Will new LSU be same as old LSU when Alabama comes to town?
It might not be another Game of the Century situation, but Saturday in Baton Rouge is still shaping up to be epic.
No. 1 Alabama travels to No. 15 LSU in Week 10, with both teams fresh off a bye. A victory for the Crimson Tide strengthens their grasp on the West. An upset by the Tigers throws a monkey wrench into America’s toughest division.
‘Bama has won five straight in the series — former Bayou Bengals coach Les Miles might still be on the payroll if that weren’t the case — and is a 7.5-point favorite to make it six. While Death Valley will be as electric as ever, the Tide can silence a hostile environment like no team in the nation.
Just ask those 100,000-plus at Neyland Stadium. Back in Week 7, they watched helplessly as Alabama annihilated host Tennessee.
Despite the fact that Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban has won four of the past seven national titles, this might be his top team in Tuscaloosa yet. From offense to defense to special teams, it’s hard to find a flaw.
Offensively, ‘Bama appears to be as dynamic as ever with quarterback Jalen Hurts. Playing with a poise beyond his years — it still boggles the mind that he’s just a true freshman — he completes 63.2 percent of his passes and has put together a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 12-to-5. He’s also run for 9 TDs.
He’s the type of signal caller LSU was hoping it had in Brandon Harris, who was mercifully benched in Week 2.
Hurts (below) isn’t doing it alone, of course. He’s protected by a sturdy offensive line. His running game is second best in the conference right now. His receiving options help him average a robust 7.7 yards per pass attempt.
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On the other side of the ball, the Tide are as terrifying as can be. Jonathan Allen — he’s beginning to hear some Heisman Trophy chatter — leads a formidable defensive line. The linebacking corps features the tenacious tackling of Reuben Foster on one side and the punishing pass rushing of Tim Williams on the other.
The secondary, to be fair, will now have to deal with the loss of safety Eddie Jackson. His injury is significant, no question.
The coaching edge is also heavily slanted in Alabama’s direction. Saban is one of the greatest of all time. Offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin has been brilliant. The defense hasn’t slipped a bit under Jeremy Pruitt.
On the surface, the Tigers shouldn’t be much of a threat. Harris’s replacement at QB, Danny Etling, is a transfer from Purdue. Presumed Heisman candidate Leonard Fournette has battled a bum ankle since September. Throwing a grenade on the coaching staff midseason — warranted or not — is always a gamble.
However, since making the move from Miles to interim coach Ed Orgeron, the Bayou Bengals have hit the reset button.
Gone is the team that threw up on itself in a season-opening loss to Wisconsin. Gone is the team that looked like it had never run a 2-minute drill before in a Week 4 loss to Auburn. Gone is the mercurial Miles, too.
LSU has won three straight convincingly, pounding Missouri, Southern Mississippi and Ole Miss by an aggregate score of 125-38. Etling has added life to the aerial attack — particularly on vertical throws down the field. Fournette is fierce again. The defense is no longer just a collection of blue-chip talent.
So much credit goes to Orgeron, the quintessential Louisiana native that finally made football fun again on the bayou.
Has he done enough to remove the interim tag and earn the job for the long haul? Probably not. Even if the Bayou Bengals run the table, all indications suggest that the school wants a proven CEO in the mold of Saban (below).
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Of course, so does every school. Saban’s incredible run of success in this league has clouded the judgment of decision makers at the other 13 member institutions. If the Crimson Tide are the standard by which pigskin prosperity is measured, then everyone else — even a win-at-all-costs destination like LSU — will be found wanting.
Orgeron is a sergeant, not a general. He’s a jeans-and-boots kind of guy. Football at this level has become suit-and-tie.
And that’s not criticism necessarily. I covered the NFL for years. Rod Marinelli is an asset on any staff in an assistant’s capacity. But as the top face on the Detroit Lions totem pole, he was an unmitigated disaster.
Luckily for the Tigers, Orgeron doesn’t have to win the 100-year war with Alabama. He’s only being asked to win this particular battle Saturday at Tiger Stadium. He can open the playbook as wide as he wants offensively. He can pull out all the stops defensively. Trick plays, onside kicks, fake punts — nothing is off limits.
Unfortunately, he might have to accept the fact that the ace up his sleeve is likely to get trumped two years in a row.
Fournette set a Bayou Bengals record with 284 yards rushing on only 16 carries in his last outing. Three times he found the end zone from beyond midfield. For the first time all season, he looked like the old No. 7.
That being said, Fournette had the Heisman all but wrapped up in 2015 before his 19-carry, 31-yard clunker against ‘Bama. To the surprise of nobody, the Tide are again No. 1 nationally — by a wide margin, too — defending the run. Not a single player has run for more than 62 yards against Saban’s unit in 2016.
But meet the new boss (Orgeron). He’s not the same as the old boss (Miles). Perhaps this Tiger’s tail won’t be so easy for Saban to catch.
John Crist is the senior writer for Saturday Down South, a member of the FWAA and a voter for the Heisman Trophy. Send him an e-mail, like him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.
