No. 10 LSU visits No. 17 Vanderbilt with playoff implications

No. 10 LSU will visit No. 17 Vanderbilt on Saturday at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville in a matchup with immediate SEC significance and possible College Football Playoff implications. Kickoff is scheduled for noon Eastern on ABC. Both teams enter at 5-1 overall after contrasting paths: Vanderbilt is coming off a bye following a 30-14 loss at Alabama, while LSU rebounded from its lone defeat by beating South Carolina 20-10 last week.

The game pits LSU’s veteran quarterback Garrett Nussmeier against Vanderbilt’s productive signal-caller Diego Pavia. Nussmeier, who has battled a torso injury this season and suffered a sprained ankle in last week’s win, said the bye week helped him recover and regain confidence. "It helped a lot for me, being able to get a good rest and then just trying to play like myself," he said. This season Nussmeier has thrown for more than 1,400 yards with nine touchdowns and five interceptions in six appearances, and he remains central to LSU’s hopes of stabilizing an offense that has not consistently produced big outputs.

Pavia has been one of the SEC’s top dual threats, averaging roughly 293 yards of total offense per game and accounting for 14 touchdown...