Schiefelbein: Recalling a magical moment

• By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 6, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 8:30 a.m.

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Before LSU quarterback Herb Tyler and friends went over to running back Kevin Faulk’s place and before coach Gerry DiNardo had an impromptu all-night party in his neighborhood, they all had to find a way through a wild crowd that had spilled onto the Tiger Stadium field.

“I can only imagine how many divots people made,” Tyler said.

Fans pulled down the goalposts for memories and pulled up the grass for souvenirs. And they swarmed DiNardo and Faulk and Tyler, all unable to hear questions while standing next to an ESPN sideline reporter.

Oct. 11, 1997: LSU 28, Florida 21. For the first time in the 104-year history of LSU football, the Tigers had beaten a No. 1 team.

“That night was just a special night,” Tyler said.

Saturday, when top-ranked Alabama comes to town, will be the first time since then a No. 1 team has come to Tiger Stadium.

And while the Tigers are, yes, ranked lower today, at No. 15, than they were on that night, at No. 14, the view and feel of LSU football is radically different.

The Tigers today are defending national champions for the second time this decade. The Tigers then were still rekindling a program that had hit the skids.

Back then, Florida, which had blasted LSU 56-13 and won the national title the year before, had an aura LSU could only envy. Now, LSU is among the giants of the game.

“That game really spoke volumes as far as the LSU turnaround,” Tyler said. “That led to the two national championships we have.

“We were trying to get to the point where we are now, among the elites, like Southern California and Florida.”

LSU senior defensive tackle Marlon Favorite said he was in the fifth grade, watching his cousins, Larry Foster, a wide receiver, and Raion Hill, a safety, in ’97.

“I have vivid memories of that,” Favorite said. “It’s really about the tradition here at LSU. Like that game. It was like, ‘Here we come.’