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Written by Michael Lambert | Thursday, 02 July 2009 07:19 | LSU News
With the LSU baseball team closing the book on another storied season,
the focus of Tiger Nation shifts to football. There is a lot of down
time between early July and the Sept. 5 kickoff against Washington, so
for now I'll try to wet your appetite for a little purple and gold
pigskin.
This is the first in a series of LSU football stories. I'll begin by
looking back to the 2008 season and later preview top storylines and
positional breakdowns heading into the 2009 campaign.
LSU's 2008 season struggles masked by bowl win
After a team loses five conference games and miraculously comes back against a non-BCS school, the following year's expectations would typically err on the side of caution. But the outlook for LSU is fairly optimistic, even after losing five SEC games and struggling to beat Troy.
A 35-point shellacking of a ranked team in a New Year's Eve bowl game did that to 2009's forecast. The 38-3 beatdown of Georgia Tech eased the mind of Tiger Nation and quickly turned five conference loses into a distant memory.
This is the beauty of bowl games. A win can mask a season of difficulty just as a loss can hide a successful regular campaign. The five SEC loses were not all forgotten, though. The Tigers were the defending national champions after all.
The Florida and Georgia defeats were more bearable than the falls to Alabama, Ole Miss and Arkansas. The Gators ended up winning the title, and the Bulldogs were the No. 1 pre-season team.
The overtime game against Alabama was one of the more painful. LSU fans wanted nothing more than to take down former coach Nick Saban on his old home turf.
Ricky Jean-Francois' blocked field goal electrified Death Valley, and the tide seemed to be turning in the Tigers' favor. But with an all too familiar interception of Jarrett Lee, Alabama sealed the deal. Purple and gold nation left without sweet revenge and with three losses in their pocket. Repeat dreams of a championship were thrown out the window. The SEC West race was lost, too.
At least a gimme win was next on the docket, right?
Wrong. On paper Troy looked like a automatic W, but they didn't see it that way.
On a cold night in Tiger Stadium, the scrappy Trojans came with their spears sharpened and their shields in arm, while the Tigers did not even come out of their cage. Half of the student section was swept away with the frigid air and the 28-point deficit in the third quarter. The faithful fans who stayed were rewarded with an exciting comeback. Tiger Nation breathed a universal sigh of relief after the nine-point win.
The next two games cemented an underachieving season. LSU gave up 31 points to both Ole Miss and Arkansas. The loss to the Rebels pushed LSU out of the AP poll for the first time since 2002 as the 94-week streak came to a halt. The last-minute loss to the Razorbacks left the Bayou Bengals feeling low. The season ended with a disappointment, and optimism was scarce.
A birth in the Chick-fil-A Bowl felt like a gift to Tiger fans. It was nothing like a national championship birth, but with all the hardships of the season, a fairly big bowl game was a reason to celebrate. The matchup, though, was a cause for concern.
Beating Georgia Tech seemed like a tough task with their triple-option attack against LSU's lackluster defense. The Yellow Jackets were riding momentum, while the Tigers didn't have a solid win since the first of November.
But in typical Les Miles fashion, he rallied the troops to a 38-3 blowout of the Yellow Jackets.
The win didn't completely eliminate the sour taste of a five-loss season, but it did make the 2009 season a bit easier to swallow. Miles' ability to win big bowl games has been unparalleled in his tenure. Miles & Co. flat out come to play in bowl games.
In the Miles era, LSU has been 4-0 in postseason play, winning by an average of 28.3 points. LSU manhandled Miami in the 2005 Chick-fil-A Bowl, knocked down Notre Dame in the 2007 Sugar Bowl and outplayed Ohio State in the 2008 BCS National Championship. The Tigers averaged 39.3 points in the four games.
The Bayou Bengals are going to need that type of energy and effort to fully push back memories of 2008 and return to winning SEC form in 2009.
Next in the LSU football preview - Is Jordan Jefferson ready to be the man under center?
