Wild season finds OSU, LSU on top
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As LSU jetted back to Baton Rouge after winning the Southeastern Conference Championship Game, the scoreboard watching of a wild night in college football took place through the plane’s intercom system.
The dominos were falling. Second-ranked West Virginia had lost 13-9 to underdog Pittsburgh. And then Oklahoma beat top-ranked Missouri 38-17 in the Big 12 title game.
“We’re listening: ‘We have good news. Missouri lost.’ Then the plane went down and came back up,” LSU offensive tackle Carnell Stewart said. “I was like, ‘We need to get off this plane first before we start celebrating.’”
Poetic turbulence fittingly encapsulating a topsy-turvy college season? Perhaps.
Even then, LSU had to sweat out Fox’s bowl-pairings telecast to find out the Tigers were in the BCS title game with Ohio State.
“It was more of a mind thing,” Stewart said. “Everybody was so impatient. You couldn’t go to sleep. You couldn’t think. When we found out those two teams lost, it was more of a headache.”
LSU still had to jump over three other teams, idle Georgia, idle Kansas and Virginia Tech (which the Tigers had beaten soundly) in the BCS standings, but they did.
Said LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey, “When we lost to Arkansas (50-48 in triple overtime Nov. 23), I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know if we’re going to get this opportunity again.’ … I honestly didn’t think we were going to get the opportunity.”
Said Stewart, “Some people say luck. You can call it what you want. I’m happy regardless. Not too many people can get one national championship. … But to have two is a blessing.”
Consider where both LSU and Ohio State were.
As LSU readied to play its final game of the season, the Southeastern Conference Championship Game matchup with Tennessee on Dec. 1, the Tigers were ranked fifth and logged in at seventh in the BCS standings.
As Ohio State got set for its last game of the season, Nov. 17 at Michigan, the Buckeyes checked in at No. 7 in both the AP poll and the BCS standings.
Now, both teams — who each have had two turns as the top-ranked team in the land — will be playing for the BCS national title Monday in New Orleans.
“We have a great system,” said Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, who won four national championships with Youngstown State in Division I-AA’s playoff system. “The way the system worked out, we have a chance with one loss. I think we’re worthy. And LSU has a chance, and I guarantee you they’re worthy. It doesn’t take anything away from it.”
Ohio State inched up because of the Buckeyes’ 14-3 victory Nov. 17 at Michigan and because of a string of upsets. No. 2 Oregon lost two days before, and the Nos. 1 and 2 teams both lost on the next two weekends — No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Kansas went down on the same weekend, then No. 1 Missouri and No. 2 West Virginia lost Dec. 1.
“I was hoping that one of them would lose,” Ohio State cornerback Malcolm Jenkins said. “I think we all thought that the season could not have been over for us. There was a sense of destiny this year. I felt like we were meant to get here, and I was praying someone would lose.”
While Ohio State had already ridden the Nov. 24-25 upsets of LSU and Kansas to have itself in prime position if one spot opened, LSU had more sweating to do after beating Tennessee 21-14 in the SEC Championship Game. The Tigers needed two slots to open. While Oklahoma beat Missouri for the second time this season that night, the more improbable upset was heavy-underdog Pittsburgh pulling off the shocker.
“The impossible happened, and we were able to get in the game,” LSU defensive end Kirston Pittman said. “And I think we really deserved to be in the game, being that the things we went through as a team the entire year, the injuries and the close calls we had and the games we were able to pull out.”
LSU players and fans were in the front row of one of the craziest college football seasons on record.
“It was a roller-coaster ride,” Dorsey said. “We were just as nervous as everybody else. Everybody said, ‘Stop giving them close games; we’re giving them heart attacks.’ We’re getting heart attacks, too. We don’t want the games to be close, either. It was a wild season, and I enjoyed it.”
The No. 1 team lost four times this season — with two of those defeats hung on LSU — and all of those losses happened between Oct. 13 and Dec. 1. Plus, Southern California got edged by LSU for the No. 1 spot in the Sept. 30 poll, even though the Trojans hadn’t lost a game.
Meanwhile, No. 2 lost seven times between Oct. 6 (USC’s stunning 24-23 loss to Stanford) and Dec. 1.
“I think it speaks to how healthy college football is,” LSU coach Les Miles said. “I’m certain people in the BCS enjoyed how it finally ended, and I’m certain just as well that there is a number of schools that said, ‘Boy, I wish we could be in it.’ And so the debate goes on. But what has to be said is that college football is very healthy.”
Tressel said players are arriving on campus increasingly more educated than before. There is nonstop televised coverage of games dissecting the intricacies of strategy, as well as video games which help players see how a concept will work in simulation. Plus, the information age continues to accelerate how well high school coaches learn and teach the game.
Tressel and Miles both cited the trend of scholarship reductions through the years.
“They’re the champions of a great league and they’re very deserving (of) playing for a national championship,” Tressel said.
Ohio State took a more reasonable route to the BCS title game last season. The Buckeyes were ranked No. 1 all season (before being dismantled 41-14 by Florida for the national championship).
LSU, meanwhile, stalked its way into its 2003 BCS title game matchup with Oklahoma, in the 2004 Sugar Bowl.
“Freshman year, you were more relaxed, because you knew you were up for it. Everybody figured it was going to be us,” Stewart said. “Being on the other side, waiting, it was so frustrating sitting in that room and looking at that screen. … When they said LSU, I almost passed out.
| Top of the charts | ||
| The Nos. 1 and 2 ranked teams in the AP poll throughout the season. | ||
|
WEEK
|
NO. 1
|
NO. 2
|
| Preseason |
USC
|
LSU
|
| 1 (Sept. 3) |
USC
|
LSU
|
| 2 (Sept. 9) |
USC
|
LSU
|
| 3 (Sept. 16) |
USC
|
LSU
|
| 4 (Sept. 23) |
USC
|
LSU
|
| 5 (Sept. 30) |
LSU
|
USC
|
| 6 (Oct. 7) |
LSU
|
California
|
| 7 (Oct. 14) |
Ohio St.
|
S. Florida
|
| 8 (Oct. 21) |
Ohio St.
|
Boston Col.
|
| 9 (Oct. 28) |
Ohio St.
|
Boston Col.
|
| 10 (Nov. 4) |
Ohio St.
|
LSU
|
| 11 (Nov. 11) |
LSU
|
Oregon
|
| 12 (Nov. 18) |
LSU
|
Kansas
|
| 13 (Nov. 25) |
Missouri
|
W. Va.
|
| 14 (Dec. 2) |
Ohio St.
|
LSU
|
| Advocate graphic | ||
