2C z MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2019 z USA TODAY SPORTS
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
against that schedule.
- Oregon – The Ducks were idle this
weekend but moved into the bracket be-
cause of events elsewhere. It’s not quite
this simple, but if they can win out,
they’ll have a really nice resume for the
Football Four.
Four More**
- Minnesota – A week ago, we all
looked at that undefeated record and
sniffed: But they ain’t played nobody!
Well, about that. Given a huge opportu-
nity, the Golden Gophers took full ad-
vantage to upset Penn State. - Utah –Took the week off. If the
Utes can win out, it’s a similar situation
to Oregon: At 12-1, they’ll have a shot to
work their way into the bracket. - Oklahoma – After getting out to a
three-touchdown lead, the Sooners’ de-
fensive issues from last year re-
emerged. But they escaped Iowa State.
Now comes an unexpected Big 12 show-
down with surprising, unbeaten Baylor. - Alabama –A late TD to pull the
Tide within one score might matter at
some point, but ’Bama needs help to get
back into the Football Four mix.
A Few More After That***
Baylor –The Bears somehow es-
caped Fort Worth with a win against
TCU in three overtimes. They’re unbeat-
en. Now they get Oklahoma in Waco
with a shot to make their case for the
Football Four.
Georgia –Look, Georgia has a nice
defense. It has a pedestrian offense.
And that home loss to South Carolina(and its third-string quarterback) looks
worse week after week. But just win
(out), baby, and you’re in.
Penn State –That nice resume now
includes a good loss, we guess, at Min-
nesota. Penn State’s only path is to win
out.Auburn –Idle this week. But the Ti-
gers could rearrange the Southeastern
Conference and Playoff conversation
with Georgia this week and Alabama on
Nov. 30.Futile Four****Arkansas – Arkansas paid $1.5 mil-
lion to bring in Western Kentucky ...
which then beat down the Hogs 45-19. It
was Arkansas’ seventh consecutive
loss, and as expected it meant the end of
Chad Morris’ very short tenure as head
coach. He was fired Sunday after less
than two seasons.
Michigan State –The Spartans led
Illinois by three touchdowns in the
fourth quarter ... and lost on a touch-
down with 5 seconds left. It’s their
fourth consecutive loss.
South Carolina – Remember that
win against Georgia? Yeah, that was
nice. But a 20-15 loss to Appalachian
State. Ugh. And Clemson still looms on
the schedule.
Missouri – Real talk: If the 5-4 Tigers
withdraw their appeal to the NCAA and
accept the postseason ban ... and then
don’t qualify, anyway – wouldn’t that
make some sense? Oh wait, they play
Arkansas.
*The season is not over today.
**Don’t be worried your team sits just
outside the cut. This is a weekly snap-
shot. And what do we know, anyway?
***See the previous note, but it’s OK to
be slightly concerned or very angry. But
what do we know, anyway?
****No note necessary.Jordan Howden, left, celebrates with Antoine Winfield Jr. after intercepting a
pass to clinch Minnesota’s win against Penn State.JESSE JOHNSON/USA TODAY SPORTSSchroeder
Continued from Page 1C
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Last Monday,
with Alabama week finally here, hype
about to skyrocket, hope abounding in
and around his program, LSU coach Ed
Orgeron’s message before practice was
simple yet emphatic.
“We’re the better football team,” he
told the Tigers.
There was evidence to back the
claim: A newly powerful offense steam-
rolling opponents, several impressive
wins against good teams. But given re-
cent history – when Alabama’s domi-
nance of the SEC was punctuated, each
and every year, by another win against
the Tigers – it also sounded, well, hope-
ful.
But Orgeron insisted: “We’re better” –
and it turns out they are.
While the magnitude of LSU’s 46-
victory in a shootout won’t be clear for a
while yet, it’s clear Coach O was correct.
The victory, snapping an eight-game
losing streak to the Crimson Tide, was
not a fluke.
Finally, the Tigers are better than
’Bama.
“I think we all knew it,” said LSU
quarterback Joe Burrow, the unques-
tioned catalyst, whose masterful per-
formance sealed status as the prohib-
itive favorite to win the Heisman Tro-
phy.
And now, we all know it. The Tigers
will likely move into the No. 1 spot in all
the polls.
“This is the year. We all knew, this is
the year,” said middle linebacker Patrick
Queen, whose interception of Tua Tago-
vailoa late in the second quarter set up a
lightning-quick touchdown that sent
the Tigers into halftime with a 20-point
lead.
Burrow, who threw for 393 yards and
three touchdowns and engineered two
fourth-quarter touchdown drives to
hold off Alabama’s comeback, tried to
tamp things down, at least a bit.
“This was such a great night for us,”
he said. “One thing I want to make sure
that we know is this wasn’t our goal this
year. We didn’t go into this season say-
ing, ‘We’re gonna go beat ’Bama.’ We’ve
got more things ahead of us.”
True enough. But it takes beating
’Bama. And as the Tide have dominated
the SEC (and at least until Clemson’s ar-
rival, all of college football), there might
not have been a program that actually
wanted to beat ’Bama more than LSU –
or a coach more than Orgeron.
Two years earlier, sitting in the same
cramped room beneath the south end
zone at Bryant-Denny Stadium, Orge-
ron was defiant after a 24-10 loss. “We
coming!” he insisted to reporters after
LSU’s seventh consecutive loss to the
Tide. But it was hard to see coming. Last
year, there was plenty of hype before
LSU hosted Alabama in Baton Rouge –
and then ’Bama won 29-0.
The rest of the story is well known by
now. During the offseason, Orgeron
hired Joe Brady from the New Orleans
Saints; Brady and veteran offensive co-
ordinator Steve Ensminger revamped
the offense. And finally, with Burrow
and a fleet of talented receivers, the Ti-
gers’ long stagnant offense began to roll
over opponents – including, as it turned
out, Alabama.
After scoring two touchdowns in the
final 26 seconds of the first half, LSU led
33-13 at halftime. Alabama came back,
Najee Harris running (19 carries, 146
yards) and Tagovailoa passing (
yards, four touchdowns, one intercep-
tion) the Tide right back into it. But Bur-
row came up with two 75-yard touch-
down drives in the fourth quarter to
clinch it.
The Tigers finished with 559 yards;
Alabama had 541. The combined pro-
duction – trading touchdown after
touchdown after touchdown – looked
like nothing so much as a Big 12 shoot-
out, the kind that regularly draws mock-
ery from, well, SEC fans. But it’s the newreality for the SEC’s best programs. Both
defenses are decent; neither is domi-
nant – but their offenses are.
“We knew they were gonna come
back,” Burrow said. “That’s Alabama on
the other side. A dynasty. We knew we
were gonna get their best shot in the
second half, and they came out firing. I
loved how we responded, though.”
No one is going to proclaim the dy-
nasty dead. We’ve all seen what hap-
pens when anyone suggests that. But
Alabama coach Nick Saban said after-
ward, “We don’t fully have control of our
own destiny,” and he is correct.
The SEC West is almost certainly out
of reach for the Crimson Tide; LSU
would have to lose twice against a re-
maining schedule of Mississippi, Ar-
kansas and Texas A&M. And of course,
the bigger goal is the Playoff. Bama has
been in all five years of the system. But
first it has to win out, which although
probable is no sure thing.
And then, it almost certainly needs
help. At 11-1, the Tide’s resume would not
stack up against a 12-1 conference
champion.
“If we finish the season the right
way,” Nick Saban said, “we can see
where it takes us. We’ve been in this sit-
uation before.”
LSU has not been in this situation.
But let’s see where it takes them.The difference between now and, say,
2015 when Mississippi beat Alabama –
which was Alabama’s last home loss,
and also the last time anyone seriously
contemplated the end of Alabama’s
dominance of the SEC – is that it’s LSU,
the SEC West program that most closely
resembles Alabama in resources and
recruiting. For years, even as Saban
evolved to play fastball football, we
watched LSU’s offense stuck in the
swamp and wondered: What if?
It eventually cost Les Miles his job.
Although Orgeron promised to open
things up, it took until this season. But
as he settled into his seat on the airplane
Friday, he told Ensminger:
“We’ve finally got the tools we need,”
Orgeron said.
To beat Alabama, yes. And maybe to
do so much more.
“This won’t be the last,” Orgeron said.
“We’re coming. We’re coming. This
won’t be the last time. We’re there.
We’re gonna continue to rise. We’re gon-
na continue to make progress in this
program to bring a championship back
to Louisiana. ... This isn’t the first time
we’re gonna beat ’em, I promise you
that.”
Actually, it was the first time. But the
coach’s meaning was clear. It did not
feel like the last time they’re gonna beat
’em.LSU’s win marks changing of SEC tide
George Schroeder
Columnist
USA TODAYLSU quarterback Joe Burrow (9) and coach Ed Orgeron celebrate with teammates after defeating Alabama at
Bryant-Denny Stadium.BUTCH DILL/USA TODAY SPORTS