For the first time in my life, I’m yearning for traffic congestion

By Ed Daniels
Clarion Herald Sports

Frankly, I have had enough of leaving late for LSU games and arriving early.

I have had enough of leaving New Orleans 3 1/2 hours before kickoff, stopping at my favorite Baton Rouge Mexican restaurant (two ground beef tacos, with chips and salsa, rice, and several diet Cokes) and still arriving at Tiger Stadium before Tiger Band marches down Victory Hill.

I liked it better, the other way. The games went down to the wire, LSU earned a dramatic victory, and it took 2 1/2 hours to get home in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

As I drove, my wife called me several times, wondering what time I might arrive. These days, I get home, and she is still awake, reading her Kindle, waiting for me.

It’s too early. I like very late. Bumper-to-bumper traffic often meant something special happened that night.

Not lately.

Since 2012, LSU fans have seen glimpses of greatness – 2019 was the obvious exception – but mostly football that teetered between above average to mediocrity.

Heading into Saturday night’s season finale against Texas A&M, LSU had a 90-38 record from 2012 to the final game of 2021.

That’s a winning percentage right at 70%. A lot of schools would be happy with that; some would even be thrilled.

But, this is LSU, and this is the SEC West, where expectations are totally unrealistic – and must be reached.

LSU expects what happened from 2003 to 2011. In that stretch, the football team won two national championships and played for another. In those nine seasons, LSU won 81% of its games. If you toss out an 8-5 season in 2008, the Tigers won 84% of their games in eight seasons.

That’s more like it.

So, as I watched LSU struggle through a 27-14 win over UL-Monroe, I thought about what the next LSU coach will face. 

He will be expected to beat Ole Miss and Mississippi State nine out of every 10 times. He will be expected to defeat Florida seven or eight out of every 10. And, somehow, find a way to win four or five times out of every 10 against Alabama.

A New Year’s Day bowl appearance will be a given. So will a plethora of LSU selections in the early rounds of the NFL draft. He will be expected to run an exciting offense, one that scores points in bushels. He will be expected to be a great developer of the quarterback position. And, his defense will have to be suffocating.

His game management must be superlative, and so must his coaching staff. He will be expected to do something that hasn’t been done much in the last 10 seasons, outside of the Alabama game: That is, fill the East side upper deck. There were a few stragglers up there Saturday night as the Tigers took on the Warhawks, but not many.

That deck was a symbol of what LSU expects to be and isn’t. When that upper deck is full, it will be a sure sign that LSU made a great hire.

Ed Daniels is sports director at ABC26 WGNO. He can be reached at ed@nextstar.tv.