...and you don't hate Notre Dame, read this. It was a column in todays Lafayette Advertiser. I couldn't get it off the website so I asked the author, Bruce Brown to email it to me and he did. We've seen this kind of drama before. The year was 1969. The LSU Tigers had the best defense in the nation against the run, a unit that carried them to a nearly-perfect regular season and to high hopes of a classic bowl confrontation for national honors. That ill-fated season comes to mind as this year's Tigers prepare to meet Georgia in tonight's SEC Championship Game in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Once again, LSU is blessed with one of the finest defenses in college football. Once again, there could be a chance to play in the highest profile bowl game of the season, with national implications. Once again, the opportunity may be out of the Tigers' paws. The 1969 Tigers finished the regular season with a 9-1 record, with the only blot a 26-23 road loss to Archie Manning and Ole Miss in Jackson. LSU allowed just 389 total yards on the ground that year, led by defensive lineman Ronnie Estay, linebacker Mike Anderson and sophomore defensive back Tommy Casanova. All three of those players were named to the Modern Days Team of the Century at LSU. Casanova and linebacker George Bevan were All-America selections in 1969, while Bevan and quarterback Mike Hillman were named as team MVPs. To the west, the Texas Longhorns were steamrolling opponents with a fiercesome wishbone rushing attack quarterbacked by James Street. With Steve Worster and Jim Bertelsen leading the way to 363 yards per game and 52 rushing touchdowns, Texas went 10-0 and outscored foes 414-112. The Longhorns nipped Arkansas 15-14 in a December showdown and headed for the Cotton Bowl, where they had topped Tennessee 36-13 the year before. What a perfect matchup it would have been for the Tigers to bring that defense into Dallas to battle the No. 1 Longhorns. Texas averaged almost as many yards per contest as LSU had allowed all year. What a classic _ even better than the 1963 Cotton Bowl when LSU blanked Texas 13-0 or the 1967 game when the Tigers beat Arkansas 14-7 to halt the Razorbacks' 22-game win streak. Signs pointed to such a pairing, but it never panned out. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 8-1-1 with a loss to Purdue and a tie with Southern Cal, abandoned their self-imposed ban on postseason play and accepted a bid to the Cotton Bowl. That left LSU out in the cold. The Sugar Bowl, a frequent spot for LSU in December, had gone with Manning's Rebels against Arkansas. There were fewer bowls then, and certainly no major openings left, so Charlie McClendon's nearly-perfect, defensively superior Tigers voted to stay home. It was a terrible waste of one of the finest teams in school history. Now we have more bowls, but the only ones that matter to the Tigers are ones in the Bowl Championship Series. Oklahoma is the only perfect team in the land entering its Big 12 Championship Game against Kansas State, and so is No. 1 and headed to the Sugar Bowl and the BCS national championship game. Southern Cal is No. 2 in BCS rankings, followed closely by LSU as the Trojans host Oregon State today. Obviously, LSU has to beat Georgia to reach the Sugar Bowl, but it also needs some help. Notre Dame (5-6) visits 5-6 Syracuse today, and the Tigers need the Irish to lose. USC swamped Notre Dame this year, and an Irish loss would diminish the rating of Trojan opponents and allow LSU to get even closer to that coveted No. 2 spot. They might not leapfrog USC with an Irish loss, but the Tigers are rooting for the Orangemen just the same. Thirty-four years later, you still have Notre Dame positioned to spoil a postseason LSU party. By defeating Georgia, LSU is still guaranteed a big-time BCS contest, so things aren't as drastic as they were in 1969. And, how did it work out in 1969? Texas defeated Notre Dame 21-17 to win the national title. Penn State was No. 2. USC, which finished 10-0-1 with a 10-3 Rose Bowl win over Michigan, was No. 3. Ohio State, the 1968 national champion, was No. 4, and Notre Dame was No. 5. The Tigers ended up No. 10, which would be terribly low for the 2003 team. These Tigers can still do great things. There's still plenty of drama ahead.
SabanFan - Good article...but I guarantee if Syracuse would have lost today we'd be hearing over and over and how it's all over now for LSU to have a shot. Yet, though ND was dominated - ABC is still announcing this USC game like a win against the Beavers will seal the deal for USC -This really PISSES me OFF! I guarantee you if USC continues to put the points up those ABC bastards will turn the hype up more and more - they can't help them selves. It will be as if the ND loss never occurred and the SECCG is moot. Let's hope that this game is close. Point in fact - Just now as I was writing this I heard " I think that if USC wins this, they are going to the Sugar Bowl" Ya think they'll be saying that for LSU if we are up by 7 in the first quarter??
Great post SabanFan. I had no idea that happened!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I knew there was a reason I didn't like ND thought it was just because they could lose every game and still be on National Television. But now I know why Its been in my blood forever.. I didn't really hate any team until now I didn't care for ND before, now I hate ND And I hope thier coach is there for years and digs a grave for them to fall in. ps I could've done the same job as Willingham at Stanford and done it just as good. How hard is it to win in pac 10 Notre Dame SUCKS and so does usc and the pac 10 and the amateur announcers at abc
Uhm, why should ND get the blame if they were invited over LSU? I love LSU as much as anyone, but your beef is with the ones doing the inviting, not with ND.
