Now isn’t this familiar?
LSU and Alabama, fighting it out in a game of national importance dripping with championship implications. And an honest to goodness Saturday night game in Death Valley to boot.
There hasn’t been a game like this for LSU in almost three years, since the Tigers were led by a guy with the name Burreaux on his jersey and mopped the field with Texas A&M en route to the Southeastern Conference and national championships. COVID restrictions, player opt-outs, coaching firings and injuries have made most of the seasons since dull by comparison.
LSU’s 45-20 victory over Ole Miss on Oct. 22 was a reminder of the thrilling old days, but it was a day game. This will be the first textbook Tiger Stadium nighttime spectacle since that championship season, a first for new LSU coach Brian Kelly.
He is seriously looking forward to it.
“Heck yeah,” Kelly said Wednesday, making no attempt to hide the anticipation in his voice. “That’s why I came to LSU. This will be an exciting atmosphere.”
Then Kelly said something interesting, something not every coach would say, even at such a low-pressure point in a tenure. It wasn’t exactly a boast, but it was bold and brimming with the self-confidence of a man who has won everywhere he’s been and fully expects to do so here.
“There is more to come,” Kelly said. “I don’t want fans to think this is the first and last event like this at Tiger Stadium. We expect to be playing in a lot of these games.”
No one could have expected that LSU would be playing in a game this meaningful this fast. Not in the offseason, when Kelly was trying to rebuild a team that lost the Texas Bowl with a roster in tatters to finish 6-7, the Tigers’ first losing record since 1999. Not in early September, when a mistake-plagued LSU team lost 24-23 to Florida State in New Orleans. Not just three weeks ago, when Tennessee ran the Tigers out of their own stadium, 40-13.
Two straight monumental victories changed all of that. A combined 90 points in wins over Florida and Ole Miss (45-35 and 45-20) have brought the Tigers to this: beat Alabama on Saturday and LSU is in command of the SEC West race with two conference games left against Arkansas and A&M.
The stakes are high. The losing team gets relegated — not on a Premier League scale, but to basically playing out the string — while the winner likely goes on to Atlanta and the SEC championship game. For Alabama, the national championship hunt is in play, too.
The LSU forecast is for more disappointment and frustration, the kind the Tigers have had big garbage piles of since Nick Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa. But it’s worth the risk to have a say in how the West will be won, to claim at least a divisional championship and, just as satisfyingly, pop the balloon of Bama’s SEC and national championship hopes.
There is a freedom in being in LSU’s spot. It’s the kind of freedom the underdog Tigers had last year when they came within a last-play pass in the end zone from handing Bama a monumental defeat.
That was a David and Goliath matchup. This game finds LSU somewhere between the role of giant killer and giant. It should be a fun role, not something to fear, for LSU. A bet with a little house money. To look in old Saban’s eye and wink. To make him think the Tigers know something he doesn’t.
And what will happen if LSU wins? When the Tigers beat Ole Miss, thousands of fans stormed the field, triggering the SEC’s penalty for such shenanigans. In LSU’s case, the fine was $250,000, having been the third time LSU fans have stormed the field since the SEC strengthened its policy in 2015.
If fans went over the fence after beating the Rebels, what will they do if LSU beats Bama? Will they pull down goalposts, tear up chunks of turf and roll them into earthy victory cigars? More fans on the field means another $250,000 fine for LSU.
It’s understandable that that SEC has such a policy, which according to The Associated Press is the most severe of any college conference. It is definitely a safety issue for players, coaches and fans alike. That said, what is LSU or any school to do? How can a few dozen game marshals and law enforcement officials hold back a human tide if the Tigers upset the Crimson Tide?
If LSU wins, please keep off the grass, folks. You’ve been there once this season. It hasn’t changed.
Besides, don’t act like such a win is something new. Act like you’ve been there before and like you will be again. Both are almost certainly true.
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