'07 success stirs '03 memories

• By SCOTT RABALAIS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jan 3, 2008

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It’s easy to think of LSU’s 2007 regular season and the luck, good fortune, incredible breaks and bounces that went the Tigers’ way to put them in the Allstate BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 7 against Ohio State.

Still fresh in the mind in the season just completed are the five fourth-down conversions against Florida, the winning touchdown pass in the waning seconds against Auburn, and pole vault leap up five spots to No. 2 in the final BCS standings after No. 1 Missouri and No. 2 West Virginia both improbably lost on the last weekend of the regular season.

By comparison, LSU’s 2003 run to the BCS national championship seems in retrospect to be rock solid, as firm as the Waterford crystal football that adorns the trophy the Tigers captured four years ago.

Looking back, maybe all the close calls and last-second victories — and defeats — that the 2007 Tigers were involved in is because they played a tougher slate of opponents.

Seven of LSU’s 13 opponents in 2007 were ranked at the time the Tigers played them. LSU went 6-1 against those teams, routing No. 9 Virginia Tech 48-7, and posting wins over No. 7 Florida 28-24, No. 18 Auburn 30-24, No. 17 Alabama 41-34 and No. 14 Tennessee 21-14. LSU’s only loss to a ranked team: 43-37 in triple overtime at then No. 17 Kentucky.

In 2003, LSU also had its close calls and tough games, but played only four ranked opponents en route to the national championship game. Four years ago, the Tigers beat No. 7 Georgia 17-10 in Baton Rouge, won 33-7 over No. 17 Auburn, edged No. 15 Ole Miss 17-14 and blasted No. 5 Georgia again in the SEC Championship Game 34-13. LSU went on to topple Oklahoma — No. 1 in the final pre-bowl BCS standings but No. 3 in the AP poll at the time — 21-14 in the Sugar Bowl for the BCS national title.

A key ingredient for the 2007 Tigers? Senior leadership. LSU features 12 senior starters, including All-Americans Glenn Dorsey at defensive tackle and Craig Steltz at strong safety, running back Jacob Hester, quarterback Matt Flynn and All-SEC punter Patrick Fisher.

LSU had just seven senior starters in 2003, but three of its starters — 23-year-old junior quarterback Matt Mauck, wide receiver Michael Clayton and defensive end Marquise Hill — would also enter the NFL draft after beating Oklahoma.

It was that leadership that helped the 2003 Tigers get through their season 13-1 — a record the 2007 Tigers (11-2) won’t be able to match — with a lone loss to unranked Florida, 19-7.

“The consistency of the 2003 team was the difference,” then LSU and current Alabama coach Nick Saban said comparing that championship team to his first three LSU squads. “There was so much character on that team, they didn’t need a leader to inspire them to play.

“I think they thought they could win the championship long before I did.”

It was self confidence that began back in the middle of the 2002 season, when the Tigers started 5-1 before losing Mauck to a season-ending foot injury near the end of a 36-7 runaway win at Florida. LSU had its moments afterward — the Bluegrass Miracle victory at Kentucky the all-time topper — but even with that the Tigers lost four of their last seven and finished out of the rankings after losing the 2003 Cotton Bowl to Texas.

“Florida was a great win for us,” Mauck said. “We blew them out of The Swamp. But coming off that game we went 3-4 and that was a little disappointing because we knew we were a lot better team than that. That helped us as far as being hungry for 2003.”