Reflections on the National Championship Game

[awbuzz]

Yes they were amazing to watch this year. They would probably have won quite a few games in the NFL with the right schedule.

Umm. They would only be allowed to play Cleveland and Atlanta twice... So I guess that 4 would be considered as a few [emoji6]

 

[YellowJacketFan2018]

Dodd hated playing LSU at Tiger Stadium at night. But he really did not have any choice. It was Baton Rouge or playing the Mississippi schools that could not make a decent pay day. So, he took the money. In 1959, on Halloween night, Billy Cannon had his "Heisman Moment" with a long punt return against then number one Ole Miss for the Tigers' upset. Mississippi showed their superiority in a rare rematch at the Sugar Bowl later that year. This was after Paul Dietzel had won a national championship with his "Chinese Bandits" LSU team. LSU has had talented teams down through the years and colorful ones as well. Now they have a record setting Heisman quarterback and a national championship too. I think it may be number two in both categories for the Tigers. A well deserved champion having beat all four of the preseason top four teams. The first team to do that as well. Pretty impressive.

Georgia Tech pulled off a mammoth upset of LSU in Baton Rouge in 1950 that probably knocked LSU out of a Bowl Game.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

Joe Burrow still threw for 440+ yards and 5 touchdowns

Imagine, a Heisman Trophy winner doing it again on the big stage just to prove he could do it anytime he wanted. Dizzy Dean famously said: "If you can do it, it ain't bragging" Burrow did it...again.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

Georgia Tech pulled off a mammoth upset of LSU in Baton Rouge in 1950 that probably knocked LSU out of a Bowl Game.

I haven't checked but are you sure it was not 1960? LSU was good all those years so it would not surprise me. Come to think of it, I cannot think of a time they were ever really bad. Mediocre or just pretty good from time to time but LSU has never been awful in my 50 years of watching them.

 

[YellowJacketFan2018]

Imagine, a Heisman Trophy winner doing it again on the big stage just to prove he could do it anytime he wanted. Dizzy Dean famously said: "If you can do it, it ain't bragging" Burrow did it...again.

I think Joe Burrow's performances in the Playoffs were the best i've ever seen a Heisman winner play after being awarded the trophy

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

I was a freshman in 1962 when we lost that heart-breaker 7-10 to LSU when Joe ("the man of hour") Auer let a sure reception and probable TD slip through his hands.

Was that the year Jerry Stovall ran a kickoff back for a touchdown for the Tigers? Seems like that was at Grant Field and I vaguely remember seeing it but I am not sure of the year. Boy, the thought of playing LSU, Alabama, UGA, Tennessee, Auburn, Florida, and God only knows who else every year would have made any coach depressed. No wonder, Coach Dodd went into a funk in the late 1950s and early 1960s over the direction of the program and recruiting woes.

 

[YellowJacketFan2018]

I haven't checked but are you sure it was not 1960? LSU was good all those years so it would not surprise me. Come to think of it, I cannot think of a time they were ever really bad. Mediocre or just pretty good from time to time but LSU has never been awful in my 50 years of watching them.

The game in 1960 was in Grant Field however i think i meant 1946 when GT beat #4 LSU with YA Tittle 26-7 in Baton Rouge on Homecoming.

 

[YellowJacketFan2018]

Was that the year Jerry Stovall ran a kickoff back for a touchdown for the Tigers? Seems like that was at Grant Field and I vaguely remember seeing it but I am not sure of the year. Boy, the thought of playing LSU, Alabama, UGA, Tennessee, Auburn, Florida, and God only knows who else every year would have made any coach depressed. No wonder, Coach Dodd went into a funk in the late 1950s and early 1960s over the direction of the program and recruiting woes.

Bobby Dodd said the worst mistake he made was not taking the Texas head coaching job when it was offered to him in 1957.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

The game in 1960 was in Grant Field however i think i meant 1946 when GT beat #4 LSU with YA Tittle 26-7 in Baton Rouge on Homecoming.

Good Lord, beating LSU with YA Tittle in Baton Rouge would have been one of Coach Dodd's early memorable wins that showed the SEC that there was to be a new force to be reckoned with. Maybe Coach Collins can get a similar program changing win this year. Lots of opportunities to make a splash: Notre Dame, Georgia, Clemson, and the new kid on the block UNC. Of course, beating Miami, UVA, and Virginia Tech is always an eyeopener.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

Bobby Dodd said the worst mistake he made was not taking the Texas head coaching job when it was offered to him in 1957.

Yep. Lots of money. Top team in the state. Calculus? What's that? Tons of great players and as the flagship university he would have had his pick of the litter. He must have been crazy to stay at Tech but he believed in the school, loved the fans, appreciated the Atlanta media and he had just bought a house and had two children in high school. Tough decision.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

Clemson just got pounded by a much better team LSU team. Trevor Lawrence looked like a deer trying to get away from a pack of wolves.

Yes, that would describe pretty much any opposing quarterback down through the years facing the Tigers. Add the Mike the Tiger effect, the drunk students, the Saturday night screaming madness in Baton Rouge and yeah its comparable to a "pack of wolves".

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

The Clemson D line did fine. There were some plays they were unable to keep Burrow from extending. Most of the pressures were on the blitz, but that's what Venables does. Burrow is just that great. He will diagnose a defense readily and pick up on cues for where the opening is lightning quick. He was mostly running because he diagnosed the likely hole pre-snap. When there were blitzes he knew had more rushers than they could block he would throw a very accurate slant within 2.5s. When they kept guys underneath and cut those off but gave him a couple seconds more he would deliver a perfect bomb downfield where only his guy could get it. Nearly impossible to beat that.

The best quarterback in the country, a good running back with varied skills, and perhaps the best receivers in the country with a serviceable to pretty good offensive line you pretty much have to keep them off the field to have any chance. Clemson could not do that but the orange Tigers have nothing to be ashamed of they ran into a Heisman winning quarterback who had yet another Heisman moment on the big stage. It happens.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

My only fear for Burrow is that he is going to be drafted by the Bengals....I don't have a lot of faith in their ability to put him in the right system.

The Bengals have a system?

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Umm. They would only be allowed to play Cleveland and Atlanta twice... So I guess that 4 would be considered as a few [emoji6]

Ha! Cincinnati, the Jets. There are some more

 

[smokey_wasp]

Bengals better pluck someone from the Saints to be the OC or just hire Brady straight up.

Brady just took a job with the Carolina Panthers, so that's out.

 

[DeepSnap]

Was that the year Jerry Stovall ran a kickoff back for a touchdown for the Tigers? Seems like that was at Grant Field and I vaguely remember seeing it but I am not sure of the year.

Yep, Stovall ran the 2nd half kickoff back for a TD in 1962 & they made it hold up for the 10-7 win. It was a nationally televised game & young 12YO DeepSnap was sitting in the south end zone horseshoe watching Stovall's #21 getting smaller & smaller as he returned Lothridge's kickoff.

Auer, probably the last (only?) Tech student to keep a lion in his dorm room, almost got strangled in the locker room by Lothridge after dropping BTK's last second wide open Hail Mary that hit him in the hands. Had a good view of that drop, too.

 

[stinger 1957]

LSU on a mission pretty much the whole year. I have felt for several weeks they would win it all.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

Yep, Stovall ran the 2nd half kickoff back for a TD in 1962 & they made it hold up for the 10-7 win. It was a nationally televised game & young 12YO DeepSnap was sitting in the south end zone horseshoe watching Stovall's #21 getting smaller & smaller as he returned Lothridge's kickoff.

Auer, probably the last (only?) Tech student to keep a lion in his dorm room, almost got strangled in the locker room by Lothridge after dropping BTK's last second wide open Hail Mary that hit him in the hands. Had a good view of that drop, too.

OK, I give up. I remember Stovall's long kickoff return but I do not recall Auer dropping that wide open pass. Who is BTK? I am assuming that by 1962 Lothridge was the quarterback as Stan Gann had move on but maybe I am missing something.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

OK, I give up. I remember Stovall's long kickoff return but I do not recall Auer dropping that wide open pass. Who is BTK? I am assuming that by 1962 Lothridge was the quarterback as Stan Gann had move on but maybe I am missing something.

I can't believe you don't remember Auer not catching that pass. It was the talk of the campus for the next week. However, I don't remember Stovall's KO return. You can see both plays in this very brief highlight video -- https://duckduckgo.com/?q=1962+Ga+Tech+vs+LSU+football&t=ffnt&ia=videos&iax=videos&iai=G_gOSLE5oHU Auer's drop is not how I remembered it, so either there were two plays in which Auer failed, or I just didn't remember the details correctly.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

OK, I give up. I remember Stovall's long kickoff return but I do not recall Auer dropping that wide open pass. Who is BTK? I am assuming that by 1962 Lothridge was the quarterback as Stan Gann had move on but maybe I am missing something.

I think BTK refers to Lotheridge, who was sometimes referred to as Billy the Kid. But there was an offensive lineman under Carson named Billy Kidd, and he is the one I generally (though perhaps erroneously) remember as Billy the Kid.