The big easy: in a BCS title game left for dead by many poll voters, LSU's devastating defense tore apart high-scoring Oklahoma

Sporting News, The, Jan 12, 2004 by Matt Hayes

Yeah, well it doesn't feel insignificant. So the media say one thing, the coaches say another, and polls, bowls and imperfectly attained goals are twisted up so tight, you need silicon (the obvious computer reference) to separate them. The game, steeped in tradition, begins as a jumbled joke on this joyous Louisiana night. Like any of that matters to the boys from the Bayou.

Been 45 years since they last partied like this in Cajun country, since LSU football meant something other than an opportunity to get oiled on Saturday night. Think these guys care what some fish-wrap writer in Wyoming thinks about the national championship? After the Tigers' 21-14 victory over Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl, it'll be decadence and debauchery in the Big Easy through Mardi Gras. Excuse me, ladies? Those tops usually come off in the French Quarter, not the fourth quarter. There's more than one way to draw attention to your, uh, team.

Here are a couple that matter: the nation's best defense and a coach that just about every team on the planet--college or NFL--wants because of the way he has built this burgeoning monster of a program and secured its first national title since 1958. Might make that fella in Wyoming think twice about that championship poll vote.

"It doesn't matter what anyone thinks," says LSU coach Nick Saban. "It matters what happens on the field. We followed the system."

No matter how flawed it is. The wild ride began earlier in the day with Mike Tranghese, the Big East commissioner and Bowl Championship Series coordinator--how's that for an oxymoron?--going off the deep end on the convoluted system at a morning press conference. "Get rid of the computers," Tranghese said. "I hate those things."

His meltdown essentially explained where the Big East stands in the next round of BCS negotiations (here's a hint: It's out) and summed up a week of indifference and Rose Bowl envy.

While Southern California was dusting off Michigan three days earlier and making coaches do a double take about their agreement to make the BCS champion automatically their national champion, Oklahoma and LSU were thumping their chests and asking, "Why not us?" But the country was fascinated with USC's thrill-a-minute offense and a bowl win over Michigan that apparently left no doubt about the national champion. Well, Oklahoma had a pretty good offense, too. Scored 50 or more points seven times this season and had a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback who had made defenses look silly all season.

Then OU lined up in the Sugar Bowl. And that offense--the same one that a month ago had every pundit with a pulpit claiming the Sooners might be the best team ever--had 79 yards after the third quarter. Both of tailback Kejuan Jones' short touchdown runs were set up after LSU turnovers gave the Sooners good field position, once at the Tigers' 3 and once at the 31. So that final score is a little deceptive, although not quite as deceiving as LSU's "jailbreak" defense, which harassed and bottled up the OU offense all night with stunts and twists on the line and bizarre blitz packages from linebackers and safeties.

The plan was predicated on pressure: Force OU quarterback Jason White into hurried throws, affecting his accuracy. When White can set his feet and square his shoulders, he rarely misses. So LSU brought blitz packages from everywhere on the field, pressuring White into his worst game of the season. Most teams have about 10 blitzes and a handful of coverages. LSU has nine coverage packages and more than 50 blitzes, a majority of which Saban gleaned from his days as an NFL assistant under Bill Belichick. "You should've seen how confused we were a few years ago when we first saw it," says cornerback Randall Gay.

Confused? The OU offense looked like newbies walking down Bourbon Street with eyes wide open. The line couldn't protect White, and the receivers couldn't get off the line of scrimmage against tight man-to-man coverage from Corey Webster, Travis Daniels and Gay. The Tigers noticed from film study that White tends to drop to a three-quarters throwing motion when he moves in the pocket, and any lineman or anyone blitzing from the back seven came in with arms up when White released the ball. That contributed to four passes being knocked down and White's normally clear throwing lanes getting clogged.

The plan was close to perfect. Those 14 points OU scored managed only to keep the game close when it really shouldn't have been. Even when it got interesting, when OU had two chances to tie and potentially extend it into overtime, the LSU defense took the glimmer of hope away. The blitz forced White to overthrow Jones, who was wide open in the end zone with fewer than four minutes to play, and forced a poor throw in the end zone on fourth down that was tipped, though Mark Clayton almost caught the hall as it fell.

A series later, White threw three straight incompletions, and the last offensive play of the game ended, fittingly, when linebacker Lionel Turner used a delayed middle blitz to foil the blocking scheme. He came unblocked and barreled over White before he could get rid of the ball. When it was all over, when White had been pressured more than 20 times, sacked five times and knocked down, battered and bruised, the numbers told the story. He completed just 13 of 37 passes--missing his last eight--for 102 yards and two interceptions. The Sooners, who averaged 461 yards the first 13 games of the season, finished with 154 total yards.