BCS Championship Game Quick Thoughts

The Alabama defense is one of the greatest of all-time – There have been very few defenses capable of taking apart teams like Alabama has done this season. In recent history, I can think of only four others: 1992 Alabama, 1995 Nebraska, 1999 Florida St. and 2001 Miami. Even being mentioned with those teams is an accomplishment, but I think Alabama this season is better on defense than those teams. Just look at the LSU offense. As it turns out, the LSU offense maxed out in the first game with its 9 points. It didn't play well here and we all saw the results. Sadly.

Despite the loss, the LSU defense was its usual self – The LSU defense is the second best in the country. It stood on its head to keep Alabama out of the endzone for most of the game before finally running out of gas. Kudos to the effort put forth by LSU, especially the front seven that bottled up Trent Richardson entirely before the late touchdown run

On some level, the Maze punt return was the end of the game – Yes, Marquis Maze was injured on the punt return and yes I have been extra critical of him this season. Still, his punt return really shook LSU's confidence. All season, nobody had even bothered to return a punt against LSU. When Maze took off on his return, it was like the energy and will was sucked out of the LSU sideline. The one certain advantage was no longer an advantage.

LSU's offensive gameplan was pathetic

Thank to @Year2 of TeamSpeedKills for the image

Just know the graphic isn't really all that far off from the truth.

Even with the bad gameplan, LSU's limitations offensively were on display – All season, nobody really thought much of LSU being a below average team offensively, as least as far as yards go. Mostly because it always had great field position and scored a ton of points. In this game, the field position was bad and there were no turnovers. Combined with a great defense, this was the result, as it might always have been destined to be. The last time this happened, the average Mississippi St. defense held LSU to 19 points, so we should have seen this as a possibility.

Jordan Jefferson should have been pulled – Jefferson was miserable in this game. No other way to describe it. He was inaccurate, made dumb decisions and was slow both in movement and in his reads in the option games. Quite simple, he was atrocious (even without the awful interception). Jarrett Lee may not have been better, but it wouldn't have hurt to try with the National Title on the line and the team in need of a spark down 15 in the 4^th quarter.

The Alabama offense found a savior at wide receiver with Norwood – Kevin Norwood was pedestrian for all of his two seasons so far at Alabama. All season long, I decried the lack of a deep threat or big play receiver as the main Alabama weakness. With Marquis Maze out injured, Norwood suddenly became that guy, catching four passes for 78 yards after catching only seven passes all season. With Norwood a threat, the Alabama passing game had one of its best games of the season against the best secondary in the country.

Alabama is lucky this didn't become a kicking contest again – The Alabama kicking game was all over the place again. 5-7 and a missed extra point shows this is still a problem. At one point I said on twitter not to kick the field goal. The only way to lose was to get one blacked and returned for a touchdown.

Jordan Jefferson, you have earned the top lowlight of the season – For those who missed the interception, here it is, in all its lowlighty glory.

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Final Thoughts and Pick for the National Title

Alabama was the better team other than its special teams the last time around. That won't happen again. Either Alabama will be better again and it won't matter or LSU will be the better team.

The best quarterback will win the game. A.J. McCarron was average against LSU the first time around. He missed some plays and some pickups that he will have to do better with. Jordan Jefferson has been as schizophrenic as ever since returning to the lineup. He was great against Arkansas and awful against Georgia.

Les Miles is the best coach in this game. Conventional wisdom says Nick Saban is the better coach in part because his reputation and previous coaching stops say so. The reality is that Les Miles doesn't lose with extra time to prepare. Since getting to LSU, Miles has lost one game with more than one week to prepare his team. The only loss was to Penn St. in a bowl game with a terrible field two seasons ago. Included in those stats are the last two years against Alabama, where LSU was an underdog and won anyway. Given extra time, Miles just doesn't lose and while Saban is very good, Miles has proven to be better.

There will be touchdowns. In the first game, both teams had plenty of opportunities to score touchdowns and didn't take advantage. In this game, all it takes is one. One touchdown for either side will open the offenses a bit and allow some scoring to occur.

The gameplans won't be so relentlessly conservative this time. In the first game, Alabama started throwing the ball a bit, but went more and more into a shell as the game went on. LSU was conservative from the start and never came out of the shell (possibly out of necessity with Jordan Jefferson coming on in relief of ineffective Jarrett Lee). Both teams will be more aggressive and both will find some success with that aggressiveness that neither found in the first game.

Special teams won't play a major role. Conventional wisdom says special teams are a big part of expected close, defensive games like this one. It won't matter much. There won't be a game changing play on special teams here. No blocked punts, no big kick returns, nothing. Except maybe a missed kick, but nothing beyond the ordinary level.

Alabama can't come from behind. A.J. McCarron is just not going to be able to come from behind if they get behind more than one score. He can't get the passing game cranked up well enough (no deep balls) and he has never been behind as the starting qb. Even in the first game, he never trailed, only losing on the final play.

Whichever team hits the first deep ball will win the game. Neither team hit anything down the field in the first game. This time, I expect more of the same. Except this time, I expect someone to find something deep and whichever team does it first will win the game because of the space it gives to the running game.

Trent Richardson is not the key for the Alabama offense. Yes, Richardson is the most likely MVP for Alabama in the game. He also was the best player on offense for either team in the last game. None of that mattered. It didn't matter because Richardson can't do everything on his own. Where was Marquis Maze and the passing game? It disappeared at the 30 yard line, every time. If the passing game can't get going, Richardson, once again, won't matter despite being the best offensive player on the field.

The pick: Alabama has more overall talent. It has the better defense. It doesn't have the explosive talent in the positions needed to exploit the LSU defense. Given that, I expect it to be close and low scoring. Not as low scoring as the last time, but low scoring, especially compared to the other BCS games. In a close, low scoring game, the big mistake will decide the game. Last time, Alabama made the big mistakes in the kicking game. This time, Alabama will once again make the big mistake, this time coming from McCarron and the passing game.

LSU 20, Alabama 16

LSU 9, Alabama 6 (OT) Game Thoughts

This was a great game to watch, even with the lack of offense in part because it wasn't a lack of offense, it was great defense. These are two good, but not great offenses that ran up against all-timer level defenses in this game.

Everybody way overshot the score in the various prediction pieces even though this scoreline was a whole lot more likely than the low 20s everyone seemed to be predicting. The reason, we value offense as entertainment and a 9-6 score doesn't feel very epic, especially when predicting it pregame.

The Alabama roster and coaching staff are going to be killing themselves over the result of this game. Rarely does a team that looks like the better team throughout the game playing at home lose, but Alabama made the critical mistakes time after time after time. The list

• Four missed field goals including a long one in overtime
• An interception thrown by a wide receiver off a Wildcat formation (the ball should have been thrown a half second earlier)
• Countless misfires from AJ McCarron, especially in the 3^rd quarter culminating in his interception
• An insanely dumb 12 men in the huddle penalty in overtime
• An even dumber sack taken to really move the team out of field goal range in overtime
• A lack of execution on offense on the LSU side of the field, stalling repeatedly despite numerous chances

LSU has a full blown quarterback controversy coming its way. Jordan Jefferson was far better than Jarrett Lee in this game and made a case he should be the starter moving forward even though Lee was the most efficient passer in the SEC at kickoff. As for Lee, he reverted to 2008 form, throwing two interceptions to triple his season total from one to three.

The front sevens on these teams are very good, but the secondaries really make them go. It's near impossible to throw successfully on either team and that frees up linebackers and defensive backs for blitzes and run defense. The systems are nearly perfect for both teams.

There should not be a rematch of this in the National Championship game. While this was good, another team should get a shot with the small sample size of games we have in college football.

The no rematch talk also goes for Oregon if they win next week against Stanford. Ducks, you had your shot at LSU on a neutral field and got blown out. Next.

LSU-Alabama Week Finale: Game Prediction

Previously in LSU-Alabama week:

The Higher Stakes for LSU on Saturday

Is Saturday's Loser Still in theNational Title Race

The SEC's Forgotten Big Game

The Semi-Weaknesses of Alabama and LSU

3 Biggest Keys to the Game

Punting – This game is pretty much even in most respects. The Alabama defense is one of the best in the modern era thus far. The LSU defense isn't far behind. The offenses are similar in strength with neither likely to score enough to make this a blowout or shootout. When that occurs, punting and field position become the name of the game. In that area, the advantage undoubtedly belongs to LSU. Brad Wing averages 44.4 yards per punt and nobody gets anything in the return game against him. Alabama also gives up little in the return game, but their punter Cody Mandell averages just 39.0 per kick. I think you can figure out where the edge it there. Edge to LSU.

Deep Passing Game – In the semi-weakness post, I detailed the lack of deep passing for Alabama and the weakness of LSU's deep ball defense, something that can be exploited when a corner such as Tyrann Mathieu blitzes off the edge. At the same time, LSU has developed a deep passing game as the season has gone on, most notably blitzing Auburn with deep balls to Reuben Randle on the way to an easy blowout victory. Should one team find big plays in the passing game and the other not, the team that does will win the game and while Alabama has had little trouble stopping opponents from throwing deep (except for healthy Florida), I give LSU a slight edge for actually having managed it so far. Edge to LSU.

The Les Miles trick play – C'mon man, we all know it's coming. At some point, Les Miles is going to dial up some sort of trick play. Last year in this game, it was the TE Around on 4^th and 1, totally fooling the Alabama defense and basically winning the game. This season, who knows. The fact is, everybody knows there is some sort of crazy trick in order for LSU in this game. The question is how creative will it be and how well disguised will it be. Remember that even this year, LSU has completed a couple of halfback passes and had the fake punt against Florida (the one infamously called back) succeed. Alabama has had to prepare for this possibility. If they can stop whatever nonsensically crazy play shows up at a critical moment, they likely win the game. This year, they will after being burned so badly last season on the 4^th and 1 TE Around. Edge to Alabama.

Given those factors and that which we already know, it should be obvious I am picking LSU even though I leaned toward Alabama for much of the early part of the week. While the Alabama defense is frightening, I don't think the defense alone can win this game and, after thinking about it all week, the defense alone is going to have to win this game since the offense isn't going to do much and the special teams are at a disadvantage.

LSU 16, Alabama\(-4.5) 14

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LSU-Alabama week – The weaknesses of Alabama and LSU

Thus far this season, Alabama and LSU have shown very few weaknesses. There is a reason these teams are ranked 1 and 2. But neither team is entirely without flaws. Especially given the wrong matchup, these teams are fallible and this game could be the wrong matchup for either team.

Alabama's big flaw – No deep threat

The last few seasons, Alabama had Julio Jones to go deep and take the pressure off the running game. Thus far this season, there has been nobody in that role. It was hoped before the season that Marquis Maze would step into that role, but he has been more of a possession receiver and he has the 12.4 YPC average to prove it instead of the 14.5 average that Julio Jones put up last season.

On its own, Maze becoming more of a possession receiver than a deep threat is not a problem. Some of the best teams both in the NFL and college have had a possession guy as a top receiver. I recall the Dallas Cowboy teams of the early 90s having Michael Irvin as a possession guy (though he could go deep when needed) and Alvin Harper as the deep threat on the other side. The problem for Alabama is the lack of the deep threat. Other than Maze (who did finally get a big play against Tennessee), the longest receptions are by running backs.

The problem is that Alabama could get away with no deep threat against everyone they faced. Only the Penn St. defense possessed the tools needed to slow the Alabama running game down and that defense was worn down because its offense lacked the tools needed to move the ball against Alabama (or really anyone else, can anyone explain how that team is 8-1 while we're at it here?). Given a good offense that could at least get a few first downs, Penn St.'s defense might have been even better than the 4.98 YPP they gave up to Alabama and, playing at home, might have had the chance to steal a victory at the end of the game. Had Alabama had a deep threat, Penn St. wouldn't have been able to stack the box the way they did to slow Trent Richardson and Eddy Lacy down as much as they did and the Alabama offense would have rolled.

Against LSU, Alabama will face a similar challenge to the one they faced against Penn St. The LSU defense will at least slow down if not outright stop the Alabama running game. That puts the onus on Alabama to find some plays down the field that haven't really been there this season to open the defense up. In addition, the LSU offense will likely move the ball a little bit (or at least more than Penn St. did), meaning a fresher defense to combat whatever Alabama throws at them.

The big question for Alabama then, is can they hit a true deep ball or two to keep the LSU defense loose.

LSU's big flaw – The secondary, great though it is, is not infallible and can be had deep

Just as it was for Alabama, the biggest test for LSU's biggest weakness was a road non-conference game. In this case it was the road test in Morgantown against West Virginia. Yes, I know LSU won the game by a large margin, but not until the Mountaineers scared LSU with a couple of passing driven touchdown drives in the 3^rd quarter to close a blowout game to a 27-21 margin.

So what happened in Morgantown other than a pass happy offense and pass happy quarterback getting hot? For one thing, West Virginia found some holes in the LSU defense after halftime. If West Virginia could make some adjustments to find some holes in the LSU pass defense, rest assured Nick Saban likely can find them too and despite what the passing stats show thus far this season, Saban has better personnel to take advantage of any holes in the LSU pass defense. What resulted was a series of long completions culminating in a 72 pass play to Tavon Austin that helped get the game to 27-21 before the backbreaking kickoff return touchdown. In the first half, West Virginia had two completions for 20 yards or more resulting in 7 points. In the first three series of the 3^rd quarter, West Virginia had three such plays on drives that covered 215 yards and resulted in two touchdowns and a punt after generating four first downs.

In addition, Florida actually managed to hit a deep ball on the LSU defense with Jacoby Brisset in the game. Given how bad Brisset and Jeff Driskel and the rest of Florida's offense looked without John Brantley in the 2^nd half against Alabama and against the clearly inferior Auburn defense, this is a potential red flag. While it hasn't happened much, LSU's pass defense can clearly be had, especially if the quarterback is given time to throw.

Alabama's offensive line should be able to get AJ McCarron time to throw. If they do, it comes down to the only semi-weakness on the Alabama team against the only semi-weakness on the LSU team. Can Alabama hit the deep ball or will the LSU defense continue to force turnovers? The answer to that question likely decides the game Saturday night.

LSU-Alabama week - The SEC's Forgotten Big Game

LSU-Alabama is going to be huge. Nobody doubts that. There are other games with varying degrees of national relevance that others will be paying attention to, especially in the Big 12 (Oklahoma St.-Kansas St. and Oklahoma-Texas A&M). Yet most have, at least for now, forgotten about another game between top 10 teams that are at least on the fringe of the National Championship race.

SEC fans likely know that I am talking about the Arkansas-South Carolina game this Saturday, set to kickoff at the unfortunate time of 7:15 ET (why couldn't we get some schedule rejiggering from ESPN to fix this?). That is all of 45 minutes before the Game of the Century for this season kicks off. Too bad for those teams. Their showdown is likely to go all but unwatched, especially with Oklahoma St.-Kansas St. and Notre Dame (for all their faults as a program they are still a good draw on tv) on in the same timeslot.

Other than the obvious, why does nobody care about this game, especially considering it could decide the SEC East winner?

LSU and Alabama are perceived to be so far above everyone else that one of them losing to another SEC team is considered inconceivable – What that really means is even though this game matches the 7^th and 9^th ranked teams in the country, nobody really thinks these has a chance against their conference overlords. In Arkansas' case, they were already blown out at Alabama and will likely suffer the same fate against LSU and really there has been no evidence to contradict that belief in regards to the LSU game. As for South Carolina, they are riddled with problems at quarterback and running back and they lost at home to Auburn. Despite the high ranking, there is no way anyone believes this South Carolina team, even with its great defense, is going to score enough to beat Alabama or LSU if they reach Atlanta.

Arkansas and South Carolina both look overrated, especially in recent games – Other than smoking Auburn, Arkansas has done little to justify its high ranking other than not lose. They should have lost to both Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. They also nearly lost to Ole Miss. This is hardly the stuff of a top ten team. As for South Carolina, the offensive struggle against Tennessee was brutally ugly and the loss to Auburn wasn't too long ago. Remember that since the South Carolina-Auburn game, Auburn has been destroyed by both Arkansas and LSU and played in one of the worst major SEC games of the season against Florida. Each week that goes by, that loss seems to become more of a boat anchor on the Gamecocks resume as Auburn obviously isn't great.

There is a lack of star power on both rosters right now – Let's face it, star power sells matchups, especially in games below the top game in a given week. Because of Andrew Luck, people have cared about Stanford even when playing such middling competition as Washington and Duke. On the Arkansas roster, Tyler Wilson has been good, but hasn't really become that kind of 'IT' guy and Knile Davis injury robbed the Razorbacks of that possibility at running back. As for South Carolina, the Marcus Lattimore injury crushed their star power and, as good and hyped as Melvin Ingram and Jadaveon Clowney have been, they haven't really become stars. With no real superstars, there is no compelling reason on a players level to watch this game.

The rest of the SEC behind the top two really isn't very good at all – Let's face the facts. This year's SEC with Alabama and LSU at the top looks a lot like the 2008-9 SEC with Alabama and Florida well out in front of everyone else and little elite depth in the league behind them. That Auburn is still ranked somehow is proof of this (and the difficulty of the Tigers schedule so far) because Auburn most certainly does not pass the eye test as a top 25 team this season. Other than Auburn, and the teams in this weekend's big games, only Georgia is ranked and that could even be considered dubious given the lack of quality wins the Bulldogs have banked (Florida and Mississippi St. are the best ones). What this really means is that LSU and Alabama have elevated the league this season and they have elevated it to the point that everyone else benefits in the rankings, even when they lose to those team. That has led to overrated teams. When those overrated teams play each other, nobody really cares, even if those teams are ranked highly. Hence we have our top 10 showdown this week, that might as well not be taking place.

So should we really care about this game? Only in the context of the SEC East race. The division championship still means something and even if South Carolina is way overrated at number 9, especially without Lattimore, they still have a chance to win the division. That likely only happens if they win this week, making the game meaningful. As for Arkansas, they sit in limbo, headed to the Cotton Bowl to play Texas in all likelihood with not much else they can do other than surprise LSU and steal a BCS berth for a second consecutive season (good luck with that Hogs). So, for all of that, this game needs to be watched. I recommend getting the second tv out or set your espn3 feeds to this game. It is nowhere near the best game of the week and it really isn't of the stature a top 10 game normally is, but it still is a big game with major implications, especially in the SEC race.

LSU-Alabama week - Is Saturday's Loser Still in the National Title Race

A refresher of the games of the past that match the magnitude of Saturday night's LSU-Alabama game

November 16, 1991 – Miami 17, Florida St. 16

November 13, 1993 – Notre Dame 31, Florida St. 24

November 30, 1996 – Florida St. 24, Florida 21

November 18, 2006 – Ohio St. 42, Michigan 39

Those are the last four November meetings between numbers 1 and 2. All among the greatest games in college football history. All with incredibly high stakes (though only Miami would actually manage to win the National Title among the winners while two losers would of these games would rebound to win). This is the expectation that LSU and Alabama are stepping into. Anything less than a classic is a disappointment. That is the subtext for the next number 1 vs number 2 November game. Luckily for us, it takes place this Saturday.

Previous entries (The Higher Stakes for LSU on Saturday)

Is the loser out of the national championship chase?

Look again at those four games listed at the top. Some would say bizarrely. Others can come up with a litany of legitimate reasons. Whatever the case, two of the four LOSERS in the previous four November 1 vs 2 games won the National Championship. Knowing that, is the loser really out of the chase. Here I'll take a look at the the two 1 vs 2 loser National Champs and the prospects for both Alabama and LSU should they lose Saturday night.

1993 Florida St. - Bobby Bowden's first National Championship team is one of the more controversial in the modern era. Or at least it should be. It isn't because the team that got screwed was Notre Dame and pretty much everyone likes to see Notre Dame get screwed. Remember that Notre Dame lost the next week and ran the table. Both teams finished with one loss, but Florida St. got the National Championship from the poll voters as a present for Bobby Bowden, who many thought wouldn't coach for too much longer at that point (how wrong they were). That doesn't change the fact that if voters voted then like they do today, Notre Dame would likely have won the National Championship by virtue of the head to head victory. Also, Notre Dame losing the very next week allowed many voters to throw the win over Florida St. out as a fluke victory (even though the loss to Boston College the next week was a lot more fluky). For LSU or Alabama, winning the championship in this scenario is near impossible. For one thing, there was no BCS in those days. It was still a novelty to have the top two ranked teams play each other in the bowl game and these two were actually ranked one and four as Florida St. was ranked in front of undefeated Nebraska and Notre Dame was also behind undefeated West Virginia (undefeated and probation saddled Auburn was number 5). Given the way voters vote now though, head-to-head takes more precedence as does being undefeated. It is likely that Nebraska would have been the top ranked team, followed by West Virginia in the two slot. What this means though, is that the loser is likely out of the race barring two losses by the winner before the SEC Championship game since the voters want conference championships as well (see 2007 Georgia being jumped).

LSU-Alabama week - LSU's future as an elite college football team

November 16, 1991 – Miami 17, Florida St. 16

November 13, 1993 – Notre Dame 31, Florida St. 24

November 30, 1996 – Florida St. 24, Florida 21

November 18, 2006 – Ohio St. 42, Michigan 39

Those are the last four November meetings between numbers 1 and 2. All among the greatest games in college football history. All with incredibly high stakes (though only Miami would actually manage to win the National Title among the winners while two losers would of these games would rebound to win). This is the expectation that LSU and Alabama are stepping into. Anything less than a classic is a disappointment. That is the subtext for the next number 1 vs number 2 November game. Luckily for us, it takes place this Saturday.

So with that as the background, what is really at stake here?

Skipping the obvious conference and national implications, LSU's status as a true national powerhouse is what's on the line here. I went to Auburn, but grew up and live in Pac-12 country. I can say that despite LSU's status in SEC land, out here, they are viewed as the team who's turn it is to be a prolonged contender from the Tennessee, Auburn, Georgia, LSU crew. Despite two national championships, LSU is still grouped with those schools on a program level (not on a this season level where they are obviously accepted given their status as the top ranked team after starting 3rd), not Alabama or Florida and not Michigan, USC, Notre Dame, Ohio St., Nebraska, Oklahoma or Texas. This game is LSU's chance to be accepted at that higher level of the sport.

So why doesn't LSU have that kind of status given that Florida, Miami and Florida St. have all made the jump to that status in recent college football history? Part of it stems from the lack of a truly dominant National Championship season, much like the one LSU is currently authoring. The 2003 championship came with a lost to a Ron Zook coached Florida team and controversy when the top ranked team in the human polls was left out of the championship game. The result was a split national championship. (I view that whole thing as a disservice to LSU, who didn't get their rightful shot at the number 1 team. The rest of that is a discussion for another day.) The 2007 team managed to win the national championship, but only as a two-loss team. Many believe that LSU was the best team that season and deserved its championship, but it wasn't the kind of dominant season along the lines of Miami's championship teams, Florida St.'s 1999 team or Florida's best teams that battled Florida St. year after year while dominating the SEC. Winning Saturday and finishing the season off with an undefeated National Championship would go a long way to truly establishing the LSU program with the elites of the sport, not just as a program having a long period of success a couple of levels above normal (like Tennessee in the 1990s).

The other reason for LSU's lack of standing among the very top programs is a lack of games like the ones listed at the top of this page. Only the 2007 win against Florida comes even close, but that Florida team had been beaten the week before by Auburn. Imagine if LSU lost to Auburn two weeks ago. What would we be writing about this game? That would be exactly what we were writing going into the 2007 LSU-Florida game. Even though we got a classic, Florida having a loss already took some level of shine off the game. Other than that game, we have a string of controversies and close calls in less than big games despite the prolonged stretch of winning. We have mind numbing defeats that never should have happened like the 2006 loss to Auburn and the 2005 loss to Tennessee. We have the quirky Les Miles wins like the 2010 win over Tennessee and the 2007 last second pass to beat Auburn. We don't have a game at the level of those previous 1 vs 2 games to cement LSU in the top level of the sport.

Another question about LSU's status? Where is the classic win or moment that pushes LSU into the top level of the sport? The only one that comes to mind is the Billy Cannon punt return. For USC, there are numerous wins over Notre Dame and UCLA and plays like the Anthony Davis kickoff return, the OJ Simpson run and the Bush Push. For Alabama, there's the goal line stand against Penn St. and the George Teague strip of the Miami player in the Sugar Bowl. For Michigan, there's the Charles Woodson and Desmond Howard punt returns against Ohio St. (no Woodson didn't deserve the Heisman over Peyton Manning but that was a heck of a play). For others, there have been games above plays. Think Catholics vs Convicts. The 2006 Ohio St.-Michigan game referenced above. The Choke at the Doak. In the Miami-Florida St. series alone, there are the Wide Right and Wide Left kicks. LSU has nothing of this sort to push it into the national conscientiousness. What are you going to do LSU?

So LSU, it's right there in front of you. Win this week, and it is the biggest win in the history of your program. This game is your chance. Do you want to be seen like Alabama, Michigan, USC, Texas, Oklahoma and the rest of the elite? Or are you just another flash playing above historical level for a prolonged period like 1990s Tennessee, 1980s Auburn or early Mark Richt Georgia?

It's all in front of you Tigers.

Just win the game.