re: How did we lose 3 games in 2001 with a team loaded with nfl players?

Those were all marginal NFL players. Clark and Webster were probably the best of the bunch.

Real question is how did we lose last year to Ole Miss and Bama with our offense?

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lsu was playing better than anybody else in the country, they did not back in

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* The Associated Press thought another team was playing better.

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it wasn't lsu's day

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We completely didn't show up.

Haters knock the 07 Championship because of 2 3OT losses, but at least that team showed up every game.

And that was an undisputed title. Because we choked at home against an unranked Zook team, 03 will forever be disputed and have an asterisk to the rest of the CFB world.

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lsu was playing better than anybody else in the country, they did not back in


* The Associated Press thought another team was playing better.

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Well, the AP didn't exactly look at the evidence on the field back then. LSU played two common opponents and beat them both by 1 more point than USC did. LSU's D likely would've taken any team down by the end of the season. The AP also thought OU was one of the best teams ever until they lost their last two games that year and LSU shut down their Heisman winner and their offense in the BCSCG.

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Because we choked at home against an unranked Zook team, 03 will forever be disputed and have an asterisk to the rest of the CFB world.

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Maybe to USC fanboys, but that UF team played about the toughest schedule that year and finished ranked in the top 25. They were in the top 15 late in the season. All of their losses were to top 15 teams (3 in the final top 10). They also beat a great UGA team and the team who hoisted the crystal football. They played some of the best teams down to the wire and beat some of them.

After the UF loss, LSU rolled through the schedule and only had one tight game at Ole Miss against one of the best Ole Miss teams ever with Eli. And when they had to face a great UGA team that many said they lucked out to beat the first time around, LSU destroyed them in the Georgia Dome.

USC had a great team too, but they lost to Cal. Cal was 2-3 when they played USC and didn't become a ranked team because they lost their next two and only went on to beat a few crappy teams.

The only thing anyone cares about in the end is who hoisted the crystal football and that team was LSU.

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The only thing anyone cares about in the end is who hoisted the crystal football and that team was LSU. 

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Why did ESPN have a running segment throughout 2005 on USC's quest for the 3-peat???

Not sure where you live, but step outside of LA and you'd be hard pressed to find many people that don't consider USC the best team in 2003.

Right or wrong, their great success in 04, including destroying the same OU team we beat by 7, while we struggled our way to a 9-3 record, including a 35 point thrashing, reinforced that idea to everyone else in the country.


And I'm not knocking 2003. It was the most amazing season I had ever witnessed because I had never seen that kind of success before. I'm not the type of fan to belittle accomplishments of our program like so many people on here that put their hatred of Miles above their love of LSU.

But I also have perspective, and while I believe in my heart we could have beaten USC, I know that most other CFB fans that didn't know that team the way I did don't feel the same.

And I can also recognize that I didn't know as much about USC as I did my own team, so I'm inherently biased in my opinion.


One thing I do know, is that I consider 2003 a less impressive season than 2011 or 2007 looking back on them now.

2011> 2007> 2003 in my opinion of course. And 2001 is still the most fun for me because I had the good fortune of still being a student at the time.


I am more disappointed looking back at that 03 loss to UF than I am to either of the 07 3OT losses.

We showed up prepared and played our hearts out every game in 07 with the pressure of a preseason #2 ranking getting everyone's best shot.

03 had no pressure on them until November and still had a complete no show and would've been shut out by Zook if Skyler hadn't taken a punt to the house.

Saban's great D was caught with their pants down twice on the exact same play by a freshman QB making his first start in Tiger Stadium.

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Why did ESPN have a running segment throughout 2005 on USC's quest for the 3-peat???

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ESPN were the #1 fanboys. They wanted the whole system to implode. I remember Corso and Herbstreet saying they thought USC was the best team, but both of them said they didn't think USC would have beaten LSU in the Dome. Well, no matter who made it into the BCSCG, the game was going to be in the Dome and the winner was going to be the champion.

I watched USC a lot that year.They were awesome and it would have been a great game. We had similar teams. LSU's D did seem to be the ultimate X factor though. We shut down every good offense. We didn't even give up 20 points until the last regular season game (and that was with just a few minutes left with reserves in during a blowout of Arkansas).

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Right or wrong, their great success in 04, including destroying the same OU team we beat by 7, while we struggled our way to a 9-3 record, including a 35 point thrashing, reinforced that idea to everyone else in the country.

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I know what you're saying, but that was the next year. It had no real relevance to the year before.

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I am more disappointed looking back at that 03 loss to UF than I am to either of the 07 3OT losses.

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Maybe looking back you are, but that Arkansas loss at home when we knew we'd play for a national title by winning the SECCG was unthinkable at the time . That was one of the most deflated crowds in the history of LSU football leaving that stadium. The UF in 2003 loss was disappointing, but we were still alive for everything in the grand scheme of things. In 2007, we thought we were done after that loss. We also were very fortunate to squeak by with Ws against Auburn, UF and Bama. All of those teams were up 10 on us in the 2nd half. I love the 2007 team because they were resilient. But just because you get a W, it doesn't mean you completely showed up. Hell, we were up 10-9 on a bad Tulane team at half that year.

In the end, USC had a great team in 2003 and I know a good number of people thought they were the best as well (though the evidence showed LSU to be a little better when playing common opponents). I'm just saying that nobody really cared about the AP trophy after the BCS was created. Every player wanted to play for the crystal football. Now that Saban is considered a God by the media, I rarely hear people say anything about a co-championship when they refer to his national championships now.

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Because we choked at home against an unranked Zook team, 03 will forever be disputed and have an asterisk to the rest of the CFB world.

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I could be wrong--- and this isn't meant to discredit either NC but I bet the average cfb fan doesn't even remember who LSU lost to in 03 but they would likely remember the 07 team being the only 2 loss team to go.

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Completely incorrect - Florida beat #6 (LSU), #11 (Arkansas) and #4 (Georgia) in consecutive weeks. All three of those teams went to bowl games and won their bowl game. So they beat the eventual National Champs, the SEC East Champs and a 9-win Arkansas team.

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Arkansas didnt finish the season ranked. It doesnt matter of you beat a team that ranked #1 if they end up unranked in the final poll.

Look, Nick was really good at LSU, but he didn't "build" LSU football. LSU football was a top 20 winning program before Nick set foot on the LSU campus.

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If anyone raised LSU football from a terrible extended period of despair, it was GN. He took over after a 6 yr. period winning 38% and never having a winning season. GN took over a program that had won 38% of its games and NS took over a program winning 57% of it's games.

Nicks a fine coach, but he came at the same time the TAF and new leadership came into power to give LSU football a kick start like it had never had before.

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Meh, We never pursued GD. Good guy and all but I think he won 2 or 3 games his last season. Not exactly pulling LSU from the darkness. Nick won 8 games with those guys in 2000. We pursued Nick because the consensus was he was the best college coach today. In Bama, LSU was looked at more as a basketball school at the time. Archer even said his biggest problem was "the basketball guy running the athletic dept". We thought if he could win at LSU he could win crazy at Bama since really no other mens sport gets any support.

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But yeah.we backed into a National title in 2003. Lost to a shite Ron Zook Florida. Underachieving Considering the talent we had.

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Since when the frick is losing 1 game "underachieving? You need to shut the frick up

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USC had a great team too, but they lost to Cal. Cal was 2-3 when they played USC and didn't become a ranked team because they lost their next two and only went on to beat a few crappy teams. 

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LSU was lucky they did. I'd wager if USC doesn't lose, they play OU. Saban goes to the NFL still, but never gets hired by bama. We don't hire Miles, and prob never win another.