Fun Friday: Quick Take on the LSU vs. Alabama Game of the Century
A day off from a trial that is almost over gives me an unexpected opportunity for a Fun Friday look at the Game of the Century: LSU vs. Alabama. One of these two schools has been my team since the famed Bama vs. Notre Dame 1973 Sugar Bowl. That is my earliest memory of watching football on TV and it was some game. Notre Dame's players were so much bigger than Bama's it seemed like cheating.
I was a huge Bear Bryant fan and his biography The Last Coach is one of my favorite sports books. They don't make them like Bryant anymore. Among other things, Bryant always insisted that he make less money than the school president. Think any of today's coaches would do that?
I was a Bama fan until I enrolled at LSU in 1985. I'm nowhere near as devoted of a LSU fan as I used to be, but I've seen in person both schools play some big and historical games. Saturday's tilt in Tuscaloosa is unquestionably the biggest between the two in my lifetime.
Earlier this year I thought Bama was the better team. But LSU has continued to improve and looked like the better team in its last two games. It's really hard for me to compare the teams since neither has been challenged in 8 games. That in itself is amazing. Both have played good SEC teams and destroyed them.
Some people see a defensive struggle. If that happens I give the edge to the Tigers. LSU's punter Brad Wing is the best college punter I have ever seen. He doesn't have the best leg, but he's shown me that it's not all about the leg. This stat is from a New York Times article on the Australian Wing and Bama's Australian player Jesse Williams:
He is a 6-foot-3, 185-pound redshirt freshman whose long, controlled, end-over-end kicks — known as drop punts in Australian football — have helped limit opponents to seven total return yards this season.
I've been telling people all year how good Wing is, but even I didn't know he was that good. 7 return yards in 8 games? Unreal. What I've noticed is how well he puts the ball inside the 15. By the way, most people's eyes start glassing over when you start telling them about your punter--so wake up.
My point? In a battle of field position game the best punter is king.
The closest anyone came to LSU this year was State. How did State hang in there for most of the game? Wing was hurt and didn't make the trip to Starkville. Seriously. LSU would have won that game by 30 if Wing had played.
But I don't think Saturday's game will be that low scoring. Both teams have too much big play capabilities and defenses that can score points. I look for the winning team to score around 30 points and win by 10. I think that will be the Tigers. But I don't feel strongly about it and wouldn't be surprised if Bama won by 10.
In fact, anyone who thinks they have a good read on what's going to happen in this game is a fool. Both teams are too good for us to know what will happen when they play each other. It's a shame one will have to lose. This is the best LSU team...ever. Yea, I said it. Ever. I don't know why. I don't know where most of these guys came from. But I know they are.
But LSU may lose Saturday and would probably be eliminated from the National Championship race. It's a shame either team has to lose. They are both so much better than anyone else this year that I wish they could play once for all the marbles in the BCS Championship Game in New Orleans. I would like LSU's chances a lot better in that venue.
Notice that the 2 best SEC teams are playing this Saturday, and the 2 worst are as well (Ole Miss - UK)? Is that some sort of cosmic, college football ying-yang type deal?
I can't take credit for this as my original thought; it's been all over the interline.
Hotty Toddy!
Will anyone be in the stadium in Starkville on Saturday night? Besides the homecoming court and its immediate relations?
They should put the LSU-Bama game on the big screens.
Glad to see someone else notices punters. The really good ones have a huge and underappreciated impact on the game. If you don't believe that, watch your punter peel off a couple of 15 yard punts agaisnt a good offense and see what happens. If you're one of the people that thinks really good punters are a dime a dozen, you never saw Ray Guy punt. The man was a menace to birds flying over thee stadium. Return men could eat a sandwich waiting for the ball to finally come down. LSU's Wing and and the Saints' Thomas Morstead are two good current examples, at the college and pro levels, of punters who give their teams big advantages in the battle for field position.