LSU football: 5 best seasons in program history
By John Buhler
Pick Analysis. National Champions/SEC Champions. No. 1 Coaches/No. 1 AP. player. Scouting Report. 2007 (12-2). 4. 817
If 2004 started the College Football Playoff discussions and 2011 was a year we were sadly denied one featuring LSU, Oklahoma State, Alabama and Stanford, then 2007 was the year that showed us how wild college football can really get. LSU won its third national championship and only one under Les Miles, but it wasn’t without its own intrigue and oddity.
LSU went 12-2 that season, losing a pair of conference games in triple overtime to the No. 17 Kentucky Wildcats and to an unranked rival in Arkansas. Despite losing starting quarterback JaMarcus Russell to the NFL’s Oakland Raiders as the No. 1 draft pick in 2007, LSU found a way to win a national title as a two-loss team with Matt Flynn as its starting quarterback.
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Because the No. 17 Tennessee Volunteers held the head-to-head tiebreaker over the No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs, the Vols would represent the SEC East in Atlanta. LSU would beat the Vols by a touchdown in the Georgia Dome to set up a date with the top-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes in the BCS National Championship in the Louisiana Superdome.
LSU won by two scores over the Buckeyes, winning the most improbable national championship to date. It’s only fitting the wackiest college football season ever ended up with the grass-chewing Miles’ only championship. For a year that started off with the Appalachian State Mountaineers upsetting the Michigan Wolverines in the Big House, we should have expected nothing Les.