What LSU interim coach Frank Wilson had to say about Alabama football after 20-9 loss

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In many ways, Saturday night at Bryant-Denny Stadium was vintage Alabama-LSU football.

The 90th meeting in the all-time series belonged to the Crimson Tide (8-1 overall, 6-0 SEC), who kept the Tigers (5-4, 2-4) out of the end-zone thanks to a solid defensive performance.

Alabama defeated LSU, 20-9, but it was hardly a walk in the park. It seldom is when these two SEC rivals meet, even in a disappointing year for one.

The Tide’s defense, sparked by Yhonzae Pierre, LT Overton and others, held the Bayou Bengals to 232 yards for the night. After making a pivotal sack of LSU starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier on third-and-goal in the third quarter to force a field goal, Pierre forced a fumble on the Tigers’ final possession.

Alabama ran out the final 3:03 to beat LSU for the 13th time in the series’ last 15 games.

LSU made four trips to the red zone against Alabama on Saturday but came away with three field goals. The Tigers may not have found the end-zone, but they were certainly no pushover. Blake Baker’s defense gave Alabama their fair share of troubles, such as holding the Crimson Tide to 56 yards rushing.

Quarterback Ty Simpson completed 21 of his 35 passes for 277 yards and a big touchdown strike to Ryan Williams just before halftime for a 17-3 lead that never grew any larger. Simpson missed on a few throws to open receivers, going 2-for-6 on passes 20 yards or more downfield. After the game, Simpson referred to his performance as “kind of brutal.”

Nevertheless, Alabama has now won eight straight games. The Crimson Tide are ranked No. 4 in this week’s US LBM Coaches Poll and will host the 10th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners (7-2) in a top 10 matchup at 2:30 p.m. CT in Bryant-Denny Stadium in Week 12. The game will be televised on ABC.

After Saturday’s game, LSU coach Frank Wilson met with reporters to discuss his team’s loss to the Crimson Tide. Here’s what the Tigers’ interim coach said about Alabama.

Where Alabama football ranks in Week 12 US LBM Coaches Poll Top 25 after beating LSU https://t.co/RRaET99LMR pic.twitter.com/JdYToqjC40
— Roll Tide Wire (@RollTideWire) November 9, 2025

Frank Wilson reflects on LSU loss to Alabama football

“Here’s what we asked of our team: that they go out and compete and play with a style and brand of football representative of our university. I thought we did that. I thought we played hard. I thought we competed throughout the duration of the game. At the end of it, our best wasn’t good enough tonight, so we finished second. But I thought there were some good things that happened, and there’s some things that we’ll continue to need to improve on. We have to score touchdowns and not just field goals.
“Glad to see the field goals go through, but we’ve got to be able to score touchdowns. We’ll continue to try to remedy that issue for us so that we can score touchdowns. I thought we needed to take care of the ball a lot better than we did. Three of them on the ground, two of them picked up by the opponent. That was the difference in the game for us. I told the team, ‘Pick your heads up. You fought. You competed.’ There’s no moral victory, but there is a lot to be said for how we played the game.”

Frank Wilson explains LSU’s decision to bring backup QB Michael Van Buren in to face Alabama, benching Garrett Nussmeier

“As we discussed as a staff, we knew there could be opportunities in the quarterback run game. And then at the back end, as they tried to bring closure to it, (Alabama) would make it difficult to just sit in the pocket. We wanted to move them around and do some things. We thought that he gave us a chance to do those things. So, that went into the thought on why we put him in.”

LSU coach Frank Wilson grades Michael Van Buren’s performance against Alabama’s defense

“I thought he was solid. There were some things that were obvious: pushing the pocket, stepping up, delivering passes, escaping, extending plays and picking up first downs with his legs. I’d like him to have two hands on the ball in the pocket so that we don’t get that last one swatted away, but I thought he did a good job.”

LSU coach asked about Garrett Nussmeier’s struggles against Alabama

Nussmeier completed 18 of his 21 passes against Alabama for 121 yards, an average of 5.8 per completion, but the Tigers’ starting quarterback seemed skittish, out of rhythm, and hesitant to take deep shots against Alabama’s defense.

“I thought he did some good things early on. We moved him out of the pocket, and I thought he started the game off extremely well. As we went into the depth of the game, we just thought it was an opportunity for us to change up, to throw their defense off, and so we went with the change. I don’t know if it was something necessarily that he did so bad. We just thought that it would be an advantage in the things that Michael could give us.”

Frank Wilson praises LSU defense for holding Alabama’s offense to three points in second half

“I thought our defense played extremely well. You take away some of those big plays that we gave up, they weren’t necessarily drives that they just took down the field, but they did get behind us a couple of times. I thought Blake Baker, our defensive staff, did an outstanding job game-planning. I thought they gave us opportunities to be able to compete.
“(Alabama) didn’t rush the ball extremely well. We contested passes like we said we wanted to do, and eventually we were able to start moving the quarterback off of his mark, which was advantageous for us.”

Frank Wilson asked how LSU players handled adversity against Alabama after Brian Kelly firing

“I thought they did a good job of managing that. You look at us in our preparation. You look at us in pregame. You look at how we played this game. That wasn’t a team that had (quit) in them. That wasn’t a team that was submissive or not willing to fight back. It just wasn’t our day, unfortunately, to capitalize or to win the football game. But I thought our kids handled the two weeks well, and I thought they did some things well.
“When you’re playing against a team like (Alabama), and you have opportunities, you have to seize the moment, and we fell short on doing that.”

Frank Wilson laments LSU penalties against Alabama football

LSU committed 10 penalties for 74 yards against Alabama. The Crimson Tide committed two penalties for 25 yards.

“A couple of them were five-yarders, just procedural deals with some young guys that were antsy to want to go in and strike somebody. Others were some that occurred that we will need to clean up. That’s part of the game, so when you say to them, ‘You’ve got a license to go play and let your personality show,’ and you’re that aggressive, sometimes that happens. I’m disappointed that they were called. I’m not disappointed that we played with aggression.”

LSU coach Frank Wilson asked about Garrett Nussmeier’s last drive, QB being ‘animated’ on the sideline

Wilson was asked by a reporter if there were any issues getting play calls in to Nussmeier from the sideline.

“No, we substituted one time and the clock continued to run. It caught us, and so I ended up calling a timeout there. And then when we got to the sideline, you know, he’s a warrior. He wants to play. He wanted to stay in the game, and I told him this is what we’re going to do. He was a great teammate. He was supportive of his teammate. He stayed engaged, and I was very proud of him and how he supported his teammate and his team.”

LSU interim coach likes the way Tigers fought against Alabama football

“I like the way our team played. I like the way our team prepared. I was hurt for our players. They wanted to win. I wanted them to have that, to savor that moment, and so I hurt for them. They were extremely disappointed in the locker room because they prepared so hard and so well. And so the key was to let them know: ‘Keep your chin up, hold your head high, and we’ll continue to build off of this; that there is no disappointment, although unfortunately, we didn’t get the win. The way you played mattered most.’
“And so, when you played the No. 4 team in America and you put yourself in position, that’s something you could build off. So, we’ll build off of that and we’ll be better next week.”

LSU coach Frank Wilson asked about red zone struggles against Alabama

“We’ll look at what we’re doing down in that area to find out what suits us best,” Wilson said. “I take that from the kids. I put that on us as coaches, on myself, to try to find a way to put them in the best position to have success.”

Does Frank Wilson wish LSU had run the ball more against Alabama?

LSU had 26 carries against Alabama’s defense for only 59 yards (2.3 AVG).

“I thought it was appropriate because the game got in a situation where we had to do what we needed to do to try to win the game. At times, that takes away the run. But I thought we ran the ball appropriately at the right times and had some positive yards throughout the duration of the game at the back end. In a perfect world, certainly you’d like to be able to do so to open up your pass game, as well. But once it became a 10-point lead, we had to do what was necessary to try to put ourselves in position to win the game because that’s ultimately the goal.”

Watch Wilson’s full postgame press conference below.

Alabama football schedule 2025

All start times Central.

Aug. 30: at Florida State (L, 31-17)
Sept. 6: vs. UL Monroe (W, 73-0)
Sept. 13: vs. Wisconsin (W, 38-14)
Sept. 27: at Georgia (W, 24-21)
Oct. 4: vs. Vanderbilt (W, 30-14)
Oct. 11: at Missouri (W, 27-24)
Oct. 18: vs. Tennessee (W, 37-20)
Oct. 25: at South Carolina (W, 29-22)
Nov. 8: vs. LSU (W, 20-9)
Nov. 15: vs. Oklahoma, 2:30 p.m., ABC
Nov. 22 vs. Eastern Illinois, 1 p.m., ESPN+
Nov. 29: at Auburn, TBA

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This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: LSU football coach Frank Wilson speaks out after loss to Alabama

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