The LSU Tigers will be spending another Saturday watching
college football instead of playing it.
A season that held so much hope and intrigue for the Tigers,
charged by a new coach and a talented team, has been stuck in
neutral for most of September.
In between two hurricanes, two postponed games and a relocation,
No. 3 LSU has managed to squeeze in one of the most dramatic
victories in school history.
Here it is, just a week away from October, and the Les Miles era
hasn't even gotten to Game Two. Yet the Tigers almost improved to
2-0 without even suiting up.
Nick Saban's replacement will finally coach at Tiger Stadium
when LSU plays No. 10 Tennessee on Monday night, a game originally
scheduled for Saturday that the Volunteers were prepared to forfeit
rather than risk traveling during Hurricane Rita.
"This is another turn in the road for this football team. It's
something that we have gotten used to over the past month," Miles
said Friday. "I think we'll respond very well. The players are
excited about getting the opportunity to open the home season on
Monday night. I expect our fans to pack Tiger Stadium just as if
the game were being played on a Saturday night."
The way things have gone for the Tigers this season, all plans
are tentative.
LSU's season was supposed to start on Sept. 3 in Tiger Stadium
against North Texas.
Hurricane Katrina changed those plans.
The North Texas game was postponed as the Tigers watched their
campus fill with evacuees from storm-ravaged New Orleans.
Championship aspirations were put on hold while players and coaches
fretted over the safety of the family and friends.
With Baton Rouge in no condition to host a game, the Tigers
began the 2005 season with a "home" game in Tempe, Ariz., against
Arizona State. Quarterback JaMarcus Russell led a rousing comeback
and LSU won 35-31.
The Tigers headed into an open date the next week with a 1-0
record and life slowly returning to normal. Football was again
becoming the focus.
But as the Tigers and their loyal followers counted down the
days to Saturday night's game with the Volunteers, another powerful
storm churned off the Gulf Coast and was starting to put Louisiana
in its sights.
Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton contacted the SEC
office earlier this week to talk about the potential for problems
related to the storm. The Vols had planned to fly to Baton Rouge on
Saturday morning because of a lack of available hotel rooms.
When Hurricane Rita's path turned more to the north and east,
Tennessee pushed harder for a change.
Hamilton did not want to put off making a decision until Friday.
Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer endorsed moving the game to the
end of the season.
The SEC checked into making the conference championship game in
Atlanta a week later to accommodate a Tennessee-LSU game, but there
was a scheduling conflict with a convention, Hamilton said.
LSU was OK with playing Sunday, but Tennessee was concerned
weather might still be a problem. Hamilton said Friday Tennessee
was ready to forfeit if the game was not rescheduled for Monday
night.
The final option was to cancel the game.
"With the No. 3 team in the country and the No. 10 team in the
country, we felt like it was an important game that needed to be
played," Hamilton said.
SEC commissioner Mike Slive stepped in, and on Thursday the game
was moved to Monday night.
Hamilton said the Vols were prepared to forfeit "if we felt
like it would be unfair to our student-athletes and not safe for
our student-athletes."
Logistically, playing on Monday is going to be difficult on LSU
and the already overstuffed city.
To put 92,000 people into Tiger Stadium on a work day that's
also a school day could make controlling traffic flow and parking a
monumental task.
"We will now face significant logistical challenges, but we
hope for the continued cooperation of our fans," LSU athletic
director Skip Bertman said. "Naturally our strong preference would
have been to play during the weekend, but safety for
student-athletes, fans and everyone else involved in a football
game was the overriding factor for the commissioner."
Playing on Monday means both teams will have less time to
prepare for next week's games. The Tigers travel to Mississippi
State while Tennessee hosts Mississippi on Oct. 1.
So after all that waiting, the Tigers will now have to rush to
their next game in their strange season.