re: 1987 LSU football...How close do you think they were to winning a national title?

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That 1982 team had two losses during the season after huge wins.... both were inexcusable and both at home....... the tie to Tenn was also at home. It just shows how hard it is to keep a team at a certain level week after week.....

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Bowl bids were given out during the regular season back then. We were rolling along, had already beat #4 Florida and #8 Alabama. Only blemish was a tie against Tennessee.
Had 3 games left-
#7 Florida State, Miss State, and Tulane.

So the Orange Bowl looked at that schedule, and said whoever won the Fla State game would be the team.

Amazingly, we blew the doors off the 'Noles, but somehow lost to both State and Tulane. I think we just couldn't stop the Wishbone against State, and from what I remember against Tulane, we kept trying to make big plays before actually taking care of business. Would go 3 and out with a couple deep throws, stuff like that. It was before ESPN, but it was still the same thing, people were trying to make the "Sportscenter highlight reel". We let them hang around all game, and they took it late.

MSU game was before FSU

Going back to '82; that was the best Vandy team ever (we didn't play them that year). Went 8-3, beat Florida the week after we did (who also went 8-3 and beat Fla State in the final game of the year).

Lost in the bowl game to Air Force, which was the first time I saw Air Force play.

Going into that MSU game in 82 the team was very much beat up. There were a lot of players playing hurt....really hurt and the coaches began pulling them early.

John Bond though, had a masterful game for MSU running the option almost to perfection. The defense was never able to make it off the field. Looking back at it, I am surprised the score was as close asit was.

Wrong. LSU lost to MSU the week after beating Bama and lost to Tulane the week after beating FSU.

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Miami skull drug us in Tiger Stadium one year later (1988). Hard to believe that the 1987 Tigers could have played within two scores of the 1987 Hurricanes.

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The 1987 Tigers were WAAAYYY better than the '88 version. I know every game is different, but Miami barely beat South Carolina at home (IN Orange Bowl stadium) 20-16 in 1987. LSU beat South Carolina 30-13 in the Gator Bowl that same season WITHOUT Harvey Williams and the game wasn't even that close.

The int Tommy threw late in the fourth was a killer. Probably the worst pass he threw at LSU. If he doesn’t throw it, we kick a FG to go up with a few minute to play.

Not sure if that would have affected the outcome of the Alabama game, but you never know. Still don’t honk we were as good as Miami and OU that year. 3-5 is about right for that team.

If we were undefeated, the question is whether we would have a path to #1 or not. In the AP, the top 3 teams would have been OK, LSU and Miami. OK would have been #1. It's unclear who would have been #2.

The week prior to the Ohio State game we were #4 and Miami was #5, but they had played on 1 game to our 3 games at that point. In two weeks they would play FSU, probably the best team on either team's schedule (although, I'm not sure it would have been recognized as such). If Miami jumped us after that game and remained ahead, we would not have had a path. So let's assume we stay #2.

The next problem is that we would not have had an opportunity to play OK. The Big 8 champ was tied to the Orange Bowl, and the SEC champ, which we would have been, was tied to the Sugar. Miami would have had the advantage because they would have played OK and they won. We probably would have had to beat the shite out of whoever we played to stay ahead and become #1.

Bottom line this would have come down to politics and perception. Think we would have come out on the losing end. The best we may have gotten is a split with the coaches poll.

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when that team was healthy they could play with anybody, they were healthy for the bowl game and destroyed a very good South Carolina team.

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Before last season that was one of the best coached teams going into a bowl game in LSU history. South Carolina had a defense that was coached by Joe Lee Dunn who would become a long time LSU whipping boy. I think as a DC he was like 1-19 against LSU. They called their defense the "black death" they basically played cover zero the entire game blitzing 8 and sometimes 9 players on every play. Tommy was calling plays and protections at the line every play and ate them alive. LINK