Saturday was needed by an entire generation. When I was talking to people around campus Saturday morning, a few other students made comments about how I hope LSU won so we could storm the field. I told all of them that we should not storm the field because we are a powerhouse program and we should act like we have been there before. Throughout the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game I felt a feeling I had not felt in a long time.
I have been going to almost every LSU home game since I was three years old in 1998. I have said till the very end with my dad at every game and I stay in the student section from Alma Mater to Alma Mater. I was in Tiger Stadium yelling my lungs for so many classics such as: 2000 against Tennessee, Georgia in 2003, Florida and Auburn in 2007, and many more. A vast majority of students were not at many of those games and an even smaller percentage remember or were an LSU fan back in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Ever since 2003, a large number of LSU fans including myself have pulled for a National Championship every year, as we should considering we are one of the elite programs of college football, however sometimes as fans we have lost our appreciations for some of the simpler things.
Looking back to when I was 5 years old and watching LSU upset Tennessee in 2000, the last time the crowd rushed the field, I was experiencing one of the moments that truly made me a die hard LSU fan. Watching the pure joy of thousands of fans celebrating on the field was an image that lasted with me forever. As the final seconds ticked of the clock Saturday night, I felt a feeling I had not felt in a long time because the emotions had nothing to do with national championship aspirations, it had nothing to do with rankings, it was a pure joy of winning one the most hard fought footballs games I had ever witnessed, it was the truest feeling of what a collegiate sporting event could ever be, students celebrating with their classmates on our college’s field. The commercialism and professional vibe that has almost overtaken college athletics was nowhere to be found and I have never felt as happy and as connected with my school, my classmates, and with LSU football. I had become the biggest hypocrite Saturday night and rushed the field and hugged my classmates and friends.
As I ran to the South End zone to find my dad and little brother in the stands it hit me. So many people in that stadium needed to see the field rushed because they had never seen it before. My little brother, along with thousands of other fans, who may not have gone to school here yet, or who may have not even been born yet needed to see that beautiful sight. They needed that moment just as I needed it when I was 5 years old cheering for the underdog in one of the loudest games I have ever attended.
Am I so happy that I was a hypocrite Saturday, because over the years a little bit of that passion from the early 2000s had faded, and I needed Saturday. The players needed Saturday, the students needed Saturday, the fans who has little bit of that old fashion passion needed Saturday, and above all a generation of future die hard Tiger fans needed Saturday.

Geaux Tigers and Forever LSU