Epic Showdown

Baton Rouge- The big game starts off early tomorrow morning with the ESPN College Gamday show starting at 8am CT live from the LSU Parade Grounds with host Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, as well as former collegiate athletes Desmond Howard and David Pollack. This is the first time since the 2009 season that Baton Rouge has had Gameday on campus.

But besides all the lights and glitter that surround this annual matchup there will be a brutal battle taking place tomorrow night in Death Valley between the #1 Alabama Crimson Tide (8-0, 5-0) and the #5 LSU Tigers (7-1, 3-1). This is not news to most college football fans. This has been the matchup everyone has been looking forward to since January, especially if you’re an LSU fan.

This top 5 matchup will be the “SEC West championship game” for these teams, although as we witnessed last year it doesn’t necessarily rule the teams out for the BCS game if its their only loss, in fact you don’t even need to win the conference championship game to be allowed in.

Now I am not disputing the fact that Alabama was one of the best teams in football last year but I am adamantly saying that they had no business being in that game. Why? Because we had beaten them already and they did not win the conference, they played with nothing to lose and everything to gain and no matter what quarterback LSU put behind center you were not going to beat Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide twice in one year.

Do I think we have a chance this year? Of course we have a chance, any night in Tiger Stadium anything can happen. Nobody has thought LSU could beat Alabama for the past 2 years but we did. And since 2000 LSU has beaten Alabama 9 or the last 13 times and the last loss was the most disappointing, when Alabama ended LSU’s perfect season in the superdome 21-0.

But this year we are the ones with something to prove, we are the ones who have nothing to lose and everything to gain by beating Alabama at home to ruin their perfect season and hopefully this time ruin their chances at a National title defense. I’m not saying I’ll be thrilled for our season if we don’t make it to the BCS game because I’ll be upset, but what can I say I/m a die hard tiger fan. I will however have my head held a little higher knowing that LSU ruined Alabama’s chances if and when we beat them tomorrow night.

If our defense plays the type of football that they are capable of and our offense can score at least 20 points I give LSU a very good chance to upset the #1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide. Now that’s where the problem arises, will the LSU offense show up? We are going to need Jeremy Hill to give us another South Carolina still performance and for our offensive line to protect Mettenberger the way they have been for the past few weeks. If the run game is solid and the pass blocking is solid then Zach will be able to get comfortable in the pocket and deliver accurate throws to the receivers.

The receivers should be playing inspired knowing that they can shut up a lot of the critics due to their dropped passes and lack of explosiveness in one win against Alabama in the eyes of Tiger faithful.

Alabama is not the team they were last year, due to losing a lot of key players to the NFL draft but they are not a team in rebuilding mode. Both of their backs Eddie Lacey and T.J Yeldon have rushed for over 1,000 yards combined and 7 touchdowns apiece. While quarterback A.J McCarron has been almost flawless against opponents this season throwing for 1,684 yards 18 TD’s and 0 int’s.

Alabama has scored more than 30 points a game while allowing no more than 14 a game. But there two hardest test of the year have come week 1 in Dallas against the Michigan Wolverines 41-14 and at home against Mississippi State 38-7. They have played against 0 tough road opponents and have faced 0 tough ranked games. I know your thinking well wait didn’t they just demolish Mississippi State who was ranked and undefeated? Really? Mississippi State? Who thought they were really a good team that could challenge Alabama or LSU? Come on man!!

Needless to say the whole country if not just the entire states of Louisiana and Alabama will be doing nothing more tomorrow night than gathering around a TV or piling into the stadium to watch this epic battle against top ranked opponents to see who is superior in the SEC West.

Game time: 7pm CT at Tiger Stadium on CBS