http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf?/base/sports/1082894105276180.xm lReal hot time awaits OSU in Death Valley Sunday, April 25, 2004 BATON ROUGE, La. I am in Death Valley. There is a football game going on. I am watching a Purple team and a White team take turns suffocating each other. And, right now, I am worried about Oregon State. I am a spy. I infiltrated the Lousiana State University spring football game, slipping past 20,000 rabid fans and taking a seat near the 50-yard line inside Tiger Stadium on Saturday. I wish I could say that the Beavers have a good chance of flattening the defending national champions when the regular season opens here on Sept. 4. But I can't. I can say this, though: They are huge. They are sweaty. They are already fired up for Oregon State. Well, enough about the Tigers' fans. Let's talk about LSU's football team. White beat Purple 22-3 in the spring game. The Tigers' defense, led by three returning starters in the secondary, appears to be as strangulating in 2004 as it was last year when it limited opponents to 11 points per game. And on offense, LSU has three frightening playmakers -- running back Justin Vincent, receiver Skylar Green and part-time receiver/cornerback Corey Webster. And Nick Saban might be the best football coach in the country. Other than that, the Tigers pretty much stink. Maybe Virginia Tech knew what it was doing in the middle of last season when it turned coward, tucked tail and backed out of its commitment to open the season as the Tigers' goal-post pinata. LSU's roster is loaded, again. And Saban is 25-3 at Tiger Stadium. This is a matchup better suited for the Seahawks. Now, you can't very well blame Beavers coach Mike Riley for dropping Temple to play LSU on national television. It was a no-brainer. This is the sort of exposure a growing program needs. The game is a risk Dennis Erickson wouldn't have accepted. So this one is Riley's baby all the way. I like that Riley is willing to stick his nose into a heavyweight fight. I just hope he can find his nose for Week Two. Which means Riley should be campaigning right now for this game against LSU to end up as a day game. It might be his only chance, as it turns out. In the state of Oregon, you might have noticed that people walk around talking about how wonderful the summers are. In Baton Rouge, they walk around saying things like, "If the snakes don't git ya', the night will." T here is apparently something about the electricity of having 92,000 screaming fans in one hot, sticky, smothering place without anything else meaningful going on anywhere in the state. This is big-time football in the house that Governor Huey Long built. Also, there is this. "I think Cajuns take longer to git' drunk," former LSU quarterback Matt Mauck declared. What Mauck means is that a long day of tailgating just puts Tigers fans in the mood for a good, old-fashioned, back-alley whipping. More so than a morning of tailgating, apparently. Which I find difficult to believe, because, in broad daylight on Saturday, I witnessed three Tigers fans who painted their entire bodies yellow and purple. Hair, too. And this took place in the stands during an intrasquad scrimmage -- a scrimmage, for crying out loud -- which happened to be televised statewide. Also, the Golden Band from Tigerland kept playing, even as the stadium emptied. And people stuck around to listen. "You don't understand," LSU student, Tony Autin said. "This was nothing. For a Saturday night game, they'll get here on Wednesday afternoon and park their RVs and start getting ready." I am a spy. I am sitting in Death Valley. September never felt closer. John Canzano: 503-294-5065; [email protected]
...Great Post... They are already afraid of Death Valley and the returning National Champions :champs: :geaux: :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin:
That's ok, I havent read it until now. I enjoyed it except for the snakes garbage. With writers like this its no wonder everyone thinks we are swamp mongrels.
