LSU RB Spencer Ware (photo by Steve Franz/LSU)
RB Spencer Ware (#11) – a Second Team All SEC selection and Cincinnati native – and the No. 1 LSU Tigers head to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans tonight for an epic clash with the No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide. Kickoff is slated for 8:30 p.m. on ESPN!
Allstate BCS National Championship Game
#2 Alabama Crimson Tide
vs. #1 LSU Tigers
When: Monday, January 9, 2012, 8:30 p.m.
Where: New Orleans
TV: ESPN
Series: Crimson Tide leads 45-25-5
Last Meeting: Nov. 5, Tigers won 9-6 (OT) in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Line: Alabama -2.5
Let’s Do It All Over Again!
Put aside your hatred for the SEC. Forget the fact that 15 – yes, just 15 – points were scored during the first meeting between Alabama and LSU this year.
And instead turn your attention to logic: The BCS got it right. Again.
And placed the nation’s two best teams in the Allstate BCS National Championship Game – a bowl synonymous with the SEC. The Sugar Bowl. How fitting for an epic matchup of SEC powers. But at least the SEC will lose its first ever BCS National Championship Game this year!
So while you chew on all that food for thought, add this to your list of brain cuisine to consume leading up to this Ali vs. Frazier of a college football championship: two of this year’s five Heisman Trophy finalists will play in this game.
The nation’s No. 1 total defense in Alabama (191 yards per game) will squeeze LSU’s offense the way LSU’s No. 2 total defense (252 yards per game) will again throttle Bama’s offense.
That, and do recall, Bama also has the nation’s top scoring defense (eight points a game) while LSU’s is second, again, at 10 points per game.
If all that wasn’t already enough to get your noggin spinning about how incredible this title bout will be, well here’s some marinate for your New Orleans fried shrimp: Current Crimson Tide Coach Nick Saban is as hated in the state of Louisiana as LeBron James is in our own state of Ohio. With that said, at least Saban took LSU to the Promised Land before he took his talents to South Beach!
All Cajun screams for Saban’s head aside, this could very well be the best BCS championship we’ve been treated to since 2005’s, when Texas with Vince Young behind center put on a show with Reggie Bush and USC. With the Longhorns ultimately winning in dramatic fashion, 41-38, in the Rose Bowl.
This title game will also be a nail biter. But with, as noted, much more biting defenses.
For LSU’s defense, it all starts with one of the aforementioned Heisman finalists in “Honey Badger.”
A big, bad defense like LSU’s typically isn’t associated with “honey.” But all-everything CB Tyrann Mathieu, nicknamed Honey Badger for his tenacity in defending players much larger this his 5-8, 175-pound frame, is the main reason why LSU is 13-0 and will be 14-0. Mathieu has not made the most big plays in college football this year. But he’s perfected the art of making the biggest plays at the most opportune times. Mathieu will either come up with a huge interception or a gigantic punt return at the most critical juncture against Bama. One hundred percent. Guaranteed.
Of course, Honey Badger doesn’t do it all alone for LSU. He in fact gets a ton of help from fellow CB Morris Claiborne, who was somehow the lone Tiger named First Team All American. All Claiborne has done is pick off six passes this year and stifle every wideout who’s come his way.
Trying to steamroll Claiborne and Honey Badger is the most chiseled running back in college football. The Adonis we’re talking about is Bama RB Trent Richardson – who finished ahead of Honey Badger in the Heisman Trophy balloting.
If Bama is to win, it’ll need Richardson to put forth his best career effort. It could very well take 250 rushing yards from Richardson for the Tide to turn the tide against LSU and all of its play makers.
And in mentioning that, that’s exactly where the 2012 Allstate BCS National Championship Game will be settled. Between the playmakers. Or at least the team with more of ‘em.
That team, with Cincinnati’s own RB Spencer Ware. And speedy WR Rueben Randle. Along with First Team All SEC DE Sam Montgomery – is the No. 1 LSU Tigers.
Who will again be No. 1 when the fat lady has done and sang her lungs out.
The SEC wins a sixth consecutive BCS National Championship. And we all just need to swallow our Big Ten Pepto-Bismol. Sit back. And digest what will be the best college football game for generations to come.
PREDICTION: LSU 20-17 (OT)
MUST KNOW INFO
This year’s BCS title game is the first to pit two teams from the same conference as well as two teams that have already played during the regular season. For the first time in three years, the Heisman Trophy winner will not play in the BCS Championship Game.
Alabama RB Trent Richardson (photo courtesy of Alabama Media Relations)
BOWL BUSTER
Alabama junior RB Trent Richardson this year became the first player from Alabama to win the Doak Walker Award – which is given to the nations’ top running back. He’s rushed for 1,583 yards and 20 TDs so far in 2011.
LSU CB Tyrann Mathieu (photo by Steve Franz/LSU)
BOWL BUSTER
LSU sophomore CB Tyrann Mathieu was awarded the Chuck Bednarik Award for being college football’s best defensive player. He is the second straight LSU player to win the award – following CB Patrick Peterson.
