LSU vs Wisconsin, First Game, NRG Stadium

Discussion in 'The Tiger's Den' started by LSUDad, Jul 17, 2014.

  1. LSUDad

    LSUDad Veteran Member

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    Les talking on the game...


     
  2. COTiger

    COTiger 2010 Bowl Pick 'Em Champ

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    Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman & Todd McShay will call the game for ESPN.
     
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  3. LSUDad

    LSUDad Veteran Member

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    Chris Spielman and Eric Andolsek, during the cointoss before the game(Between LSU and Ohio St.),Spielmen felt like Eric was staring him down. Pushing and words went on at the toss and during this game. Both ended up on the roster of the Detroit Lions. As fate would have it, Spielman would end up delivering his best friend's eulogy. At the age of 25, Eric was lost in a freak accident. Eric helped pave the way for Barry Sanders, playing some as a rookie, then starting his second year. In his final season, the Lions made it to the NFC Championship game, this would be his last game.

    The rest of the story? While up in Dallas a few year ago, I got to eat lunch with a football coach named Burt Hill, Burt was up in Detroit when Eric was there. We talked about how Eric could have finished with the Lions, a big loss to that team. RIP Eric

    A good write-up....

    Spielman found common bond with foe-turned-friend from bayou -
    NEW ORLEANS -- The scuffle's outcome was as 50-50 as the coin flip. Either Chris Spielman was going to land on his head or the jughead across from him was going to fall on his tail.

    Spielman didn't give ground. Neither did Eric Andolsek, the hulking Louisiana State offensive lineman who stood across from the Ohio State linebacker, waiting for the coin toss on that blue-skied Sept-ember day in the bayou.

    The year was 1987 and the Buckeyes were making their first trip to LSU's Tiger Stadium. As kickoff approached, Spielman met at midfield with the referee and team captains, including Andolsek, who stared a hole through him.

    "Eric is looking all mean and nasty and trying to intimidate us at the toss," Spielman said last week. "The next thing I know we're interlocked and I'm thinking, 'Man, the strongest human being in the world has ahold of me. It's going to be a battle.' "

    Officials separated the two players before fists broke free, but not before Andolsek had connected with a forearm shiver. The 270-pound senior undoubtedly shoved Spielman a few more times during a game that ended in a 13-13 tie when LSU blocked a last-second field goal attempt.

    "I don't remember shaking hands with anybody after the game. I was probably pouting and storming off the field -- as I always did," Spielman said, chuckling over the memory of an emotional young man whose world view was constructed on putting people down, on the ground. Nothing mattered beyond the "me," so hating the other team made perfect sense.

    Many of us aren't any more mature than that when channeling college football. Our players are the good guys. The opponent is evil. Nasty attitudes escalate even further when the opponent comes from some far-off land, like Louisiana, and when the face of that enemy is some good old boy who talks funny. And when a national championship is on the line, as it will be Monday night in the Superdome.

    Fortunately, enlightened awareness is possible. We're the same more than we're different. Football doesn't have to divide. It can unite. The Spielman-Andolsek story proves it. What began as an ugly fracas between a Wheat-ies cover boy from Massillon and a crawfish catcher from the delta town of Thibodaux, La., bloomed into a deep bond built on mutual respect. It ended with Spielman delivering his best friend's eulogy.

    Some background. Except for cultural differences, Spielman and Andolsek were the same person. They just didn't know it until about seven months after the confrontation at the coin toss.

    Both were addicted to working out, even lifting weights together on each of their wedding days. Both preferred simple living. Both married their high school sweethearts. Both put a premium on family.

    "Two guys with the same mind-set who came from different worlds but had everything in common," Spielman said.

    Spielman wasn't yet thinking that way when Andolsek entered the bus for Detroit Lions rookies in the spring of 1988. The Lions had drafted Spielman in the second round and the LSU lineman in the fifth.

    "We're at minicamp and Eric is one of the last ones to get on the bus, and I'm sitting alone," Spielman said. "Here he comes and I'm expecting to see this grumpy, smelly lineman. All the sudden he's got the best smile on his face and says, 'Hi Chris, how you doin'?' "

    No staredown. No forearm shiver. No enemy. The teammates became roommates and eventually visited each other's hometowns, trips that wiped clean the stain of stereotyped ignorance associated with the "other" side.

    "A meat-eating potato guy becomes best friends with a guy who eats crawfish and crabs for breakfast? How does that happen?" said Andolsek's older brother, Andy, pausing before answering his own question. "Because football was at the core."

    Only one football decoration hangs in Spielman's weight room at home. A framed No. 65 jersey once worn by Andolsek, a reminder of how love and respect for the game help cast aside the cultural differences.

    In a perfect world, the jersey would not be there. But on June 23, 1992, Andolsek was cutting grass near the road that runs past his rural home in Thibodaux when a driver lost control of his flatbed truck and hit the player, sending him almost 400 feet into his sister's yard. The 25-year-old never saw it coming, but his life helped a former Buckeye see beyond the weight room walls.

    "He opened my eyes to a lot of things," Spielman said. "I'll never forget him."
     
  4. red55

    red55 curmudgeon Staff Member

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    Anybody know what officiating crew will work the game?
     
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  5. COTiger

    COTiger 2010 Bowl Pick 'Em Champ

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    Good question. Since the game is at a neutral site, I wonder if it will be a non SEC/Big 10 officiating crew?
     
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  6. TwistedTiger

    TwistedTiger Founding Member

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    Great read Dad, thanks for sharing. Don't know Red but SEC refs are the world's worst so let's hope the Big 10 or someone else sends a crew.
     
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  7. northernvatiger

    northernvatiger Founding Member

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    Great story, thanks for sharing.
     
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  8. islstl

    islstl Playoff committee is a group of great football men Staff Member

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    Talk about some back to the basics run, control the clock and a play great defense kind of game.

    I predict over twice as many rush yards as pass yards from both teams combined.
     
  9. islstl

    islstl Playoff committee is a group of great football men Staff Member

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    Les Miles' perfect OOC record at LSU is on the line of course.

    I fully expect this streak to continue.
     
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  10. Bengal B

    Bengal B Founding Member

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    With both teams relying on the run and eating up the clock the game could be over in two hours
     
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