How Texas tried to gain psychological advantage over LSU football in 2019

LSU football got off to a 2-0 start in 2019 after a big road win against the Texas Longhorns.

LSU football proved early in the 2019 season they were worthy of a pre-season top 10 ranking.

After opening the season with a 55-3 win against Georgia Southern in Baton Rouge, the Tigers headed to Austin, TX to take on the Texas Longhorns in a much anticipated early season showdown.

Prior to the matchup, the Longhorns did everything they could to gain a psychological advantage over LSU.

Tigers strength and conditioning coach Tommy Moffitt recently told WAFB’s Jacques Doucet an interesting story about the route LSU had to take to walk into the stadium.

According to Moffitt, the Tigers were dropped off at curb and forced to walk through a sea of Texas fans that were literally inches away from LSU’s players and coaches.

Here’s Moffitt telling the story to Doucet.

This isn’t typically how things work at college football stadiums. I’m not sure if this is normal operating procedure for Texas, but I know it’s not at several SEC schools.

For example, at Tennessee, opposing teams are dropped off just outside the stadium, away from the orange clad fans that fill the streets prior to kickoff.

Of course, this “psychological advantage” for Texas turned out to not be an advantage at all. LSU left Austin with a 45-38 win.

It’s not really a surprise that LSU wasn’t phased, though. Ed Orgeron’s 2019 squad was not only physically tough, they were mentally tough, too. If anything, quarterback Joe Burrow probably thrived off the opposing crowd.

The 2019 Tigers were incredibly special. And not even Texas’ attempt at psyching out LSU could prove effective against one of the best offenses we’ve ever seen in college football.