BATON ROUGE — Let others struggle or complain about the weather. There was no let-down for LSU in a cold, damp, half-full Tiger Stadium Saturday.

The Tigers avoided the drama that afflicted many of the top teams by dominating UAB from start to finish in a 41-10 victory over the Blazers.

While many of the nation’s top teams survived scares Saturday, the Tigers path to a possible College Football Playoff spot got a little clearer with Tennessee’s upset loss to South Carolina.

The Tigers came into the weekend ranked No. 6, one spot behind the Vols in this week’s CFP rankings.

Several other ranked teams had bigger challenges than expected.

But not LSU. Not this night.

“Many teams struggled to be the best versions of themselves today,” LSU head coach Brian Kelly said. “That is my point.

“If (our team) listened to people talk, they’re supposed to beat (UAB). We didn’t take it light. It’s about accountability.”

LSU (9-2, 6-1 SEC) will finish the regular season this week at Texas A&M before meeting No. 1-ranked Georgia in the SEC championship game.

“The way we’ve asked them to do it is laying it out simple, so the elements don’t matter,” Kelly said. “I’m most proud of the mental toughness that this group has shown.

“Weather conditions don’t matter. It’s being accountable and the guy next to you knows that I care.”

The Tigers won their fifth straight game, but still felt they had something to prove after a lackluster performance, particularly on offense, in last week’s 13-10 victory at Arkansas.

So they bounced back in style, mostly with the return to form of quarterback Jayden Daniels.

The Tigers’ spark plug was missing three key weapons as the top two running backs, Josh Williams and Armoni Goodwin, and starting center Charles Turner sat out the game with lingering injuries from last week’s game.

But Daniels didn’t miss them much, throwing for 297 yards and a touchdown and running for 111 yards and another score.

“We wanted to bounce back from what we felt was offensively less than our best game — and Arkansas had something to do with it,” Kelly said. “But Jayden prepared really well this week. You could make the case that this was his best game of the year.”

“We attacked the week (of practice) harder,” Daniels said. “If you prepare harder, then the end will be easy. We just go out and perform.”

Daniels completed 22 of 29 passes, including a 5-yard pass to Brian Thomas that completed the Tigers’ scoring. Daniels also scored himself on a 2-yard run.

“He pushed the ball down the field vertically, he saw things,” Kelly said. “He was assertive. I think he I think he was responsible for over 400 yards. Anytime a quarterback does that, that’s a pretty good day. So I think that that decisiveness that assertive this and then you could see it in his preparation this week.”

Noah Cain picked up the slack of missing two running backs with 76 yards and three touchdowns on a pair of 1-yard runs and another of 5 yards.

“It was just important to get back into a rhythm offensively after last week,” Cain said. “ We knew heading into that Arkansas game that we were going to get their best. All week, Coach Kelly talked about and preached about mental toughness and getting back on track and playing the type of football that we know we are capable of playing. I was just glad that we were able to execute on a high level tonight.”

The Tigers finished with 565 yards, most of it in the first three quarters before emptying the bench for most of the final period.

UAB scored on its first two possessions with a touchdown set up by a 66-yard kick off return.

“You take that (return) out, it arguably could have been our most efficient game on both sides of the ball,” Kelly said.

It was just a nuisance. After Matt Quinn’s 29-yard field to open the second quarter pulled the Blazers to within 14-10, UAB never really threatened again until the game’s final minute when the Tigers turned UAB away inside the 10-yard line.

The Tigers held the nation’s leading rusher, DeWayne McBride, to just 34 yards on 13 carries, the first time this season he’d been under 100. McBride also led the nation in runs of 20 or more yards, but his longest Saturday was 6 yards.

Freshman linebacker Harold Perkins, Jr., the star of last week’s game, had five tackles, two of them for losses and broke up a pass.

UAB fell to 5-6, but its previous five losses had been by a total of 27 points.

“Without a doubt that’s a really good football team,” UAB coach Bryant Vincent said. “They’re the SEC West champions for a reason.”

NOTEBOOK

SO LONG: Before the game LSU honored 17 seniors, including five starters  — DE Ali Gaye, CB Jarrick Bernard-Converse, LB Micah Baskerville, S Joe Foucha, DL Mekhi Garner and NK Jay Ward.

Others were S Todd Harris, LB Mike Jones, WR Jaray Jenkins, CB Colby Richardson, LB Hunter Faust, PK Trey Finison, TE MJ Frazier, LB Jared Small, TE Nick Storz, WR Evan Francioni and OL Cam Wire.

Of the group, 12 have already graduated and another three will graduate in December.