Making the case for 2019 LSU as the best college football team ever

The 2019 LSU Tigers had one of the greatest seasons in college football history. Here is their case for why this was the best team of all time.

Just like Tina Turner sang, 2019 LSU is simply the best.

It was an incredible season for the 2019 LSU Tigers. This was a team that was coming off a good, but not a great season in 2018. Though they beat the UCF Knights in the Fiesta Bowl, that team only went 10-3 (5-3), finishing third in the SEC West. Frankly, that was what we were expecting out of this team heading into 2019. Boy, were we pleasantly surprised?

With redshirt senior, graduate transfer quarterback Joe Burrow and former New Orleans Saints offensive assistant Joe Brady, the Bayou Bengals offense became something we never thought we’d ever see at a place like LSU. Yes, the talent has always been there in Baton Rouge, but this offensive explosion caught everybody but LSU head coach Ed Orgeron by surprise.

LSU did not lose at all this season, going 15-0 (8-0) en route to the fourth national championship in school history. After falling to the division rival Texas A&M Aggies in seven overtimes during Thanksgiving Weekend 2018, LSU would not lose another game. With Burrow and Brady’s rise to stardom, this LSU team became the talk of college football, and for good reason.

Burrow completed over 75 percent of his passes, throwing for over 5,700 yards and 60 touchdowns in his Heisman Trophy-winning campaign. His 2019 season eclipsed what Cam Newton did with the 2010 Auburn Tigers. The only comparable season for a player that holds up to what Burrow did was Barry Sanders‘ 1988 Heisman season with the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

Greatness was all over the gridiron for LSU. Burrow took home every award he was seemingly up for at the quarterback position. His No. 1 receiving target in wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase took home the Fred Biletnikoff Award as a true sophomore. Safety Grant Delpit won the Jim Thorpe Award as the best defensive back in football. Orgeron was obviously Coach of the Year.

The talent on this team was tremendous and the execution by this squad was flawless. This 2019 LSU team is right up there with the best college football teams of all time. The question is if this is the best single-season team ever?

Is it better than the 2001 Miami Hurricanes, the peak of Tom Osborne‘s Nebraska Cornhuskers, the peak of Pete Carroll’s USC Trojans, the peak of Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide or even the 2018 Clemson Tigers under Dabo Swinney? Time will be the best indicator of this, but here is LSU’s case for why its 2019 football team is the greatest group we’ve ever seen.

2019 LSU joins 2018 Clemson as the only 15-0 team in the modern college football era. Of course, playing in 15 games a year has only been possible since the dawn of the College Football Playoff era in 2014. LSU was also the first No. 1 seed in the playoff to win the national championship and achieved perfection. That gives the Bayou Bengals an edge over the Tigers of the ACC.

Statistically, LSU had the No. 1 offense in college football, averaging 48.4 points per game. While its defense was only 32nd in the land by allowing 21.9 points per game, keep in mind LSU played 15 games this year, navigating arguably the toughest schedule any national champion has ever gone through unscathed. So what if the defensive numbers aren’t great? This team was!

No, it’s not just the accolades, going undefeated, the statistics and winning the College Football Playoff makes LSU’s case so strong. If you look at who the Bayou Bengals had to play to even get to this point, that is the biggest reason they can claim they are the best single-season team ever.

LSU faced seven teams ranked inside of the top-10 at the time of their meeting. The Tigers beat the No. 9 Texas Longhorns, the No. 7 Florida Gators, the No. 9 Auburn Tigers, No. 3 Alabama, the No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs, the No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners and No. 3 Clemson. Most teams would be incredibly lucky to beat four top-10 teams en route to a national title. LSU beat seven of them!

Okay, so those were the rankings at the time LSU faced them. Maybe those rankings went down as the season went on? Could those wins be misleading and slightly skewed, given when LSU took those teams on?

It can’t be that impressive as it looks, right? Wrong, it is that impressive and here is why.

The single most incredible thing about LSU’s season is how well the teams it beat finished this season. LSU was the first team to beat the top-four teams in the initial AP Poll from the start of the year (Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Oklahoma). All seven of the top-10 teams LSU beat finished the season ranked in the top-25 of the final AP Poll too, including five of the top-eight.

Yes, LSU beat what the Associated Press deemed to be the eight best teams in the country. No. 1 LSU beat No. 2 Clemson, No. 4 Georgia, No. 6 Florida, No. 7 Oklahoma and No. 8 Alabama. Auburn finished at No. 14 and even Texas finished the year at No. 25. Those would be considered signature wins for any program. LSU had seven. Nearly half of their games were signature wins.

If you want more proof with how impressive LSU’s season was, here are some of the accomplishments of the teams they beat.

• Clemson: ACC Champions, Fiesta Bowl Champions
• Georgia: SEC East Champions, Sugar Bowl Champions
• Florida: Orange Bowl Champions
• Oklahoma: Big 12 Champions
• Alabama: Citrus Bowl Champions
• Texas: Texas Bowl Champions

The only ranked team LSU beat that didn’t win its bowl game was Auburn, who lost to the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the Outback Bowl. Minnesota was one of the four top-10 teams in the country in the final AP Poll that LSU didn’t get a chance to play and beat.

Overall, to come out of the SEC West unscathed, then beat Georgia in the SEC Championship, throttle Oklahoma in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and finally shred Clemson in the national title, you’re not going to find a team with a more impressive resume.

This is why they’re the best team ever.

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