weekend. "I don't know where we're going to end up on that but, like I said, we got seven conference games to go, four more road conference games. Five of those seven probably (against) ranked (teams).

"You got to look at things differently, I feel like, because of what's happened."

There's been plenty of shifting around for the Tigers the past two weeks in the wake of players getting hurt. And now, coaches are looking at guys that might not have filled the roles they're occupying now and playing different or multiple positions for the team.

"Everyone knows the one for one, which person starts in place of these guys. But it's much more than that. It's now some of those guys were playing multiple (spots), starting on special teams. Now they come off of that," Kiffin said. "Now the backup special teams guys got to step up to play that.

"It's a lot of people needing to do their job when significant injuries happen. They just affect a lot of different parts and even sometimes they affect how you call the game and what you have to do."

Kiffin hasn't decided on holding Leavitt or some of LSU's other key players out against McNeese just yet. But he has said multiple times that he hasn't coached a team that's had this many significant injuries this early in the season.

And during the A&M game Saturday night, it began to spook him.

"Extremely (cautious). I think I mean I'm human. With what's happened with these freak injuries, it's tough," Kiffin said. "I took our guys out earlier in the (Texas A&M) game than I did in the previous home game because of what was going on and that just freaked me out. We'll be extremely cautious this week all around because it's the schedule you play with. Once you go to nine (conference games), it's another SEC game.

"It feels like we've played a whole season already and we have seven SEC games to go."

Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com .