re: Thoughts on Boot rivalry.

b/c of family/friend ties to tex am and ark, i have always thought of them as natural rivals.
when i found out:
ol miss considers us after moo state and bama.
NO OTHER SEC team has LSU in their top 3!!!
lsu is considered as LOW as ark by everyone else.

we are both dissed and therefore i adopted ark as our greatest rival.
and, i soooo wish tex am would have joined sec.

quote:

---

Irrelevant, even if true.

---

So, the amount of talent that a football team has is irrelevant to their success rate? Yeah that makes sense. I'm not saying it's the only thing that matters, but it definitely makes a difference.

quote:

---

You mean this little six-year stint of not recruiting and developing even one quarterback? With at least two more years of JJ and JL, followed by, at best, a RS sophomore Zach Lee putting in part time to work around playing baseball? That little stint?

---

Six years? We've had two rough years and the main reason is that RP screwed us over. Do you not remember in 2007 when we won the championship. That was two years ago, not six. And also JJ should only get better from this point forward.

Would it be a rivalry if:

a) One team was 11-8 in the last 19 meetings
b) the two schools are in border states
c) the two schools finish each regular season by playing each other
d) the game produced six division champions in seven years (something that no other matchup in the division has done)
e) the last five games in the matchup have been decided by a total of 13 points in four overtimes

The only thing keeping this from a rivarly game is the reciprocation of LSU fans

quote:

---

It's not a real rivalry. It's a forced rivalry. There's no real hatred from either side to make it into a rivalry.

---

OneMore... I know you're a good Tiger fan, so this isn't directed specifically at you. I just find statements like this a little troubling.

See... what this says to me is that LSU fans aren't willing to grant "rivalry status" to teams that they don't view as equals. And lately, we've been too arrogant as a fan base. We hardly see anyone as our equals. Truth.

Who do we see as equals? Alabama and Florida. And which games are the thunderously loud, intense, fan-driven DEATH VALLEY games? Alabama and Florida.

And everyone complains that Tiger Stadium isn't the same for other games. That it's lost it's intensity, it's hostility, it's focus, the volume of hatred it once had.

People like to demonize the "rich alumni" in the stands as the cause of the lack of power in Tiger Stadium recently, but that's not it at all.

It's LSU's undeserved arrogant attitude which has fueled our lack of respect for our opponents, and therefore our dismissive air toward teams like Arkansas, who have "brought it" to our doorstep year after year.

THAT is what is sucking the life out of Tiger Stadium right now. We expect teams to show up and roll over for us. We deny them equal status. We don't respect them as rivals.

We should hate EVERY team. EVERY damned team that walks into Death Valley. Especially teams we are "forced" to play every year.

We like to complain that LSU "has no real rivals," but the only thing stopping that is US.

Don't even get me started on Ole Miss. They beat us in every sport this past school year, and we have the nerve to say our rivalry is bigger for THEM than us. Apparently, it is... and it's working for THEM.

I agree with those who say it's a manufactured rivalry. However, it's a smart rivalry to foster. I think past conference affiliation combined with the number of games is what stopped the rivalry from developing 'naturally'.

Arky has done well for themselves in SEC and they're a better fit for this conference than they were for the SWC/Greater-Tejas-Conference. They're in the same division for 2 decades now, and given the closeness of the games I'd say that makes the Tigers and Piggies rivals.

i like the "rivalry"

I am in little rock every year for thanksgiving and it is a great nerve racking game to watch in a sea of red family members.

plus, if you go back to the Nutt days, every game has been very close and tough. We stopped stomping ARK a long time ago. Games have ended on Hail Mary passes ('01-02 I was there) and 3 OT, last second field goals..etc

good ingredients for a rivalry IMO.

I think it has some of the ingredients to make a rivalry but I don't think it has had the spark to ignite it (so to speak).

It needs something like the Halloween night touchdown run, the earthquake game, controversy about putting time back on the clock, a fire in the vicinity during the game, something wild like that. I mean Darren McFadeen brining the wood is all well and good but I don't think it quite rises to that level.

Another thing in the last decade or so is that LSU has had a taste of competing for and winning a couple of National Championships and I think our fanbase would kind of prefer our most intense games to be against other teams that have done that recently. Arkansas can be good some years but I think it's been awhile between championships for them.

quote:

---

SpqrTiger

---

Absolutely agree!

I'm of the mindset that you play the Tulane's of the world just as hard as you would the Bama's of the world.

This team should be "up" for every single game, and not just the ones in TS either. There is no "taking a play off" or lolly-gagging through practice. You should practice the way you expect to play. Go hard each and every down; each and every game.

So do I think of Arkansas as a rival...hell yes. Just like I think every single team we play is a rival. And I want our team to whip their asses just like I do for the rest of LSU's opponents.