Leading OFF
Alabama has habit of painting unblemished LSU season all red
BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU might be in the midst of its greatest season ever.
Never have the Tigers had such a great offense, as the team is only 1,866 yards away from setting the school record for total yards, which is the 6,152 set in 2007 when the Tigers won the national championship.
No. 2 LSU (8-0, 4-0 Southeastern Conference) is at 4,287 yards and averaging 535.9 per game, which is 82 yards more per game than the school record of 453.3 set in 2013. That was a terrific offense in 2013 with quarterback Zach Mettenberger, receivers Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry and tailback Jeremy Hill, but the team’s defense could not match it, as it allowed an average of 36 points in its three losses.
There have been many much-better defenses in LSU history than this one. But this defense is improving and is likely good enough to help LSU beat No. 1 Alabama (8-0, 5-0 SEC) without quarterback Tua Tagovailoa or with him, as he will likely not be 100% after ankle surgery. Either way, this will be LSU’s best chance to win this game since 2014, when it lost to Alabama 20-13 in overtime.
LSU and Alabama will enter their Nov. 2 game at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa each after an open date and each unblemished for the first time since the “Game of the Century” on Nov. 5, 2011.
That night in Tuscaloosa, No. 1 LSU (8-0, 5-0) beat No. 2 Alabama (8-0, 5-0) 9-6 in overtime. LSU was 7-0 and 4-0 and ranked No. 4 four years later when it went to No. 7 Alabama in 2015, but the Tide were 7-1 and 4-1 after losing 43-37 at Mississippi. The Tide won that one 30-16.
Undefeated LSU-Alabama meetings are not new.
This will be the fifth LSU-Alabama pairing beginning in 1964 in which neither team has a loss, excluding the 1981 game in which the two met in the season opener on ABC at night in Tiger Stadium. Usually, these two play late in the season.
LSU is 1-3 against Bama in such battles of the undefeated, and naturally that trilogy of losses wrecked a season that started so beautifully for the Tigers. History
is on Alabama’s side as usual, but the better team could be on LSU’s sideline this year.
Let’s now look at the Undefeated 4 in the LSU-Alabama series:
1964: LSU, under third-year coach Charles McClendon, came in at 5-0-1 overall and 2-0-1 in the SEC with a 3-3 tie against Tennessee, while Alabama was7-0, 6-0.
McClendon, who previously coached under Alabama coach Bear Bryant at Kentucky, would be coaching against his mentor for the first time. Bryant was in his seventh season as Alabama’s coach and had won a national championship in 1961.
Interestingly, Alabama did not play LSU that season, and it would have been a great matchup between Bryant and LSU coach Paul Dietzel, three years removed from the 11-0, 1958 national championship season. The Tigers and Tide ended up sharing the SEC championship in 1961, as LSU finished 10-1 and 6-0 with its loss in the season opener when Rice upset the Tigers 16-3 in Houston. Alabama finished 11-0 and 7-0.
But back to 1964. Alabama beat LSU 17-9 at Legion Field in Birmingham and went on to win the national championship. LSU recovered to win its next two SEC games over Mississippi State and Tulane, but was upset at home to Florida 20-6 before beating Syracuse in the Sugar Bowl to finish 8-2-1.
1972: The Tigers (7-0, 3-0) looked like a team of destiny, as they had just beat Mississippi 17-16 thanks to a slow clock operator in Tiger Stadium who kept one second on the board so quarterback Bert Jones could try one more time for the end zone. He found Brad Davis for the 16-16 tie with no time on the clock before the game-winning extra point.
After the game, LSU sports information director Paul Manasseh told McClendon: “If you had any guts, you would’ve gone for two.”
LSU was not all lucky, though. It had destroyed a top-10 Auburn team 35-7 at home Oct. 14. But Alabama (8-0, 6-0) was very good, too. In ABC’s nationally televised afternoon game, the Tide were too much for LSU and won 35-21 in Birmingham. Alabama went on to win the SEC, but it was upset 17-16 by Auburn, which scored two touchdowns on backto-back blocked punts in the final minutes of the game. Both times, Auburn’s Bill Newton blocked the punt and David Langner scooped and scored.
1973: Once again the Tigers were off to one of their best starts since the 1958 national championship season when they finished 11-0 and 6-0. And this time the Tigers (9-0, 5-0) would be at home against Alabama (9-0, 6-0), and it would be at night.
It was such a big game, ABC moved it to Thanksgiving night, giving each team only four days between this game and the previous one. And the Tide won again 21-7. LSU fell apart afterward, losing its next two: 14-0 at Tulane to snap a 24-year Green Wave winless streak against LSU and 16-9 to Penn State in the Orange Bowl. The Tigers finished 9-3 and Alabama went on to win a share of the national championship even though it lost 24-23 to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.
2011: At last, it happened on Nov. 5, 2011, in Tuscaloosa. LSU coach Les Miles’ Tigers (8-0, 5-0) came in at No. 1 to play No. 2 Alabama (8-0, 5-0). LSU won the “Game of the Century” 9-6 in OT on a 25yard field goal by Drew Alleman.
LSU went on to win the SEC at 8-0 and 13-0 overall. Miles also took a 3-2 lead in head-to-head, head coaching matchups over Alabama coach Nick Saban, whom Miles replaced at LSU following the 2004 season. This loss did not wreck the Alabama season. It recovered to win out and reach the national championship game in the Superdome at No. 2 and 11-1. And the Tide won it 21-0, leaving LSU at 13-1. LSU has not beaten Alabama since, as the streak has grown to eight.
Back to 2019. Amazingly, if LSU wins this “Game of the Century” and Alabama recovers again to win out as it did in 2011, or if Alabama wins and LSU wins out, could LSU and Alabama meet again in the College Football Playoff ?
It could happen.