LSU Cheated To Beat Washington in 1983

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camdawg
Dawgman Sophomore
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Posted: Yesterday 10:19 PM

Re: Anyone old enough to remember the 1983 UW-LSU game?

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4kings wrote: That was even a bigger job than the Seahawks-Steelers. They quit allowing conference refs to referee interconference games after that. Any positive play for UW was "holding."

From gohuskies.com, "but every time the Huskies got a drive going, out came a penalty flag, as they where whistled for nine penalties for 107 yards."

It wasn't simply the penalty yardage. The refs negated huge positive plays and scores. I'd like some payback for those long ago days this Saturday. Not optimistic, though...
I think there's a lot of legend about LSU "cheating" in the 1983 game, whether stealing our playbooks in the hotel, the refs rigging the game, etc.

As a younger Husky fan, I wanted to see some of the older games, including losses, just to see how the games played out. So I was a masochist and got a copy of the Tigervision broadcast of the game at LSU.

We were kinda walking into a buzzsaw. LSU was a talented team (played in the Orange Bowl the year before), they obviously had a huge home field advantage, and we were the first big team, I think, to play them there since the famous 1979 USC game. Thousands of temporary seats were added for the UW game, and we set the record attendance at Tiger Stadium for at least the next 10 years.

After a heartbreaker against Bobby Bowden the week before, LSU needed to beat us to save coach Jerry Stovall's job, at least for the next few weeks.

We were very lucky to beat Michigan on the two point conversion the week before. If Michigan doesn't miss a FG on their last full possession, we lose. We never came close to stopping the Michigan offense. So we needed to play a LOT better to win in Baton Rouge...but try telling a team that after they just beat Bo Schembechler's Wolverines? We just did not come ready to play. LSU constantly moved the ball just like Michigan did, but didn't stub their toes and screw up in the red zone like Michigan did.

And our OL played like garbage. Some of the holding penalties in the 2nd quarter were suspect, but many were legit. We were doing crap like diving into the backs of LSU defenders' legs. Any conference officials will call that clipping.

After starting the game playing like absolute trash, we somehow get the score to 10-7 after an LSU guy accidentally touches a very short punt. We look like we can pin LSU deep on their ensuing possession, but Dalton Hilliard goes off for a 70 yard run, which was probably the backbreaking play of the game.

Then the first iffy calls of the game actually go our way. Larry Michael tries to tiptoe up the sideline, is not out of bounds, but gets hit very hard to go out of bounds. It probably gets called more often than not today, but was probably very infrequent back in 1983. Then LSU gets called for a facemask that may not have happened.

We get into the 2nd quarter, and that's when the penalties start getting called on our OL. We got one that was an obvious clip, but we recovered to set up a FG opportunity by Jaegar that he shanked. LSU gets the ball back, has a nice screen pass, and we get away with an obvious uncalled late hit out of bounds. LSU looks like they'll score another TD, but we somehow force a turnover.

The next drive is maybe the only "screwjob". We get called for three clips and a hold. We somehow look like we can convert for a first down anyway, when Pelleur throws deep to Pattison, who bobbles the ball. Maybe it was a catch, maybe it wasn't.

So, really, there's one drive, maybe, where we were "screwed". And I'm not at all sure that we were. I am sure that our defense played horribly, just as they had against Michigan. And our special teams were horrible. And our offensive line didn't show up. Put all that together, and we can lose 40-14 legitimately.

It turned out the Washington game was the only time in which LSU played well all season. The coach got fired. Their next coach was able to make use of all the talent, and take them to the Sugar Bowl the next season.

aawwwww how cute.

You have posters in that thread recalling plays that simply didn't occur.

I was there. A freshmen at LSU and sure as hell don't remember anything.