Can Tide spoil LSU’s ‘Dream Season’ in title game?

It would be a shame if Alabama ruined LSU’s BCS party.

The Tigers have pieced together one of the greatest regular seasons in the history of college football.

LSU defeated three BCS bowl teams away from home, including Alabama in Tuscaloosa Nov. 5.

The Tigers defeated eight bowl teams, five of those away from Tiger Stadium.

LSU defeated five teams that did not go to bowl games. The combined margin of victory in those games was 216-29.

LSU became the first school to have the two starting cornerbacks on the Associated Press All American first team.

LSU has never been 13-0 in a season. Until now.

Can Alabama spoil the greatest season in the history of LSU football? Sure. Will it happen? I am going to say … well, no.

As the rematch approaches, LSU has gobs of additional motivation. For one, Alabama is a one-point favorite at the Superdome, essentially an LSU home game.

Two, for almost two months, the Tigers have had to hear about how Alabama let them off the hook.

In the first quarter at Tuscaloosa, Alabama placekicker Cade Foster was wide right from 43 and 50 yards in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Tigers blocked a 49-yard field goal attempt by Jeremy Shelley.

This week, a friend sent me a Facebook message that read, “Hey, Alabama, if you can get close enough to read this, you can attempt a field goal.”

Then there’s the most Crimson-lamented play of the game. In the fourth quarter, wide receiver Marquis Maze’s wildcat pass out of the shotgun was floating to a wide-open Bama tight end Michael Williams. Safety Eric Reid alertly left his man and took the ball away from Williams at the LSU 1-yard line.

We thought it would be the defining play of the college football season, the one that could send LSU on a path to the championship game and one that would send Alabama to New Orleans, only six days earlier, to play in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

But, here we are again.

I flash back to 2003. In September, LSU beat Georgia 17-10 in Baton Rouge. In the SEC championship, the Tigers overwhelmed Georgia in the rematch.

Justin Vincent (remember him?) rushed for 201 yards. The Tigers intercepted Georgia quarterback David Greene three times and had six sacks.

An LSU offensive lineman told me after the game, “They thought we were lucky when we beat them the first time.”

This time, the LSU offensive line will be healthy. Jordan Jefferson is settled in as the Tiger starting quarterback.

Since the LSU game, Alabama kickers have attempted seven field goals and made only four. Since then, LSU kicker Drew Alleman has made all three field goal attempts.

And, punter Brad Wing was named first team All American. In the Bama game, Wing’s 73-yard punt over the head of Marquis Maze was a huge play in the game. Wing also placed four punts inside the 20.

In a BCS championship game, it seems weird to be fixating on kickers. But in a game featuring the best two defenses in college football, every yard and boot counts.

So, I say to start 2012, the Tigers finish off the dream season of 2011.

Ed Daniels is sports director of ABC26 WGNO. He can be reached at edaniels@clarionherald.org.