Countdown to Showdown: 7 Days

• By JOE MACALUSO AND JAY MARTIN
• Advocate staff
• Published: Dec 31, 2007

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MEMORABLE MOMENTS FROM 2007

‘Pick six’ clinches SEC

Want big plays in LSU’s season? The fake field goal against South Carolina was the first.

Any one, but especially the last one, in the successful five-for-five fourth-down gambles against Florida.

That last-second Matt Flynn-to-Demetrius Byrd pass to beat Auburn is way high on the list.

Chad Jones’ punishing sack against Alabama gave the Tigers the chance to win is up there, too.

Yet, when LSU needed one play to keep its name in the running for one of the two spots in BCS Championship Game, Jonathan Zenon made it.

In Atlanta, for the SEC title game, here’s what happened:

Tennessee was up 14-13 with just more than 10 minutes left.

The Volunteers had the ball, third down-and-5 from the UT 14.

LSU’s No. 1-ranked SEC defense needed a stop, but had to do it against senior quarterback Erik Ainge.

Ainge came into the game with staggering numbers — 27 touchdowns (he had two more in this game ) against 8 interceptions in 436 passes.

Zenon was man-on-man with UT wide out Quintin Hancock.

“Our coaches gave us great preparation,” Zenon said in the post-game media conference. “I’d seen those types of routes maybe four or five times throughout the week. Basically when I saw that formation, I knew exactly what they were going to run.

“I had an opportunity to jump in front of the ball exactly when I did.”

Zenon did that, jumped in front of the pass and had 18 yards of green artificial grass between him and the end zone.

His “pick six” LSU to a 19-14 lead, and LSU converted on the two-point PAT for a 21-14 win.

Another interception, this one by middle linebacker Darry Beckwith inside the LSU 10 preserved the win.

Though the Tigers went through the season with record-setting offensive numbers, the LSU defense ended its 13th game the same way it started. LSU piled up six interceptions in a 45-0 win over Mississippi State to open the season, and twice intercepted the least-intercepted QB in the SEC to end it.

Advocate sportswriters have selected 20 memorable moments from LSU’s march to the BCS Championship Game, from the 45-0 win over Mississippi State through the 21-14 SEC Championship Game victory over Tennessee. This series will run through Jan. 1 when readers will be able to go to The Advocate’s Web site — http://www.2theadvocate.com — and vote on their most memorable moment of the season. The voting results will be run in Jan. 7 Advocate Sports’ BCS Game Day Special.

The list so far:

2theadvocate.com's Countdown to the Showdown Archive

BCS TRIVIA

TODAY’S QUESTION: 

Which two teams combined

for the most single-game total yards in BCS Bowl Game history?

SUNDAY’S QUESTION:

Which school holds the record for most offensive plays in a BCS Bowl Game?

LSU, 97 plays in Jan. 2, 2002 Sugar Bowl. LSU 47, Illinois 34.

NOTEBOOK

TIGERS SCHEDULE

Today: Practice

Tuesday: Practice

BUCKEYES SCHEDULE

Today: Practice

Tuesday: Practice

Playoffs?

Long before the Bowl Championship Series was organized — the BCS’ first bowl games were held after the 1998 season — there was talk of a playoff system.

After all, Division I-AA, now the Football Championship Subdivision, had playoffs to crown a champion.

Since 1998, the six major conferences that run the BCS have tweaked rules to allow other non-BCS conference teams into what was a four-game, now a five-game structure.

Taking a break from all the numbers surrounding the upcoming LSU-Ohio State matchup, here’s a different look at the National Championship picture, from the Web site: the Championship Committee of ProjectPlayoffs. com.

The headline proclaims “LSU as the 2007 National Champion.”

Here’s the rest of the story:

“Since ProjectPlayoffs.com advocates that the bowls don’t matter and that a playoff is the best method for achieving a national champion, we have created a national championship award that is based on a vote of our championship committee prior to the beginning of bowl season, which is just how the Associated Press used to do it.

“Our expert panel, which unlike most of these voting bodies out there has been diligently studying and watching college football all year, has concluded voting for the 2007 season with the following results:

1) LSU

2) Oklahoma

3) Hawaii

4) Ohio State

5) Georgia

Congratulations to the LSU Tigers for being voted as the best college football team in 2007.

“This fourth time this honor has been awarded since 2004.

“The championship committee, called the College Football Playoff Association, is comprised of 100 college football experts from across the country. The mission of the CFPA recognizes that the Bowl Championship Series has become meaningless, detrimental, and exclusionary to college football.

 “The outcome of such bowl games does not deliver a true national champion based on the merits of the season. The CFPA national champion trophy is the only award that recognizes a true champion based on the teams’ efforts during the regular season.

“The Project Playoffs national championship trophy, affectionately referred to as “Slabby,” is a stone tablet weighing more than 75 pounds. It is proclaimed as the heaviest and most indestructible award in college football, and as a bonus is also all-weather.

“Each year, the elected national champion’s name will be added to the trophy and sent to the university’s athletic department. The athletic director must then carry the tablet 10 feet in the Slabby Strength Challenge in order to keep the trophy the remainder of the year.”

To reply, e-mail: fromthebench@yahoo.com.

BREAKING DOWN THE SHOWDOWN

PUNTER

PATRICK FISHER

6-5, 253, Sr.

Hyattsville, Md.

Tigers’ backup in 2005, then sat out 2006 season … came back in 2007 spring drills to win starting spot … All-SEC first team punter this year … was starting punter in 2004 redshirt freshman season … was All-Metro Washington Post team in senior year at DeMatha High … averaged 52 yards on punts vs. Auburn … longest punt 61 yards vs. Virginia Tech … punted 52 times for 43.8 average this year … 10 punts downed inside the opposition’s 20.

 “He not only was an All-SEC first-team punter, he was elected a unanimous team captain by his teammates. I’m very proud of him.”

-- Bradley Dale Peveto, assistant coach

A.J. TRAPASSO

6-1, 224, Jr.

Pickering, Ohio

Starter since 2005 redshirt freshman season … Ray Guy Award semifinalist … honorable mention All-Big 10 this year … averaged 40.4 yards in freshman year … 40.6 yards average on 49 punts in 2006 … had 55 downed inside opponents’ 20 in three seasons … two-time All-Ohio as placekicker in junior prep season, then punter in senior year … 50 punts for 41.0-yard average this year … longest this season & career 63 yards.

 “Whatever we ask our punter to do, A.J. has been proficient in getting it done.”

-- John Peterson, assistant coach