HOW TIGER STADIUM BECAME ONE OF THE MOST LEGENDARY VENUES IN AMERICAN SPORTS
100 YEARS IN DEATH VALLEY
Acknowledgements
First of all, the greatest thanks go to my wife Michell, who has put up with my crazy schedule and demanding hours for 35 years, though no more so than in 2024 in the process of finishing this book. Similar thanks go to my children, Dr. Megan Rabalais Nuss, Nicholas Rabalais and Katherine Rabalais, who have spent their whole lives knowing nothing but fall Saturdays when dad is covering a game. Next, to another great lady, Judy Jumonville. Though she’s now retired as The Advocate’s librarian, she agreed to help me every time I needed something researched. This book would literally not exist without her.
Thank you to our staff at The Advocate, starting with former Executive Sports Editor Perryn Keys and Deputy Sports Editors Jason Yates and Zach Ewing, as well as LSU beat staff of Wilson Alexander, Sheldon Mickles, Koki Riley and Reed Darcey. When I needed editing, advice or just taking something off my plate, you were all there for me during the writing process.
More than my words, I wanted this book to be about photos that showed the sweeping history of Tiger Stadium, its great moments, great players and memorable traditions. I urge the reader to take the time to read the names of the many Advocate and Times-Picayune photographers whose fine work graces these
pages, especially current staffers Hilary Scheinuk and Michael Johnson.
I also needed the cooperation of the folks in the LSU athletic department, starting with Sports Information Director Michael Bonnette and LSU General Content Manager Todd Politz. A huge help with photos was Jason Feirman, executive director of creative design and photography for LSU’s South Stadium Productions, and Photography Director Chris Parent. There was never a time they said no or that something couldn’t be done, and as with my past books on LSU football, I am grateful.
Special recognition goes to the late Rick Shinabery, who years ago entrusted me with his vast collection of LSU photographs from the 1970s and ’80s. Dumped them on me might be a more accurate phrase, but those pictures filled in some crucial gaps in the coverage of this book and included some of my personal favorites.
A tip of the golf cap to Barry Cowan with LSU’s Hill Memorial Library and Melissa Eastin with the East Baton Rouge Parish Library for their assistance. Barry helped with research into LSU’s old downtown campus and the current LSU campus that never took shape anywhere other than in drawings and plans. And Melissa helped me dip into the vast treasure trove of Advocate file photos that
the EBR Library now so capably maintains. Thanks also to Dan Borne, Tiger Stadium’s longest-serving public address announcer, for helping me with research on LSU’s previous PA and radio announcers and SEC Associate Commissioner Herb Vincent for as always being a dependable sounding board.
I would be remiss without thanking four more people. My mother Kathy, who has always been my biggest fan throughout my career. My late father Ed, a much better athlete than I ever was, who instilled in me an inquisitive nature and a slightly jaundiced eye toward authority that has served me well through my career. My brother Jeff, who would probably have made a better sportswriter than me. And my mother’s cousin, Allen Carrier, who took me to many LSU football games that gave birth to so many great memories, even though we almost always left early to beat the traffic. Finally, my thanks to you, Tiger fans everywhere. As current LSU coach Brian Kelly says in this book, in the end a stadium is just a building. It’s the people who fill it and the passion they bring that makes the difference. You’re what has made Tiger Stadium and LSU football so unique for 100 years, and hopefully what will continue to make it special in the next century to come.
OPPOSITE: Defensive end BJ Ojulari is surrounded by fans after LSU’s dramatic 32–31 overtime victory over Alabama on Nov. 5, 2022. MICHAEL JOHNSON / THE ADVOCATE
Introduction
My earliest memory of Tiger Stadium? Rain.
I know. It never rains in Tiger Stadium. But I remember the first LSU game my parents took me to in the early 1970s and it came down in buckets. We had to take shelter under the stands in the old south end zone upper deck of what is now the lower bowl, as the rain falling through the glare of those huge floodlights took on a luster my young eyes had never seen. Then we went back out to our seats along the railing where I brushed the drops of water from the cold metal.
I couldn’t comprehend what a special place Tiger Stadium was then — I was probably 5 or 6 — but I soon found out. My mother’s cousin had season tickets near the goal line in the north end zone and he used to take me to games year after year in the 1970s and ’80s. The stadium, though smaller than it is now by
about 25,000 seats and a few decks, seemed enormous. The grass was so amazingly green, painted as it was then a darker shade every five yards. The players looked like they were the size of vending machines.
But even they didn’t make the biggest impression on me. I remember back then that there was a man who would come to the games on a hospital gurney parked in the groundlevel portal on the east side of the north end zone. Prone on his back, he would hold up a mirror to watch the action.
Wow, I thought. That man really loves his LSU Tigers.
That man really loved Tiger Stadium.
More than 40 years have passed since I saw that man on the hospital bed with his mirror. I’m sure he must have died long ago. He looked ancient to my 10-year-old self, for sure. Now I’m the old man in the stadium. One
of them, anyway. I figure I’ve seen nearly 300 games in person in Tiger Stadium, from the stands or from the press box. If you count being stuck in pregame traffic, nearly a full year of my life.
My 10-year-old self still never gets over the pageantry, the passion, the experience of Tiger Stadium. Every game is special there, but there are those exceptional times when the stadium is about to roar to life and the band is playing pregame and you know at that moment, there is no better place in America to be.
It is my hope that I have captured some of the spirit and excitement of Tiger Stadium with this history of its first 100 years. I hope this book will stir some happy memories for you as they have for me, because there truly is nothing like Tiger Stadium on a Saturday night.
OPPOSITE: Garrett Nussmeier and other LSU players run through the smoke into Tiger Stadium for a game against Arkansas on Sept. 23, 2023.
MICHAEL JOHNSON / THE ADVOCATE
Scott Rabalais
June 2024
“It was so loud I could barely read the signals. My eyes were vibrating.”
SOUTH
CAROLINA’S BRUCE ELLINGTON
A valley rises
Long before there was a massive LSU campus anchoring the south side of Baton Rouge, with Spanish tile-roofed buildings embraced by its fabled stately oaks and broad magnolias, LSU’s campus sat adjacent to the Mississippi River just north of Louisiana’s small capitol city.
LSU moved from its original campus in Pineville in 1869 to a single building in Baton Rouge, a necessity after the original campus burned down. In 1886, LSU received permission to take over the Pentagon Barracks (which still stand near the river adjacent to the State Capitol) and land belonging to a former military post, eventually totaling some 200 acres.
In 1893, LSU fielded its first football team, losing its only game 34–0 against Tulane in New Orleans on Nov. 25.
On Dec. 3, 1894, LSU played its first football on the old downtown campus, on a parade ground just south of the Pentagon Barracks. The result was pretty much just as dismal as the year before, as Ole Miss beat LSU 26–6.
Before the turn of the century, the LSU football team started playing its games on the
other side of the campus at what was known as State Field. It more resembled a small high school field than a college football stadium, with seating for about 1,500 fans. The field was located on the northeast side of the campus, near what is now Capitol Lake, in an area that today lies between the State Capitol building and the Old Arsenal Museum. Other than the Pentagon Barracks, little from the old campus remains, its buildings razed to make room for the State Capitol building and grounds which were completed in 1932.
By the end of World War I in 1918, LSU had outgrown its campus and plans began for a new one. A large tract of land compiled from three Mississippi River plantations — Gartness, Nestle Down and Arlington — was assembled, and construction began in 1922.
One of the first buildings completed on the new campus was an agricultural barn, now home of the Reilly Theatre.
The other was Tiger Stadium.
As the Tigers played through their 1924 season at State Field and on the road, Tiger Stadium took shape on the flat river bottom lands below what is now called Victory Hill, though that wasn’t always the definite site. An early plan of the campus called for a stadium
to be located where the LSU Student Union now sits on the south side of the Parade Grounds. And there were calls to name the stadium after one of the two most recent governors: Parker Pavilion for outgoing Gov. John M. Parker, or Fuqua Field for incoming Gov. Henry L. Fuqua.
Tiger Stadium won out, but the word “stadium” might have been overstating things. The facility consisted of two rectangular sections of concrete seats bracketing both sidelines, with bleachers, temporary and more permanent ones, clustered around the end zones. The original capacity: 12,000. And there were no lights.
LSU said goodbye to State Field on Nov. 15 with a 40-0 victory over Northwestern State. Two weeks later, on Nov. 27, 1924, the first game in Tiger Stadium was played against the program’s big-city rival from New Orleans, Tulane.
Even by the standard of a modern-day LSU home game with its hours of gridlocked traffic, getting to that first game was an arduous task. If you came from across the river, you had to take a ferry, or perhaps two. Special trains were dispatched from New Orleans and stopped at a siding near the campus (driving
OPPOSITE: Convocation ceremonies on the field in Tiger Stadium. Note cars parking on the current site of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center at right, next to Mike the Tiger’s original small enclosure. FONVILLE WINANS
meant hours on the twisty, dusty River Road). Even from Baton Rouge, shuttle trains were the best way to get to the campus, then three miles outside the city.
Kickoff was at 2:30 p.m. on a day that began rainy but cleared in time for the start. Tiger Stadium had no dressing rooms for either team. LSU players suited up on the old campus, traveled by taxi to the agricultural building and then walked several hundred yards to the stadium. Tulane players dressed on their special train parked at a nearby siding (the same tracks that still run through the campus on the west side of Nicholson Drive).
Not all of the concrete stands were usable, but a crowd estimated at 18,000–18,500 crammed into the available seats somehow.
Among the onlookers was Col. Teddy Roosevelt Jr., son of the former president and a future
World War II general who served at Normandy.
“I have never seen so many strange faces,” Tulane’s ticket manager said that day. “I’ll bet there are hundreds who will see this game who never saw one before.”
The spectacle perhaps exceeded the actual game, won by Tulane 13–0 behind its College Football Hall of Fame quarterback Lester Lautenschlaeger. LSU completed its second season under coach Mike Donahue (himself a College Football Hall of Famer for his prior success at Auburn) at 5–4.
By 1931, Tiger Stadium had a new look and Tiger football had a new tradition. That season, LSU raised and extended the sideline stands with an extra section to the height of the lower bowl of the stadium as it exists now and crowned them with floodlights. LSU played its very first night game on Oct. 3, 1931, a
35–0 win over Spring Hill.
The driving force behind the stadium’s first expansion to 22,000 seats and a shift to night games was a man little remembered in LSU football lore: T.P. “Skipper” Heard. LSU’s athletic director from 1931–54, he was essentially the father of LSU’s night-time football tradition, born from a desire to avoid the early season heat and head-to-head competition with afternoon home games at Tulane and Loyola. How did Heard find the funds to expand Tiger Stadium in the midst of The Great Depression? He got wind that then LSU President James M. Smith had secured $250,000 in funding to build dormitories on the growing campus. Heard convinced him that LSU could have both new dorms and an expanded Tiger Stadium by building the student housing under the newly raised grandstands.
RIGHT: A grainy photo of then LSU coach Mike Donahue standing next to Tiger Stadium in 1924. LSU ATHLETICS
Tiger Stadium grew again despite the depression, getting a 24,000-seat expansion in a 1936 Works Progress Administration (WPA) project that enclosed the north end zone and turned the arena into a giant horseshoe by connecting the east and west stands. That was also the year Mike I came to live on LSU’s campus. A Bengal tiger purchased from the zoo in Little Rock, Arkansas, for $750 raised through 25-cent donations from students, he was named after the school’s popular athletic trainer, Mike Chambers.
LSU’s best player in 1936 was two-time All-American Gaynell “Gus” Tinsley. By 1948, Tinsley had taken over from his coach Bernie Moore to helm the Tigers’ program. By the early 1950s, Tinsley along with Heard found
himself in the middle of an academics versus athletics fight involving Tiger Stadium and a new library for LSU.
Proponents wanted to enclose the stadium’s south end zone to make it a “bowl” seating 67,720 fans. Opponents cited LSU’s less-thancapacity average attendance in the late 1940s and early ’50s, arguing that the library should be the priority. As post-Korean War construction costs soared, Tiger Stadium finally won out, with the south end zone bowled in for the 1953 season. The LSU Library (long known as Middleton Library) wouldn’t be built until 1958.
A 5–6 record in 1954 proved to be Tinsley’s last, ushering in Paul Dietzel and putting LSU on track to winning the national championship
in 1958. While LSU’s football fortunes vastly improved, Tiger Stadium stayed relatively unchanged until the mid-1970s, when construction on a west upper deck began. It was finished in time for the 1978 season, raising the stadium’s capacity at the time to 75,750.
The west upper deck came with two small club seat sections that bracketed the 1950s era press box. As the 2000s approached, the demand for premium seating was growing at stadiums and arenas everywhere, and Tiger Stadium was no exception. The east upper deck, including 70 self-contained suites called “Tiger Dens,” debuted with the 2000 season. The stadium’s capacity, which had grown incrementally since 1978 to about 80,000, was quickly bumped up to 91,600.
ABOVE: Tiger Stadium as it looked in the 1920s. LSU ATHLETICS
steward of this, one of the nation’s greatest sports venues.
“My goal is to leave the place hopefully better than I found it,” Woodward said. “Continue to improve and continue to make it better.
“It’s a special place. You don’t want to mess with special.”
What does the next century hold for Tiger Stadium? Woodward said that while the oldest parts of the facility are now over 100 years old, he foresees a long life ahead for the place known as Death Valley.
“I think it has decades of life left in it because of the rehabilitations on the east, west and south sides,” Woodward said. “I would assume the next big project will be on the north side, doing something with that.
“My guess is they’re probably going to have to look at it structurally in 50 years or so and say, ‘What do we do here and how do we do it?’”
Whatever those questions are and how they are answered, one thing is virtually certain: There will always be a Tiger Stadium.
OPPOSITE: An undated photo of the east side of Tiger Stadium after lights were installed in 1931 and dorms were added in 1932. FONVILLE WINANS
1958
LSU goes 11–0 en route to its first wire service-era national championship, including five wins at home.
1959
NBC broadcasts the first televised game from Tiger Stadium, a 26–3 LSU win over Rice in the Sept. 19 season opener. On Halloween night, Billy Cannon returns a punt 89 yards to beat Ole Miss 7–3.
1978
The old west upper deck is completed just in time for the Sept. 16 opener with Indiana, bringing Tiger Stadium’s capacity to 75,750.
1986
The playing field is moved 11 feet to the south to better center it with the grandstands.
2000
The east upper deck, including 70 suites called “Tiger Dens,” is built, raising Tiger Stadium’s capacity from 80,000 to 91,600.
“What makes LSU is the environment and the fans and those guys wearing the jerseys. They’re really good players.”
URBAN MEYER
The home of legends
Why does LSU play night games at Tiger Stadium?
Avoiding the heat of the day early in the season, of course. The chance for fans to tailgate, commiserate and marinate all day long, certainly.
But nighttime is when the stars come out. And during Tiger Stadium’s first century,
The Tiger Trinity
Billy Cannon, HB, 1957–59
He led LSU to its first wire-service national championship in 1958 and won its first Heisman Trophy in 1959. Still for many Tiger fans the standard by which all LSU players are judged, Cannon was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
they’ve been shining as brightly there as anywhere for LSU — and often for its opponents as well.
Tiger Stadium has been the home of three Heisman Trophy winners, nine College Football Hall of Fame players and four coaches, plus 80 players who earned a total of 93 All-American honors.
For Tiger Stadium’s first 100 years we’ve come up with a list of LSU’s 100 greatest players who have thrilled fans with their exploits over the years. We’ve also come up with a
list of Heisman winners and College Football Hall of Fame honorees from opposing teams who have played in Tiger Stadium through the decades.
LSU players are grouped by the levels of achievement (Heisman winners, hall of famers, All-Americans and All-Southeastern Conference performers) and then chronologically by when they played. Opposing players and coaches are listed alphabetically by school.
Joe Burrow, QB, 2018–19
Burrow set the nation on fire in 2019 en route to the biggest landslide win in Heisman history. He threw for 5,671 yards and 60 touchdowns and rushed for five more scores, leading LSU to a season that can never be topped — a 15–0 record and a CFP national title.
Jayden Daniels, QB, 2022–23
One of the greatest dual threats in college football history, Daniels became only the 11th player to throw for over 3,000 yards (3,812) and rush for over 1,000 (1,134) in a season. He also set the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) passing efficiency record (208.0) en route to winning the 2023 Heisman.
OPPOSITE: Six LSU football legends before a game against Mississippi State on Sept. 20, 2014. Standing (from left) are Jimmy Taylor, Jerry Stovall, Charles Alexander, Tommy Casanova and Billy Cannon. Seated is Y.A. Tittle. All are members of the College Football or Pro Football halls of fame.
HILARY SCHEINUK / THE ADVOCATE
ABOVE: Gaynell Tinsley was LSU's first All-American and later coached the Tigers from 1948–54. LEON TRICE / THE ADVOCATE
OPPOSITE: Jerry Stovall (21) was an All-American and Heisman Trophy runner-up in 1962. THE ADVOCATE
Hall of Fame names
A look at LSU’s 13 other College Football Hall of Fame players and coaches with the year they were inducted:
Players
Abe Mickal, HB, 1933–35 (1967)
Born in Lebanon, “Miracle” Mickal was known for his deft passing touch as he helped LSU to its first SEC title and Sugar Bowl appearance in 1935.
Gaynell “Gus” Tinsley, End, 1934–36 (1956)
LSU’s first great player of the SEC era, Tinsley was a two-time unanimous All-American in the Tigers’ run to two SEC titles and two Sugar Bowls. Coached LSU from 1948–54.
Ken Kavanaugh Sr., End, 1937–39 (1963)
An All-American in 1939, Kavanaugh finished seventh in the Heisman balloting that year. In 2024, he still had the most receiving touchdowns (50) in Chicago Bears history.
Jerry Stovall, HB, 1960–62 (2010)
Like Cannon before him, Stovall ran, played defense, punted and returned kicks. Was the Heisman runner-up in 1962 to Oregon State QB Terry Baker.
Tommy Casanova, CB, 1969–71 (1995)
LSU’s only three-time All-American, Casanova was a triple threat on defense, offense and returning kicks. He returned two punts for touchdowns in a 61–17 win over Ole Miss, clinching the 1970 SEC title.
Bert Jones, QB, 1970–72 (2016)
Before Burrow, Jones was LSU’s only consensus All-American quarterback. Famously led LSU on an 80-yard drive in 1972 to beat Ole Miss 17–16 on a pass to Brad Davis as time expired.
Charles Alexander, RB, 1975–78 (2012)
In an era dominated by running backs, “Alexander the Great” stood tall. The twotime All-American rushed for 1,686 yards in 1977 on a school-record 28.3 carries per game.
Kevin Faulk, RB/KR, 1995–99 (2022)
An All-American as an all-purpose player in 1996, Faulk was LSU’s career rushing leader with 4,557 yards. Won three Super Bowls with the New England Patriots.
Glenn Dorsey, DT, 2004–07 (2020)
A two-time All-American, Dorsey was the most decorated defensive player in LSU history. Won four individual awards, including the 2007 Lombardi Award, and Outland and Nagurski trophies.
RIGHT: Bert Jones (7) hands off to Chris Dantin against Wisconsin on Sept. 30, 1972.
ROBERT STEINER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE
FAR RIGHT: Charles Alexander (4) sweeps right against Oregon on Oct. 22, 1977. Alexander rushed for 237 yards and four touchdowns in the 56–17 LSU victory. LSU ARCHIVES
BELOW RIGHT: Kevin Faulk (3) gets his face mask grabbed by Arkansas’ Cory Nichols on Nov. 28, 1997.
TRAVIS SPRADLING / THE ADVOCATE
LEFT: Glenn Dorsey takes a blast from a water bottle during a game against Florida on Oct. 6, 2007. CHUCK COOK / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE
“It
makes Notre Dame look like Romper Room.”
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S BRAD BUDDE
The greatest games
The handmade sign rising above the student section at the 2003 LSUGeorgia game said it all: “Let the valley shake.”
Like the Tigers’ 17–10 victory over Georgia in that top-10 matchup, there have been plenty of games during Tiger Stadium’s first century that have made the valley, Death Valley, shake. Almost too many to count. But we decided to count them anyway to come up with a list of the 100 greatest games in Tiger Stadium history.
Maybe your favorite game is on the list. Maybe it isn’t. The debate over such things definitely makes sports so much fun.
You can call it recency bias, but having attended the vast majority of LSU home games since the 1970s, the greatest game in this writer’s view was LSU’s 32–31 overtime victory over Alabama in 2022. It was a backand-forth battle between two teams loaded with great players, including 2021 Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young of Alabama and 2023 Heisman winner Jayden Daniels of LSU. It was the way first-year LSU coach Brian
Kelly chose to decide it all on a two-point conversion, and the way Daniels executed it with a goal-line pass to Mason Taylor to touch off a mad, field-rushing celebration.
And, yes, it was Nick Saban’s last visit to LSU. The program he led to so many wins. The program he beat so many times. The program, that in this circumstance at least, got the last word.
But that’s just one game. There are 99 more, listed in chronological order:
Nov. 27, 1924: Tulane 13, LSU 0
A loss for LSU to its archrival, but the one that started it all in Tiger Stadium.
Dec. 9, 1933: LSU 7, Tennessee 0
Bert Yates outgained the Volunteers by himself in the Tigers’ only win over Tennessee until 1974.
Nov. 21, 1936: LSU 93, Louisiana 0
In Mike I’s debut, the Tigers scored 14 touchdowns over what was then Southwestern Louisiana Institute (SLI). It remains LSU’s highest-scoring game ever.
Nov. 28, 1936: LSU 33, Tulane 0
In front of 48,000 fans, a record for a football game in the South, LSU routed No. 19 Tulane to repeat as SEC champion. The Tigers finished No. 2 in the first AP poll.
Oct. 22, 1938: LSU 7, Vanderbilt 0
An upset as the Commodores were ranked No. 16, it was also redemption for the hidden ball trick Vandy used to upset LSU 7–6 in 1937.
Nov. 9, 1946: LSU 31, Alabama 21
“Beat Bama for Bernie!” was the rallying cry as the Tigers defeated the Crimson Tide for the first time since 1909, making a winner out of coach Bernie Moore.
Oct. 22, 1949: LSU 13, North Carolina 7
The Tigers derailed the No. 6-ranked Tar Heels and Hall of Famer Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice, snapping UNC’s 20-game winning streak.
Oct. 29, 1949: LSU 34, Ole Miss 7
Avenging a 49–19 loss to the Rebels in 1948, the Tigers broke the game open with three touchdowns in an 11-minute span in the second quarter.
OPPOSITE: Mark Lumpkin (25) kicks the go-ahead field goal in LSU’s 20–15 win over Alabama on Nov. 8, 1969, making Charles McClendon the first former player to defeat Bear Bryant. THE TIMES-PICAYUNE
OCT. 14, 2017
Oct. 1, 2016: LSU 42, Missouri 7
Ed Orgeron took over for Miles as interim coach and pulled out the stops in an offense that gained 634 yards, an LSU single-game SEC record.
Oct. 22, 2016: LSU 38, Ole Miss 21
Fournette took flight once more with a schoolrecord 284 yards rushing as the No. 25 Tigers pulled away from the No. 23 Rebels.
Oct. 14, 2017: LSU 27, Auburn 23
LSU fell behind No. 10 Auburn 20–0, then mounted the greatest Tiger Stadium comeback ever against an SEC opponent. Arden Key sacked Auburn’s last threat.
Oct. 13, 2018: LSU 36, Georgia 16
In a preview of what was to come, Joe Burrow led the No. 13 Tigers to a rout of the No. 2 Bulldogs. He threw for 200 yards and ran for 66 yards and two scores.
Oct. 12, 2019: LSU 42, Florida 28
Burrow fired three touchdown passes and Clyde Edwards-Helaire ran for two touchdowns as the No. 5 Tigers held off the No. 7 Gators to go to 6–0.
Oct. 26, 2019: LSU 23, Auburn 20
In the season’s closest game, No. 2 LSU got 321 yards in the air from Burrow with touchdowns rushing and passing while holding No. 9 Auburn to 287 total yards.
LEFT: Joe Burrow (9) takes off on a 59-yard run against Georgia as LSU routs the Bulldogs 36–16 on Oct. 13, 2018. BILL FEIG / THE ADVOCATE
OPPOSITE: Devin White (40), Grant Delpit (9) and Arden Key (49) bring down Auburn running back Kerryon Johnson as LSU rallies from a 20–0 deficit to win 27–23 on Oct. 14, 2017.
BRETT DUKE / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE
Nov. 30, 2019: LSU 50, Texas A&M 7
ABOVE: Joe Burrow runs into the end zone for a touchdown in a 23–20 win over Auburn on Oct. 26, 2019. HILARY SCHEINUK / THE ADVOCATE
OPPOSITE: Joe Burrow gestures to the crowd after coming out for Senior Night introductions in his “Burreaux” jersey on Nov. 30, 2019, against Texas A&M.
HILARY SCHEINUK / THE ADVOCATE
Eager to avenge the Aggies’ 74–72 seven overtime victory in 2018, Burrow and the No. 1 Tigers leaped to a 34–0 lead in the final home game for the Heisman winner.
Dec. 19, 2020: LSU 53, Ole Miss 48
The Tigers finished a pandemic-plagued season on a high note as Kayshon Boutte had an SEC record 308 yards receiving and the defense forced six turnovers.
Oct. 13, 2021: LSU 49, Florida 42
Tyrion Davis-Price broke Fournette’s record with 287 yards rushing and three touchdowns as the Tigers outlasted the No. 20 Gators.
Nov. 27, 2021: LSU 27, Texas A&M 24
Max Johnson threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Jaray Jenkins with 20 seconds left to stun the No. 14 Aggies and send Orgeron out a winner.
Sept. 10, 2022: LSU 65, Southern 17
Brian Kelly’s first game in Tiger Stadium was LSU’s first football game against Southern. Jayden Daniels had 155 total yards and four total touchdowns in brief action.
Oct. 22, 2022: LSU 45, Ole Miss 20
Daniels racked up 369 total yards (248 passing, 121 rushing) and five touchdowns as the Tigers stunned the No. 7-ranked Rebels.
Nov. 5, 2022: LSU 32, Alabama 31 (OT)
The weight of the No. 15 Tigers’ win over the No. 6 Crimson Tide wasn’t lost on Kelly: “To come here and restore the pride and tradition of this program means so much.”
Sept. 23, 2023: LSU 34, Arkansas 31
Daniels threw for 320 yards and four touchdowns, then led LSU on a 72-yard drive for Damian Ramos’ game-winning 20-yard field goal with :05 left.
Nov. 11, 2023: LSU 52, Florida 35
Daniels rebounded from a concussion at Alabama to become the first FBS quarterback with 350 yards passing (372) and 200 rushing (234), a performance that won him the Heisman.
* In 2023, LSU forfeited 37 wins from 2012–15, including two bowl victories, because of NCAA sanctions.
