Rosetta: Playing for La. part of LSU order

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Aug 30, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Three years ago, playing for the state of Louisiana became a much different rallying cry for the LSU football team.

Nearly every player on that 2005 team alluded to that notion, that getting back on the field after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita tore through the state’s southern borders and wreaked havoc like never before was the best way they could think of to help lift fans’ battered spirits.

For a lot of them, it was personal and too close to home. Heck, to many of them, it literally hit home — from Lake Charles to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and everywhere in between.

Getting back on the field as soon as possible meant a lot to that LSU team, even if it required a trip to the Arizona desert and another routine game week disrupted with a game shifted to Monday night.

The players on that team wanted to do whatever they could to become a distraction — they wanted LSU fans who had nothing left to remember that they still had their Tigers.

So you don’t have to wonder if this year’s crew — many of the same players who went through the drama three years ago — are jazzed about getting up with the cows today to get prepared for their 2008 season opener.

OK, it’s a lot out the ordinary a lot unless you count those Saturday morning youth league games when half-asleep parents had to be roused from one of the few days they got to sleep in.

But you have to figure the LSU players are amped up to get on the field this season, no matter what time it is. And you also have to think the same spirit that was so endearing with the 2005 team is present again.

Sure, there are some understandably selfish reasons. The Tigers and their coaches have been slugging away at each other for four weeks, and are champing at the bit to play a game that counts.

As was the case in 2005 and really ever since Les Miles arrived earlier that year, there’s more substance to this team, starting from the top to the walk-ons who won’t ever see the field.

No matter where they’re from, they take great pride in playing for Louisiana.