Guide to the BCS title game
Ralph D. Russo | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 12 years, 10 months AGO
NEW ORLEANS - So you are planning to watch the BCS championship tonight between No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama but maybe you're not the biggest college football fan. We've got you covered with everything you need for a well-informed and enjoyable game-watching experience.
SUITING UP
As an ode to the late, great Alabama coach Paul Bryant, Crimson Tide fans are fond of wearing clothing with a Houndstooth pattern to match the Bear's famous hat. So if you want to feel like a real 'Bama backer, you might want to raid your grandfather's closet.
LSU fans like to accessorize with Mardi Gras beads, especially when their team is playing in New Orleans, its home away from its Baton Rouge home. How you go about getting those Mardi Gras beads is your own business.
MASCOTS
Alabama's Big Al is a student in an elephant costume. LSU's Mike the Tiger is a 6-year-old Bengal/Siberian mix with a 15,000-square feet habitat on campus that includes large oak trees and a waterfall.
Advantage, LSU.
RALLY CRIES
For Alabama fans, "Roll Tide" is used as a greeting. Or a compliment. Or a threat. Or a proclamation. Or an exclamation. It is both a question and an answer. If you've seen the ESPN commercial showing the varied and odd ways Alabama fans use the phrase, understand this: That was NOT an exaggeration.
LSU's "Tiger Bait" call has a far less ambiguous meaning: "We plan to feed you to Mike."
S-E-C!
Alabama and LSU both play in the Southeastern Conference, making this the first BCS title game between league rivals - from any league.
It's an article of faith down here that the SEC is the greatest college football conference in the history of the world and the only current conference that actually allows tackling. Six straight national championships (including whichever school wins tonight) makes it a little hard to argue with that.
REMATCH?
LSU beat Alabama 9-6 in overtime on Nov. 5 in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in what was dubbed the Game of the Century. It was an epic struggle so dazzling and thrilling the public demanded a rematch. And by the public we mean Alabama fans.
NATIONAL TITLES
At some point you might hear that Alabama claims 13 national titles, more than any program in the country. It's a claim fans of other teams tend to roll their eyes at because it includes four from before there were major polls handing out championships in 1936, and another in 1941 that was bequeathed to a two-loss Crimson Tide team by the Houlgate System. Tide fans argue all national titles are mythical. Skeptics counter that some are more mythical than others.
LSU has won three national titles (1958, 2003, 2007), but even that comes with some controversy. The Tigers were BCS champions in '03 under then-coach Nick Saban, but Southern California was No. 1 in both polls before the bowls. When LSU beat Oklahoma in the BCS title game, it made the Tigers No. 1 in the coaches' poll. USC was voted No. 1 in The Associated Press media poll, which was then part of the BCS formula.
WARNING: Do not ask an LSU fan about that SPLIT national title with USC.
SPEAKING OF SPLIT TITLES
Yes, it is possible that LSU could lose the game and be voted No. 1 in the AP poll. It may not be the most likely scenario, but if Alabama wins a very close game under fluky and/or controversial circumstances the Tigers absolutely could be crowned national champions by the AP voters. So if you're looking for an endless debate and messy finish to what has been a messy and scandal-ridden college football season, pull for a 10-9 victory by Alabama.
UNCLE LES vs. SAINT NICK
The man in the white hat is usually considered the good guy in those cowboy movies, and it seems appropriate that LSU coach Les Miles never coaches a game without his white cap.
No offense to Alabama coach Nick Saban, with his perfect hair and glittering record, but Miles does comes across as more approachable and affable when he's doing that flat-handed clap on the sideline and talking about his players "want" - meaning desire - to compete.
On the other hand, Saban might not be warm and fuzzy but surely some Alabama fans vote to canonize him.
HEISMAN FINALISTS
If a running back could be genetically engineered, the result would likely be Alabama All-American Trent Richardson. The 224-pound junior ran for 1,583 yards, scored 23 touchdowns, finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting and can squat 600 pounds. To sum up, Richardson is a bad, bad man with the ball in his hands. This will likely be his last game with Alabama. Next stop, first-round NFL draft pick.
LSU defensive Tyrann Mathieu would do well in those Allstate insurance TV commercials. He is mayhem for opponents. The sophomore forced six fumbles and recovered five, made two interceptions and scored four touchdowns, two on punt returns. He finished fifth in the Heisman voting.
And maybe you've heard, they call him Honey Badger, which somehow never gets old. Unless you're Mathieu and you have to answer questions about it all the time.
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN LSU HAS THE BALL
Running backs struggling to get past the line of scrimmage. Receivers being laid out. Quarterbacks throwing the ball away. All to be followed by long punts from LSU All-American Brad Wing.
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN ALABAMA HAS THE BALL
See above, but substitute missed field goal attempts for long punts.
WHO WINS?
SEC Commissioner Mike Slive.
Follow Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP
from B1
LSU vs. Alabama, Part II. The BCS championship.
This time, it's for all the marbles.
Really.
The teams already met two months ago in Tuscaloosa, a so-called Game of the Century that was more of a Brawl in the Backyard, a brutal slugfest that sent both teams scurrying for the training room the next day and left fans around the country feeling a bit cheated by an old-fashioned defensive struggle in a college game now dominated by point-a-minute offenses.
Neither team made it to the end zone in that first meeting, even with the benefit of extra time. LSU won a battle of field goals, claiming a 9-6 overtime victory and stealing away the top spot in the rankings from the Crimson Tide.
Everyone expects more scoring in the rematch, but there's no way it's turning into one of those back-and-forth shootouts we've seen so many times this bowl season.
"I'd expect it to be big-boy football," Miles said Sunday during his time on podium.
LSU (13-0) has already put up a body of work that clearly establishes it as the nation's best team. In addition to that Nov. 5 win at Alabama, the Tigers have victories over two other major bowl champions, Rose Bowl winner Oregon and Orange Bowl champ West Virginia. In all, they've knocked off eight teams that were ranked in The Associated Press Top 25, with only three of those games in Baton Rouge.
"The only team I've told them not to schedule is the Green Bay Packers," Miles quipped.
Maybe it's only appropriate for the Tigers to find one more daunting challenge standing in the way of a championship season - a great team they've already beaten.
"When we take the field, we'll be an emotional, fired-up football team," Miles vowed.
Alabama (11-1) didn't even make the championship game of the Southeastern Conference, but the Crimson Tide managed to sneak back into the national title race when Oklahoma State lost late in the season. In the strangest of twists, Saban's team will be the one celebrating its second national title in three years with a mere split of the season series with LSU.
Saban did break character a few times Sunday.
When someone's cell phone went off in the back of the room with a loud song, the coach interjected, "Is that a little Al Green? Turn it up, man." He drew laughs when telling how he grilled anyone who wanted to go out on a date with his daughter. "None of them ever really answered me," he said, managing a slight smile. "They were so intimidated so I never got much good information."
Saban even revealed the morning routine he has with his wife.
"We get up at 6:15 every day and watch the Weather Channel for about 30 minutes before we start our day," Saban said. "I get most of my marching orders in that 30-minute segment of what we should do or how I should do it or why it's important to do it that way, what I need to talk to the team about. I get coached up very well in that 30-minute segment of the Weather Channel."
He might want to see if there's a Kicking Channel.
Alabama likely would have won the first meeting with LSU if not for the dismal performance by its two kickers. Cade Foster botched three field-goal attempts, including a 52-yarder after the Tide went the wrong way with its overtime possession. Jeremy Shelley also missed.
Given these are two defenses that take it personally when someone gets close to the goal line, Foster and Shelley are likely to be called on again in the championship game. But the Alabama offense hopes to make it a little easier on them this time.