My favorite moment from LSU’s season doesn’t involve Joe Burrow
By Les East
Published:
No. 1-ranked LSU has had a whole bunch of memorable moments this season, with maybe more to come Jan. 13.
Most of them involved Joe Burrow.
There was the last touchdown against Texas when on 3rd-and-17 and protecting a precarious 6-point lead in the final 3 minutes, Burrow stepped up, away from pressure, and off-balance threw a 61-yard touchdown pass to Justin Jefferson. It sealed the Tigers’ 2nd victory and sent a message that this LSU quarterback was different, this LSU team was different.
But that wasn’t my favorite moment.
There was the play in the SEC Championship against Georgia that went viral – the one on which Burrow looked a little like Fran Tarkenton and a lot like Johnny Manziel when he reversed course twice, rolled toward the right sideline and just before going out of bounds launched a strike to Jefferson for a 71-yard gain.
The play crushed the spirit of a Georgia team that was teetering while facing a 20-3 deficit in the SEC title game.
But that wasn’t my favorite moment.
Then there was the virtual recreation of the play against Georgia in the CFP semifinal thrashing of Oklahoma. Burrow was running to his right, again, trying to ad-lib something good, again, and approached the right sideline, again, on the same end of the field in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Just before stepping out of bounds and getting hammered by a Sooner pass rusher Burrow lofted a 24-yard completion to Terrace Marshall Jr. during a 7-touchdown, 1st-half blitz.
But that wasn’t my favorite moment.
It was cool watching Burrow become LSU’s second Heisman Trophy winner and listening to his emotional speech.
But that wasn’t my favorite moment.
My favorite moment came in Bryant-Denny Stadium when LSU beat Alabama, 46-41. But it wasn’t any of Burrow’s three touchdown passes. It wasn’t any of his other 28 completions. In fact it wasn’t even a play.
My favorite moment of this season came moments after the game ended.
It came when 4 Tigers – Grant Delpit, Thaddeus Moss, Marcel Brooks and Cameron Lewis – ran to the end zone in font of where high-school players that Alabama was recruiting were watching.
“Y’all need to rethink where y’all going,” Moss said as the others thumped their chests.
It was an exclamation point at the end of an exclamation-point type of game.
LSU had just ended an 8-game losing streak against Alabama. It had taken control of the SEC race and the CFP chase.
Four Tigers – the ones who know the LSU program better than anyone else – were sending a message to potential future Bama players, right in front of current Bama players. The message was, “there’s a changing of the guard in the SEC. That team’s time is past the future belongs to this team – to LSU.”
No one knows if those players were right. After all, Bama’s recruiting class is ranked ahead of LSU’s.
But it was a bold, confident display that a new era has begun at LSU – one that will outlive Burrow’s tenure.
Les East is a New Orleans-based football writer who covers LSU for SaturdayDownSouth.com. Follow him on Twitter @Les_East.
