It has been seven long years since the LSU Tigers have last beaten the darlings of the college football world, the Alabama Crimson Tide.

As if getting a historic win over one of the best teams in the country once on the road isn't monumental enough, those 2011 Tigers were forced to face that great team yet again to stake their claim to the National Championship, despite the fact that the Tide hadn't even won their division or conference.

The media and pollsters gifted Nick Saban a second bite at the apple, and his team responded by "restoring Order" in the Louisiana Superdome to render the historic November clash of #1 vs #2 ultimately meaningless.

The following seven seasons have seen Alabama win four SEC titles, three national titles, and they have made the College Football Playoff every year since it's inception in 2014, including last year when they once again failed to win their own division or conference.

There is no more entitled program or fanbase in all of sports. And it is very likely that even if LSU were to beat Alabama this weekend, The Tide would once again rise above the standards that all other teams are held to and be given yet another invitation to the Playoff anyway.

But if any team can rally around such disrespect and bias, it is the 2018 LSU Tigers.

THEY SEND YOU DOWN TO WAR

Without question, no team has accomplished more at this point in the season than LSU.

Alabama has certainly been impressive, beating their opponents by an average score of 54-15. But The Tide have only played one ranked team all season, a home game against #22 Texas A&M, who is now ranked #25.

LSU, on the other hand, has clawed their way all the way up from #25 into the top 5 twice this season, and is currently ranked #3. The Tigers have done so by going 4-1 against ranked opponents, including three wins over top 10 teams, two of which were away from home. The sole loss was on the road to #22 Florida, who now sits at #11 in the CFP Rankings.

Despite the mettle and resolve LSU has showed week after week, not to mention the outright talent and athleticism this team obviously possesses, Alabama opened as a 14.5 point favorite over the home Tigers, making the #3 team in the country the worst underdog in Tiger Stadium since Gerry Dinardo's final season in 1999.

But the gauntlet this team has run through has made it undeniably clear that this team repeatedly responds and plays their best football when the oddsmakers give them no chance.

That is due primarily to the grittiness and determination on constant display by the obviously seasoned, yet somehow still a first year starter, quarterback Joe Burrow. The coach's son from Ohio that was the favorite of former rival Urban Meyer has already become one of Louisiana's favorite sons in the short time since he arrived in Baton Rouge.

While his numbers up to this point won't earn him any postseason honors, he has won over the hearts and minds of Tiger Nation by proving over and over in the biggest moments on the toughest of stages that he can make any throw or play when the game is on the line in the most clutch situations.

Burrow has the same indefinable fire and leadership as Meyer's protege from his days in the SEC that LSU fans know all too well, Tim Tebow.

While no one would mistake the games of the two, there is an undeniable quality about both players that inspire their teammates to rally together and play their best football when it seems like the whole world is against them.

The Tigers now find themselves facing the longest odds they have seen all season, against without question the best team they will face all season, and perhaps the best player in all of college football.