By Chris Macaluso
LSUsports.net
(9/9/00)
The 1999 LSU Football season was filled with doubts and questions long before the first kick-off.
Who would be the quarterback now that three-year starter Herb Tyler was gone? Would the Tigers be able to score points after losing All-American running back Kevin Faulk? Would the Tigers be able to turn around what had been a disappointing 1998 season in which they posted a 4-7 record?
One thing the Tigers never prepared for, however, was a 20-7 loss to the University of Houston in a game in which LSU was completely manhandled by the Cougars.
“We were completely embarrassed last year,” LSU offensive tackle Louis Williams said. “They (Houston) came in here with a good football team and just took it to us.”
Both head coaches from last season’s two teams, LSU’s Gerry DiNardo and Houston’s Kim Helton are gone, replaced by new coaches saddled with the expectations of taking their teams to a higher level.
Dana Dimel has the task of bringing back to life a Houston offense that was once one of the best in the nation.
Nick Saban has the responsibility of making sure what happened to the Tigers last season doesn’t happen again.
But the players on the LSU side of the field say the responsibility of making sure they’re walking off the field this year as winners is theirs alone.
“We want to come out and prove to everyone that we are an improved team from a year ago,” said LSU senior cornerback Fred Booker. “They came in last year and pretty much had their way with us.”
Last year’s LSU loss came in the midst of a seven game losing streak all to Southeastern Conference opponents. Just a week earlier the Tigers suffered a heartbreaking 23-17 defeat at the hands of rival Alabama. A win over Houston could have saved the Tigers from further disappointment. A loss to Houston meant a new school record for consecutive defeats.
But it looked like the ’99 Tigers would never set that record, at least for the first 10 minutes of the game. Tiger senior tailback Rondell Mealey put LSU ahead early with a 34-yard touchdown run with 11:11 left in the first
quarter.
Houston made up the 7-0 LSU lead before the quarter ended on a 24-yard touchdown pass by quarterback Jason McKinley to tight end Scott Regimbald. The Cougars scored 10 points in the second quarter and three more in the third, all while knocking the LSU offense off the ball and out of the end zone.
McKinley and Regimbald return to Baton Rouge this year in their same positions for the Cougars, but LSU defensive end Jarvis Green said he promises they will see a different Tiger squad.
“When we work out, when we practice, we talk about how hard we want to come out and show everyone we came to play,” Green said. “The younger guys don’t necessarily understand what’s going on, but they want to go out and play just as hard as us. We need to push each other just to get a win every time we go out there.”
How hard the Tigers will have to push each other is a question that may be best answered by the 1996 LSU team that was heavily favored to beat Houston in its season opener, but needed a record-setting offensive performance by Kevin Faulk to walk away with a 35-34 win.
For that reason, Tiger sophomore linebacker Treverance Faulk said this next game in the series has less to do with revenge for last year’s loss and more to do with playing a talented, well-prepared football team.
“I wouldn’t say that there is a big revenge factor, not in my mind anyway,” he said. “I just look at them as another opponent that needs to be respected as equally as we would anyone else.”
Williams said avenging last year’s loss is just a small part of what this game means to the 2000 LSU team and it hasn’t been a distraction.
“We’ve all been in the situation of having to play against a team that beat us the year before,” Williams said. “We know how to approach a game and get ready for a game.”
And if the Tigers are ready and prepared for tonight’s battle, they can find themselves at 2-0 for the fifth consecutive year.
The Tigers need to build upon a solid opener last weekend rather than use revenge as their primary motive. While the pessimist will look at last weekend’s victory as simply a drubbing of an inferior I-AA opponent, the positives were far too many to discount. A school record 485 yards passing, 680 yards of total offense — no turnovers.
The Tigers will need to continue to build their foundation bit-by-bit and last weekend’s game was a nice start. The subplot of tonight’s game will be less about revenge and more about progress.
Productive and successful seasons are built one game at a time. Tonight’s game is just another stepping stone towards having a successful year and building a successful program.
“What happened in the past will have no effect on the outcome of this game,” said Saban. “Unless we allow it to.”