re: When you hear "Who is LSU's rival?"

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There's a certain cultural difference fueling our rivalries against Ole Miss and Alabama. It goes back to Protestant/Catholic, and it is way more than the football conference standings. I've lived in all three states and can tell you Louisiana is different from the other two states in things such as religion, attitude toward sex and alcohol, and politics. It was that way back in the Civil War. The Louisiana Tiger brigade in General Lee's army was famous for their carousing, whiskey drinking, fighting among themselves, and humor. Men from the other states could only look and wonder. But the Tigers were terrifying in battle and provoked a certain awe; by themselves they ruptured the Yankee line on the evening of the 2nd day at Gettysburg.

It is that way now--witness all the statements from others as to how we are as fans. A city like New Orleans could never exist in Mississippi or Alabama. Some of those people like to carouse and drink and womanize, but they feel a guilt about it that we don't. There is an awe they have of us. They deride us as undisciplined, but underneath their talk is a fear we have earned.

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