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ASU unable to duplicate '07 opening win over Michigan
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Published: August 31, 2008
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Louisiana State handed the Appalachian State Mountaineers their lunch long before lunchtime yesterday.
With Hurricane Gustav approaching, the Tigers kicked off at 10:06 a.m. local time and promptly struck the themes of a 41-13 blowout.
On the rare occasions that Appalachian might have revived the spark of its Michigan upset last summer, especially an opening drive that fizzled at the LSU 35, everything fell flat. Coach Jerry Moore shook his head.
"I use this phrase every once in a while -- we're trying to pull a rabbit out of the hat," Moore said. "But it wasn't in there."
The Tigers are no rabbits. The one genuine tiger on the premises, a Siberian-Bengal named Mike VI, rode around the field before the kickoff, cheerleaders standing on top of his parade cage.
Mike VI arrived from his native Indiana as the successor to Mike V, who died in the early phase of LSU's 2007 run to the mythical national championship. Young Mike has gained 100 pounds since his debut, now checking in at 410.
Edwards under constant pressure
He looked only a few ounces heavier than the quick LSU linemen who harassed quarterback Armanti Edwards, twice dislodging his helmet and the nylon net restraining his prolific hair.
"I had to change my buckle," Edwards said. He seldom altered the trajectory of his wildly high passes and hushed any further gossip about a long-shot Heisman Trophy campaign.
Edwards flashed the magician's touch during the first series, but, needing 4 yards, he misfired on consecutive passes to Blake Elder and CoCo Hillary. ASU relinquished the ball.
"When you score on the first possession against LSU, that would make a difference in any kind of ball game," Hillary said. "We did good getting out. We completed a few balls and the offense got the running game going. Then, I guess they woke up. Maybe they came out there a little flat, a little sleepy, but those are some great players, man. They're some guys you just can't sleep on, just like we are."
Tigers ran all over Apps
LSU trampled the guts of the ASU defense, beginning with Charles Scott's 56-yard run on the Tigers' first play and ending with 459 total yards.
Scott gained 160 in just three quarters, averaging 10 a carry and recording the team's highest total in four years. On the final two drives of the first half, he set up one touchdown and ran 29 yards for another as LSU padded the scoreboard disparity to 31-0.
"Being down 31-zip, man, that's going to hurt anybody," Hillary said. "I don't care if you're playing a video game."
At halftime, LSU's massive band shared the grass stage and 92-degree oven with the LSU alumni band, led by a fellow who was introduced as a legend. The evidence? The public-address announcer proudly disclosed that the cameo conductor once served the program as a graduate assistant.... in band. The NCAA scholarship limit on band grad assistants remains a mystery.
Charlie Cobb, the ASU athletics director, missed the music show because he visited the locker room to cool off and hear Moore talk. "The lack of panic in that guy is amazing," Cobb said.
Moore warned the Mountaineers that right after halftime they would catch the finest 10 minutes LSU could offer. ASU responded, winning the third period 7-3 and escaping with some tangible pride. Of course, that wasn't enough to make Moore smile afterward.
"We came here to win the football game," he said. "It wasn't like we came in here just to look good and hope we'd play good."
As ASU flew from Johnson City, Tenn., to Baton Rouge on Friday morning, school officials still didn't know when they might start the game, originally scheduled for 4 p.m. local time (5 p.m. EDT). Gov. Bobby Jindal was concerned that residents driving away from New Orleans and other coastal towns would run into heavy game traffic as they passed through Baton Rouge.
"They told us the governor didn't want to play," Cobb said. LSU officials -- including Athletics Director Joe Alleva, formerly of Duke -- presented 2 p.m. as an alternative. That didn't fly with the governors' folks. "They said play at 10 or don't play," Cobb reported.
So, they kicked off at 10 a.m. ASU players were told to turn the lights out at 10 p.m. Friday. They arose at 5:30 a.m., ate breakfast at 6 and reached the stadium around 8 -- which evidently was too early for LSU fans to honor tradition and hoot at the buses rolling through campus. Moore complimented the security officers and stadium workers.
This was not Michigan
"When we got here this morning at the crack of dawn," Moore said, "they were talking to us and stuff like that. They said: ‘These guys are talking about you because of Michigan.' I told them: ‘Well, if they play like Michigan, we'll beat them.' Maybe I made them mad. I don't know. They didn't play like Michigan."
That much was clear by halftime. LSU sold 91,922 tickets. The Tiger Stadium crowd fell considerably short of that, with empty seats scattered through most rows, and the 31-0 score encouraged customers to leave in droves. Perhaps half stayed around for the third period, and then the student population in one end zone dwindled to a smattering of bodies occupying lots of aluminum seats. It looked like a Duke football crowd, so Alleva probably felt right at home.
The Mountaineers didn't. Three hours later, they loaded up the buses and headed to the airport, glad to put Mike VI and all those nasty tigers behind them, not to mention a hurricane.
■ Lenox Rawlings can be reached at lrawlings@wsjournal.com.
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