The smell of my victory cigar lingered Sunday morning as I turned back the clocks. All alone, I watched LSU overcome Alabama 9-6 in a game that reminded me of the brutal defensive fist-fights of my childhood, when Charley McClendon coached the Tigers. Some called the game a classic, but I'm not so sure. To me, the game had a ragged quality, with both teams apparently hampered by all of the hype that preceded it. Whether classic or not, the LSU win was sweet, and I drank red wine and lit up the cigar that I'd bought in Apalachicola on a trip to the beach. As LSU's longtime radio announcer, the sometimes verbally challenged Jim Hawthorne, said, "there's no doubt LSU is No. 1 in the land."
Watching the game, I thought of my long-dead father, who deeply hated Alabama and Bear Bryant, who beat LSU year after year, always receiving the benefit of questionable referees' calls. Over the last 20 years or so, LSU has joined Alabama at the top of the national football world, and played the Crimson Tide on a pretty much equal basis. In my father's day, LSU played Alabama in Birmingham's Legion Field, where such stars as Joe Namath, Kenny Stabler and Leroy Jordan would take the measure of ol Cholly Mac's teams. Back then, Southern teams were all-white, until the Bear himself saw that he could not compete nationally unless he recruited black players. It took Charlie Mac years to see the same lessson, leading to a decline in LSU football that continued until long after my father's death. Now, the big game was played in Tuscaloosa, and both teams had immense numbers of NFL-quality black players.
Unlike many Tiger fans, I still like Bama coach Nick Saban, who banished all of the ghosts that had haunted and crippled LSU football for years and took LSU to national football prominence, where they've remained under Les Miles. Saban receives adulation from the national media, but he's just as flawed a coach as anyone else, as shown in his team's puzzling struggle with substitutions in overtime, giving LSU a surprisingly easy victory. if Miles had botched the overtime as much, he'd be ridiculed endlessly. I'm sure Saban still will be considered an invincible genius.
As for Miles, I'm often amused by his verbal tics and goofy peronality. Yet, the man can coach. He has grown each year professionally, and is a fine representative of the university. He helps his players graduate, and treats them with respect, while Saban is known for abusing his.
On this bright Sunday, I think about my father, who never lived to see his grandchildren or LSU return to football prominence. If you can hear me Daddy, there's no doubt today that LSU is No. 1 in all the land.
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