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The LSU faithful were booing their No. 1-ranked team.
That’s right, the best team in college football was getting jeered at home Friday afternoon. The two touchdowns by which the Tigers trailed No. 3 Arkansas early in the second quarter marked the largest deficit they had faced this season.
But the boos from the crowd of 93,108 were the loudest they had been in years at Tiger Stadium. Not that LSU even cared or was worried.
“There was never a question in anybody’s mind on that sideline,” LSU coach Les Miles said. “It really was just a matter of time.”
Miles was right, because in scoring 21 straight points in just over four minutes late in the first half on the way to a 41-17 rout of Arkansas, LSU had reminded its fans and the rest of college football why it’s still the team to beat.
The Tigers have been so good in this topsy-turvy season that they can lose next Saturday against Georgia in the SEC championship game and still play for the BCS title, likely in a rematch against Alabama if the Crimson Tide win Saturday at Auburn.
But make no mistake, LSU isn’t one of those super teams of seasons past like USC in 2004. As talented as the Tigers are defensively, they are flawed offensively.
That’s not a secret. So before we ponder something as preposterous as, “Is this the best team in college football history?” — a question Miles was asked after the game — let’s first consider a different honor the Tigers might hold.
They just might be the best definition of a team that college football has seen in recent years. One that has:
• Survived first-year quarterbacks coach Steve Kragthorpe’s relinquishment of his offensive coordinator position in late July after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
• Endured a four-game suspension of quarterback Jordan Jefferson to start the season after his involvement in a brawl outside a bar in August.
• Overcome the suspensions of star cornerback Tyrann “The Honey Badger” Mathieu, starting tailback Spencer Ware and defensive back Tharold Simon last month for the game against defending national champion Auburn after the players reportedly tested positive for synthetic marijuana.
Yet LSU still has navigated the nation’s toughest schedule and conference without a single loss.
“There’s other teams in the country that are just as talented or maybe more, but that team deal and them caring about each other and being [able] to overcome adversity, it’s special,” LSU defensive coordinator John Chavis said.
Chavis knows about special. He was defensive coordinator at Tennessee in 1998 when the Volunteers improbably won the national championship in the first season after Peyton Manning left for the NFL.
Chavis also knows he has something plenty special in Mathieu, who before Friday hadn’t looked like his usual self in the three games he had played since returning from his suspension. But the ball-hawking sophomore re-introduced himself before a national television audience with his knack for mega-huge plays.
His 92-yard punt return for a touchdown, on which he made one cut and then streaked down the left side of the field, tied the game at 14 in the second quarter and sent LSU fans into hysteria.
“I could just hear Tiger Stadium rocking in my cleats,” Mathieu said.
All season, Mathieu has told LSU special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey, “When you need to score, I’ll be there for you.”
“That was a key moment,” Mathieu said of his punt return. “Our team needed a touchdown.”
Defensively, Mathieu made it look easy playing safety for the first time in his career while filling in for injured starter Eric Reid. He had a team-high eight tackles and two forced fumbles, the second of which he recovered and returned for 19 yards.
The bigger forced fumble, though, was his first, which came on the ensuing Arkansas possession following his punt return for a touchdown.
The Razorbacks were threatening to take the lead again when Mathieu ripped the ball from tailback Dennis Johnson and LSU recovered at its own 34-yard line to set up Jefferson’s 9-yard touchdown pass to Russell Shepard for a 21-14 halftime lead.
“You want to be that guy that makes the big play for your team,” Mathieu said of his playmaking ability. “I think we have a lot of guys like that on the team.”
Mathieu is right. This LSU team isn’t just one guy like Cam Newton carrying Auburn to the national championship last season.
It’s most well-known player is probably Mathieu — and that’s because of his unique nickname which was born from a viral-video tribute. Miles is proud of his team’s individual anonymity, which is why his eyes glimmered when he described his Tigers as “very, very special.”
And when The Hat answered the question about whether his team is the greatest in college football history, he did so carefully.
“They are qualified,” Miles said. “Qualified for what? I don’t know.”
As Jefferson and other LSU players headed to the locker room after the victory, the quarterback raised his right index finger to signify his team’s No. 1 ranking, and Tigers fans roared.
Some of them had been the ones who were booing him and his teammates just hours earlier.
Others were too busy posing for photographs with a scoreboard graphic that said, “12-0 SEC WESTERN DIVISION CHAMPIONS!”
As a woman in a yellow LSU T-shirt stared at the scoreboard she told another woman, “I just love this team.”
It’s a great one all right, a team that is.
