CB Kary Vincent second Tiger to opt out of 2020 season

LSU will be the first school to welcome eccentric head coach Mike Leach back to the Southeastern Conference when the Tigers open the season at home against Mississippi State.

The Tigers got the road map toward defending their SEC and national championships on Monday when the league announced the conference-only, 10-game schedules, adjusted due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Other LSU highlights include the home game against Alabama on Nov. 14 — with both teams getting their traditional open date the week before that contest — and, despite a 5-5 split of home and away games, only one instance of back-to-back road games. That comes late, following the Alabama game, when the Tigers travel to Arkansas and Texas A&M on consecutive Saturdays.

Game times and TV plans will be announced at a later date.

But, to a degree, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said, the season is still TBA — hardly written in stone.

“That’s where we are, now,” Sankey said on the SEC Network after the schedule was released. “It’s the ability to take a step at a time. Our teams began practice today, continue to work through medical issues.

“Each of those are important steps. Today was just one of those, it was just a little more public than others.

“The circumstances around the virus is what will be what guides us forward.”

The Tigers, though, will be at least one more player short when and if the season starts.

On Monday, cornerback Kary Vincent became LSU’s second player to opt out of playing due to concerns about the Covid-19 pandemic.

He joins defensive end Neil Farrell. But unlike Farrell, who has said he will come back next year for his senior year next season, Vincent said in his announcement via Twitter that he would concentrate on preparing for next year’s NFL draft.

“I have worked long and hard for the opportunity to play in the NFL,” his post said. “I’m humbled and excited about attacking this next challenge with humility, integrity, and dignity. I will always be Forever LSU.”

Vincent, who was used mostly as the nickel back during LSU’s national championshp run, was second on the team with four interceptions last season.

This would have been Vincent’s third year as a starter — he may have moved to cornerback — but it’s a spot where LSU has some proven depth.

Sophomore Cordale Flott was an occasional starter at cornerback last season and head coach Ed Orgeron has been very high on incoming freshman Elias Ricks.

The secondary, though, should get a good test right out of the gate.

Mississippi State will have former Stanford quarterback KJ Costello as a transfer, where he’ll be inserted into the pass-happy, high-powered attack that Leach champions and is bringing to Starkville.

It will be Leach’s first venture back into the SEC since he was Hal Mumme’s offensive coordinator at Kentucky in the late 1990s, where the Air Raid offense they’d developed while at Valdosta State was a bit of shock to the SEC’s system.

This year will be the first time LSU has opened a season against Mississippi State — or any SEC team — since 2003, when the Tigers won the national championship.

This regular season is scheduled to end on Dec. 5 against Ole Miss in what will be Tiger Stadium’s first December game since 2001. That game against Auburn was a schedule adjustment due to the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

The conference still faces hurdles, Sankey said, to get to the start and through the amended schedule.

Among Power 5 conferences, the Big Ten and Pac-12 have already canceled their seasons, while the SEC is joined by the ACC and Big 12 in trying to move forward.

“We’ve worked on those same issues,” Sankey said of the medical fears that led to other conference shutting down for the fall. “We are working to secure a third-party entity to help support our resting program. That’s obviously not inexpensive, but that’s our commitment to our student athletes.

“We want to see improving health within our communities. The trend lines have been better in the last few days. But as our as our (student bodies) return that’s an incredibly important part of our decisions.”

Those student populations are currently returning and Sankey admitted he was “concerned about some of the images” such as widely distributed photos of throngs of Alabama students gathered around bars with few wearing masks.

“This is not easy for any of us … we’re all in this together,” Sankey said. ” Likewise the people around us, we have to all adjust.

“We have to continue to make progress … people have to stay healthy.”

He added that the start of the season was intentionally backed up to Sept. 26 — well after classes start around the league — to give students time to assimilate “”hopefully in a healthy way.”

“Once we begin there is some flexibility.”

Each school has one open date in the schedule, and they were all crammed into a three-week span in midseason where some games could possibly be made up if need be.

But “Those open dates do have to fit with opponents,” Sankey said. “So there’s not of flexibility, there is some.”

There is also two weeks between the scheduled end of the regular season and the SEC championship game, so the weekend of Dec 12 could be utilized if need be.Sept. 26 Mississippi State

Oct. 3 at Vanderbilt

Oct. 10 Missouri

Oct. 17 at Florida

Oct. 24 South Carolina

Oct. 31 at Auburn

Nov. 7 Open

Nov. 14 Alabama

Nov. 21 at Arkansas

Nov. 28 at Texas A&M

Dec. 5 Ole Miss

Dec. 19 SEC Championship

Times and TV TBA

Gerald Herbert