Another Game of High-Stakes Chess to be played for the 2012 BCS Championship Game
Posted on January 9, 2012 by Jacob Bunn
There will be no shortage of subplots surrounding the game in the Louisiana Superdome Monday night. It has become college football’s version of Ali/Frazier.
Miami Heat star LeBron James attended the November 5th game between Alabama and LSU. He tweeted a comparison of the game to Pittsburgh and Baltimore in the NFL, “Bama vs LSU is the same in college as Pit Vs Bal in the pros when they meet up!”
It has become the most intense and high-stakes rivalry in college football. Its greatest chapter will be written when the two teams from the same division of the same conference meet for the national championship on Monday night.
LSU football was great during the 1950s under the leadership of head coach Paul Dietzel. In 1958, the Tigers went 11-0 and were voted national champions in the Coaches Poll and AP Poll. Following the tenure of coach Dietzel, LSU football endured a period of mediocrity. From 1988-2001, the Tigers did not win an SEC Championship.
In November of 1999, LSU named then Michigan State head coach Nick Saban its 31st head football coach. Immediately after his arrival, there was a sense of confidence restored to the program after being in the wilderness under the previous head man, Gerry DiNardo.
Saban led LSU to its first SEC Championship in over a decade in 2001, when the Tigers beat Tennessee 31-20 in the SEC Championship Game knocking the Volunteers out of contention for the BCS Championship Game. Two years later, Saban’s LSU team defeated Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl to capture the BCS Championship. Saban had completely revived a program that had not been competitive nationally in years.
Saban then made a move that the Bayou Bengal Tiger faithful would not quickly forget – he accepted an offer to become the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. He did not have as much success in the NFL as he had hoped, so he decided to make a return to college football.
This is where the story gets interesting.
In January of 2007, Nick Saban was named the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. Needless to say, LSU fans who were upset at Saban leaving Baton Rouge for the NFL were livid at the fact that he was going to the Tigers’ most hated rival.
Any thought that Saban had lost his touch in his tenure in the professional ranks was quickly squashed when he began raking in five-star recruits. What’s more, it was not long at all before that translated to the field for the Crimson Tide.
But, something else was going on in 2007 also. As the November matchup between the Tide and the Tigers approached, it was surrounded with enormous conversation and hype. This was partially because of the fact that Saban was coaching against his former team. Another reason, though, was the fact that the Tigers were highly ranked and poised for a chance to compete for the national championship game. At just after four-o’clock central time on a mild November afternoon, Saban’s 17th-rated Crimson Tide clashed for the first time with Miles’ 3rd-ranked Tigers.
The first ‘Saban bowl’ (as it was called) was a fantastic contest that saw underdog Alabama return a punt late in the game to claim the lead. But, the Tigers answered with two touchdowns of their own to claim victory 41-34. LSU went on to win the SEC and BCS that season.
Even though Miles had won a conference and national championship as the coach of the Tigers, LSU fans still were not content with him as the head man, especially with Saban at Alabama.
The 2008 version of this rivalry was Saban’s first trip back to Tiger Stadium since becoming Alabama’s head coach. A brilliantly played game ended in a tie at 21. In the overtime period, Alabama intercepted a pass from LSU quarterback Jarrett Lee before Alabama quarterback John Parker Wilson rushed for the winning touchdown. Saban had beaten his former team in Baton Rouge. Alabama continued and completed an undefeated regular season before losing the SEC Championship to the Florida Gators led by Tim Tebow.
In 2009, Alabama was undefeated again and both teams had a chance to further their chances of making it to the BCS title game. With a fourth quarter pass from Greg McElroy to Julio Jones, Alabama got the win. With the victory, Alabama had won two in a row over LSU and Saban had won two in a row over Miles.
Last year, Alabama came into the game still in contention for the national championship with only one loss to South Carolina. LSU had less of a chance at the big prize because of the loss it had suffered two weeks prior to the eventual national champion Auburn. Alabama had the lead in the fourth quarter before LSU called a reverse that caught the Crimson Tide napping. After that play, there was no looking back for LSU as they ended up winning the game 24-21. That victory evened the series between Saban and Miles at two wins and two losses each.
That brings us to 2011. Many pegged the November 5th meeting in Tuscaloosa as the game to watch in the 2011 college football season at SEC Media Days in July. It easily lived up to such high expectations. In fact, 60 minutes of regulation was not adequate to determine a winner. In overtime, LSU prevailed by a score of 9-6, giving Miles his second straight victory over the Tide and Saban.
In the first few days following the game, there was a tremendous outcry about the fashion in which the game was played. It consisted on field goals only, no touchdowns. Fans and sports media from across the country were quick to dismiss the game, calling it boring in their quest to be entertained by lots of scoring. They disregarded the fact that there is not one offense in college football that could effectively move the ball on a consistent basis against either of these defenses.
In the weeks after the matchup on the fifth of November, the contenders for the national title game began to fall one by one. First it was Oklahoma State losing to Iowa State. Then, Stanford, Oregon, and Oklahoma fell from their positions near the top of the BCS Standings. That paved the way for Alabama to get into the BCS Championship Game.
With Oklahoma State having lost the one game to Iowa State, many SEC haters desperately attempted to make the case that the Cowboys should be in the title game instead of two teams that had already played. That was a popular sentiment, but it simply was not the correct resolution.
The second best team in the nation is Alabama. With the exception of the loss to LSU, the Crimson Tide destroyed every other team on its schedule. Oklahoma State lost to a .500 Iowa State squad that was beaten badly in its bowl game by Rutgers. Plus, the Cowboys were all but beaten by Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl when the Cardinal gave them the victory. However you slice it, LSU and Alabama are the top two teams, and nobody else is really close.
The previous five meetings between these two coaches have produced some of the most intense, strategic, and competitive football games. Don’t you think that will be the case -- and to an even greater extent -- when the national championship is on the line?
If Miles wins, there will be no more loss of love for him from the LSU faithful. If Saban’s team comes out victorious, he will have won three BCS titles in nine years. That will catapult him into a conversation as one of the best to ever coach the game.
This year’s LSU squad wants to be remembered as one of the great teams of all-time. They will have to beat Alabama again to be in that conversation. Alabama wants to get redemption for not making the plays to win in the first meeting, causing them a shot at the SEC Championship and an undefeated season. The storylines are endless. How are we going to convince our grandchildren that this was not a written script?
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Email Jacob at jacob@bunnsports.com and follow him on Twitter at @JacobBunn
