What loss sticks with you the most?

I feel like a lot of people a year ago would have said 1/9/12 but with recent events, I think that has let a lot of people basically let that tragedy go. We went back to the mountain top and we conquered with exactly the tools we were missing the last time we were there and lead to our defeat and slide for a few years.

I am over 1/9/12. But I don't think I'll ever be over 11/3/12. That was my first year at LSU as an out of state freshmen. I was never much of CFB fan growing up in the DMV area and always gravitated to pro sports. Well when I was accepted Halloween day in 2011 I started paying closer attention. The first LSU game I ever watched was the Game of the Century. I followed the rest of the season and was pretty hooked. Then of course the rug gets pulled out from under us. Then I have all summer of being indoctrinated and studying LSU/Louisiana and everything that makes us what we are. Add in the wonders of freshmen year and looking back with all that nostalgia basically makes it seem like a fairy tale.

I remember waiting all year for that game. Our offense struggled at times but we kept gritting out wins. We fell to Florida but all of our goals were still alive. The electric performance against South Carolina was incredible and my first truly big game in Tiger Stadium. Then we held Johnny Football to one of his worst ever performances. Then two weeks off. I remember those two weeks feeling like the longest of my life. The friday after classes on 11/2 felt like the night before christmas. I was up at like 3-4 am to get out to Gameday and just enjoy the day. It was a great day for College Football. I waited in line for hours with thousands of others (still the biggest student section line I've ever seen at Gate 7).

Then the game. We go down 14-3 at half time and it's feeling a little bit overwhelming. But with some great defense and timely offense we take the lead. You all know the rest. We can't stop them and TJ Yeldon has his run to glory on that fricking screen pass. If we win that game we play UGA again in Atlanta and I imagine we probably could squeeze out another victory over them although it would have been a great game. We then likely roll Notre Dame like about 5 SEC teams could have done that year. It's crazy how one play changed the trajectory of the program for the next half a decade before we finally started to really rebuild in 2017.

That game still hurts to think about how crushed I was as an 18 year old and how naive I was about almost everything in life. But the journey as an LSU fan has still been totally worth it. It has given me some of the best joy I've ever felt in my life and more great friends and experiences than I can count.



tl;dr: 2012 Alabama.