Weekend Watch List: Little love for LSU? Uh, no
Dec. 2, 2005
By Dennis Dodd
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
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Save your arguments for/against Ohio State, Auburn or Oregon in the BCS follies. LSU is in the worst shape of all the contenders this weekend.
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First, it has to play a game, unlike Penn State, which can lounge on the couch and hope for an upset that could propel it into the Rose Bowl. LSU faces a gut-buster in the SEC title game against Georgia, deep in the heart of Bulldog territory in Atlanta.
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Second, though LSU has lost only once, it came at home against putrid Tennessee, which rallied, from a 21-0 deficit in LSU's emotional home opener.
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Third, its best (maybe only) chance of reaching the Rose Bowl is to beat Georgia and have both Southern California and Texas lose on Saturday.
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Odds of that happening? The bidding starts at a million-to-one.
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Not that the Tigers haven't beaten life's point spread before this season. Their souls, families and homes were ripped apart by two hurricanes. The start of their season was delayed deep into September.
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They have had to play 10 consecutive games, averaging a contest every 6½ days since Sept. 26.
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They're heroes. They're exhausted. And despite being No. 4 in the BCS, they have virtually no chance of getting to Pasadena.
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These Tigers deserve something for their efforts. They won five games by four points or fewer. Their three overtime games tied Iowa State for the most played by a team.
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They could win the SEC, their bowl, finish 12-1 and not have one first-team All-American on any of the major teams that matter (FWAA, AP, etc.).
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Their biggest opponent was a cataclysmic natural disaster. Their MVP was their resolve.
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"All of our backgrounds in coaching are to eliminate distractions, that's the standard rule," said Les Miles, the Tigers' first-year coach. "In this particular instance you could not deny it. Helicopters were going overhead. There were volunteers, armed forces. There was no denying a real-life drama going on outside of us."
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Their sanctuary was the practice field. Random relatives of players would walk into the football office asking how to find their loved ones.
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Several players worked with the displaced, organizing clothing and food drives. Although New Orleans is 90 miles away, in a lot of ways, it came to rest on their front porch.
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That Tennessee loss is really the difference between a good season and a screenplay being written about it. On that Monday night, the Tigers sprinted out to a three-touchdown lead, only to give it up in overtime to the immortal (not!) Rick Clausen.
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"Certainly with a different start, we could be an undefeated LSU team," Miles said.
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No one is blaming Miles, not now. He deserves some kind of coaching purple heart for this effort. The man is only 52, has been a head coach for only five years but his career can't ever get any harder than it was 2005.
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"It's going to enrich my coaching career, my personal experience," he said. "I don't know if it will be accurately described, what happened among these young men -- ever."
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Armageddon Scenario: Just for fun, let's step outside into the nuclear winter if everything all falls apart. Listen up ...
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If all the favorites win, here's how the BCS bowls will play out:
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Rose: Texas vs. USC*
Fiesta: Notre Dame vs. Ohio State
Sugar: LSU vs. West Virginia*
Orange: Virginia Tech vs. Penn State*
*--already clinched BCS bowl berths
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Now consider a scenario in which Texas and USC lose. We're projecting that Texas would probably drop out of the top two but remain an automatic at-large team by staying in the top four. There is debate whether USC, especially with a close loss to UCLA, would drop out of the top two. Like Nebraska in 2001 and Oklahoma in 2003, the Trojans could lose their final game and still play for the national championship.
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Rose: USC vs. Penn State
Fiesta: Colorado vs. West Virginia
Sugar: LSU vs. Texas
Orange: Notre Dame vs. Virginia Tech
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If USC drops below No. 2, look for it to end up this way:
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Rose: LSU vs. Penn State
Fiesta: Colorado vs. USC
Sugar: Notre Dame vs. West Virginia
Orange: Texas vs. Virginia Tech
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Now, let's say all the favorites lose -- USC, Texas, Virginia Tech and LSU. Here's the lineup:
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Rose: Penn State vs. USC
Fiesta: Colorado vs. West Virginia
Sugar: Georgia vs. Texas
Orange: Notre Dame vs. Florida State
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All of this is another way of saying that unless Nike chairman and Oregon benefactor Phil Knight actually buys a Fiesta Bowl title sponsorship, the Ducks still aren't waddling to the desert.
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