Alabama Vs. LSU: Tigers Triumphant In Tuscaloosa Overtime Tussle, 9-6

I ask because here was the scene at one corner of the otherwise courtly Alabama-LSU tailgate in Tuscaloosa before Saturday night’s game:

Mizzou, are culinary matters so important to you that they can only be settled via pushing and/or shoving? Are your tailgate tents so well-arranged that their toppling is a greater concern than is the lone pack of drunks actually fighting each other?

LSU hasn’t won anything yet. Saturday night’s “Game of the Century” lived up to its billing, at least defensively. The Bayou Bengals made enough big plays and rode their superior kicking game to a classic 9-6 win in overtime.

(Or as I tweeted: LSU 2, Alabama 2, LSU wins on PK, 1-0)

The head coaching matchup between Alabama and LSU is almost as fascinating as the matchup on the field. It’s not necessarily because it’s a chess match -- though it is; it’s the personalities at play. On one side, there’s aloof and lovable Les Miles, the man who eats grass and took a nose-dive heading onto the field on Saturday night. On the other ... well, there’s Nick Saban.

Saban is wound a bit tighter than Miles. Where one coach wanders around looking like a little kid, the other holds a scowl and appears ready to explode at any moment. And in the first half, Saban sure did explode.

What, don’t act like you expected Les Miles to just casually jog into the stadium for Saturday night’s matchup between No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama. You already know that’s not his style.

(AP/Butch Dill)

LSU sent Jordan Jefferson out at quarterback in place of Lee.

LSU is winning special teams, I say.

Among the hundreds of credential requests for Saturday night’s matchup between LSU and Alabama were the following two curious organizations.

The Pinstripe Bowl is a matchup of Big East and Big 12 teams. So it totally makes sense that a representative would be at LSU-Alabama to scout teams for a possible invitation.

↵Not sure how the gigantic FIRE CRAIG JAMES banner in the upper right corner above escaped ESPN’s eye, but our own Mark Ennis was able to record the important moment. Elsewhere in GameDay journalism, Twitter champion Rick Muscles conducted an important study into the signs that do get confiscated.

There’s another picture of Wilson in full LSU regalia here.

I think it is fitting at this point that I share with you lyrics from the Barenaked Ladies classic “Brian Wilson”:

But Alabama is also going to pass. And what happens when they do will likely determine the outcome of the game. The Tide throw 40 percent of the time on standard downs (right on the national average) and will have to do so tonight to keep LSU’s front seven honest. But how do you attack what might be the deepest secondary in college football?

When the Tigers’ secondary is at full strength (as it should be tonight), it simply swallows up one target after another. This is likely a slight exaggeration, but for all intents and purposes, LSU does not have No 2-4 corners, they just have four No. 1s. Your No. 1 receiver may be able to play reasonably well against their No. 1, but your secondary options are going to be facing off against what is probably by far the best defenders they have seen. The Bayou Bengals make you one-dimensional in the passing game, then they start to pick you off if you lean too much toward one guy.

It’s the first time in nearly five seasons and the first time ever in SEC play that the top two teams in the country will meet in the regular season. The night start time is expected to bring in massive ratings, much to the delight of LSU fans used to watching their team play under the lights.

Les Miles’ Tigers are a perfect 8-0 on the season and 5-0 in-conference. Alabama is also 8-0 on the season and 5-0 in SEC play and has won each game by double figures, including statement wins at Penn State, home against Arkansas and at Florida.

Wouldn’t mind betting against the latter. As 2006 showed, voters don’t like setting up rematches. And that was with only one unbeaten BCS-conference team, not the approximately eleventy this year will offer up.

I really can’t think of anything more SEC than betting on fumble forcery. The Honey Badger has nine forced fumbles in 20 career games, but hasn’t logged one since Oct. 1. Think he’s due? For what it’s worth, Alabama’s lost all of three fumbles in eight games.

The two teams began playing each other on an annual basis in 1964, with Alabama playing its home games at Legion Field in Birmingham, and LSU playing its home games on campus at Tiger Stadium. The series was marked by a long stretches where the home team struggled. From 1971 until 1999 LSU was winless, going 0-14-1 in Baton Rouge. Likewise from 1982 until 2007, Alabama went 3-10 in the state of Alabama. In 1988 Alabama began playing its home game in the series on their Tuscaloosa campus at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Overall, intensity has grown in the series during the last three decades with the two teams evenly splitting the series, 14-14-1.

In 2007, the meeting was even more heated following Alabama’s hiring of head coach Nick Saban—who previously coached at LSU. With the hiring, many media outlets dubbed the 2007 meeting as the “Saban Bowl” The teams have split the four games played so far during the Saban era. With a late turnover, the Tigers beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa, 41–34. Last year, LSU defeated Alabama 24-21 in Baton Rouge.

The line’s already tumbled by a point or more, and could move more before Saturday evening. The over/under has held steady, but is shrinking a tad.

As Bodog sportsbook manager Richard Gardner puts it:

When Alabama and LSU met in Mobile’s Ladd Stadium on September 27, 1958 it marked the beginning of an era for both programs. The game was the first for Paul W. Bryant as head coach of the Crimson Tide as well as the unveiling of LSU’s soon-to-be famous “Chinese Bandits.”

For Alabama fans, the expectations over the return of the man known as “The Bear” had lent an air of unbridled optimism to the ’58 season. Bryant had been an end on the National Champion ’34 team and worked as an assistant on the Alabama staff before going on to head coaching positions elsewhere.

We’re still almost two days away from College Gameday but if the following pictures are any indication, the show is going to be awesome.

via 30fps.mocksession.com

We are a bit spoiled these days. For all of the mostly justifiable complaints about the BCS, there is no denying that it does one particular public service: it provides us with a No. 1 versus No. 2 matchup at the end of the season. From the beginning of the AP Poll in the late-1930s to 1997, the top two teams met in a postseason game just 12 times. Since 1998, they have done so 10 times (more, obviously, if you are using BCS rankings instead of AP rankings as your guide). What was once an incredibly rare event has become at least a once-per-season occurrence.

This is a good thing, as regular-season matchups are equally rare. The coverage for Saturday night’s LSU-Alabama tilt in Tuscaloosa has bordered on overkill and is only beginning to pick up steam (I alone will be writing two more pieces about it before kickoff), but considering this is just the 23rd time in over 70 years that No. 1 and No. 2 will have faced off in the regular season (the 25th if you count conference title games as part of the “regular season”), the hype can be justified. This is a big, big deal and should be celebrated as such.