Finally, high stakes have come back to Tiger Stadium! Just as sure as Ed Orgeron took the job as the LSU head football coach in late September and just as sure as this Louisiana Saturday night in Death Valley, Tiger Stadium will make Mardi Gras look like work; Coach Oeaux and the Tiger family will be facing the Alabama Crimson Tide! Call them the most dangerous team in all of college football. Call them the most violent and scariest opponent the Tigers have faced. Call them the Crimson Tide, or just “The Tide,” or Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride; call them whatever you want to call them because it doesn’t matter! The only thing that matters is that this Louisiana Saturday night Coach Oeaux is going into Tiger Stadium to do what he does best and that’s rally the Tiger family to attack as “one team, one heartbeat.” This will be the night we all remember as the night Ed Orgeron ended up winning the head coaching job and being declared the man at Louisiana State University.
Just over a month ago the Tigers were down and out. Nobody was giving them a chance to make anything out of this season. “Here comes another Texas Bowl,” they said. “These Tigers are only capable of getting to a Rice Krispies bowl and packing bowls,” they said. People were saying things like “this is not a contender anymore.” So they fired Les Miles and everyone looked ahead to the next guy and next season. People were talking about Tom Herman and Jimbo Fisher while everybody forgot about the man who was here the entire time. And that man is the Cajun talkin’, sideline stalkin’, shirt rippin’, gravel sippin’, boots to asses after you finish your classes, the people’s Coach Oeaux!
The greatest interim head coach of all time has his one shot this Lousiana Saturday night to prove himself to the boosters, the game makers, and the entire world. But the fact of the matters is this; Coach Oeaux has his work cut out for him. He may be the greatest interim head coach ever, but he is facing arguably the greatest coach ever in Nick Saban, which means Coach Oeaux needs to not only motivate his players to focus on the task at hand and to play as one team with one heartbeat; but it also means that Coach Oeaux needs to motivate his players, his staff, himself, and the entire Tiger Family to want it more than the Crimson Tide. They need to dig a little deeper than the Crimson Tide, because this Louisiana Saturday night isn’t about who is the best runner or the best tackler. It is about the team willing to do anything.
Saban’s players will show up Louisiana Saturday night with their 5 star Rivals.com ratings and their athleticism and all the hype that comes with being the number one team in the country. Coach Oeaux and his team will bring something much much more. Coach Oeaux and his team will bring five long years of frustration and the spirit of a grass eating fool who made the ultimate sacrifice. This Louisiana Saturday night means more than just beating Alabama. It means more than keeping this season alive. This Louisiana Saturday night is all about Coach Oeaux, the one man who can keep that Tiger heart beating. Nobody else is capable. You know it. I know it. And this Louisiana Saturday night, Coach Oeaux is going to show it.
– Alan Michael