FEINSWOG: A Fun Season That’s Only Going To Get Better

| | | |

“Ten Little Indians” was a song by the late, great Harry Nilsson.

by Lee Feinswog
Tiger Rag Featured Columnist

(At left) Les Miles and his Tigers didn’t play great, but they are still undefeated (Photo by Steve Franz/LSU)

For those of you who don’t recall Nilsson, think “Lime in the Coconut” or “Without You” or “Everybody’s Talking.” And for those of you way too young, Nilsson was an unsung musical genius from the ‘70s and ‘80s whose lyrical sense of humor was something to behold and, well, check him out.

Anyway, Nilsson probably wasn’t a sports fan, but Ten Little Indians is this cute little ditty in which one by one the Indians commit indiscretions like those that break the Ten Commandments and then meet their demise.

Sort of like college football this past week.

Of course, no one has the nickname of Indians any more, but top-ranked teams were going down like the feather-wearing bad guys in a John Wayne movie.

It all started Thursday night when Oregon State skunked Southern Cal in a really fun game to watch – if you could stay up that late – and set in motion a wacky weekend.

Saturday was something else, most notably Ole Miss winning at Florida and then Alabama simply mauling Georgia.

“Thou shall not disrespect your opponent … ”

When the dust cleared, and LSU had survived its game with Mississippi State, the Tigers found themselves in a most excellent position.

They moved up to No. 2 in the rankings.

They have a week off.

And they know that if Ole Miss can go to Gainesville and beat Team Tebow, so can they.

“Thou shall not try to murder your opponent’s quarterback … ”

How nuts are things in the Southeastern Conference? Five weeks in and the only unbeaten teams in league play are LSU and Bama in the West and Vanderbilt and Kentucky in the East. Of course, Vandy has yet to play Auburn, Georgia, and Florida and Kentucky, well, Kentucky hasn’t played an SEC game yet.

But unbeaten is unbeaten.

“Thou shall not covet your opponent’s schedule … ”

Funny how things work out. LSU fans were worried when the Tigers saw their second game of the season, against Troy State, postponed because of hurricanes to November. LSU had only two pre-conference games going into Auburn, but that didn’t seem to hurt, especially not young quarterback Jarrett Lee.

On Saturday, when things were going haywire around the nation – Michigan’s huge comeback against Wisconsin, Duke crushing Virginia (which might be the biggest note of all), Clemson and Wake Forest going down – LSU kept plugging along.

Especially Lee, who made the most of his first start. The good news for LSU is that Lee’s second half at Auburn does not appear to be a fluke. He completed 18 of 27 passes for 261 yards, two touchdowns and only one interception, which, for a redshirt freshman is pretty stout in the SEC.

“And a child shall lead them …”

OK, it’s not one of the commandments, but a good standby bible verse, since Lee won’t turn 20 till next June. He seems to be the real deal and if he is, Lee has answered one of the LSU’s biggest questions plaguing the Tigers this season.

Now LSU has a week off before starting a three-game stretch that will define its year: at Florida, at South Carolina and home for Georgia.

If what has transpired so far is any indication, LSU will now be favored at Florida, which first plays Arkansas on Saturday as it tries to regroup and figure out what the heck is going on.

South Carolina lost to Vandy, but by the time the LSU games roll around, no one can say they know what to expect.

And Georgia, the choice of some as preseason No. 1, can’t be as bad as it was in the first half against Bama, falling behind 31-0 in the first half.

“You shall not covet your conference foe’s home-field advantage … ”

LSU is 4-0. At this point, most observers expected the Tigers to be 4-1, having beaten Troy and losing at Auburn. They are mostly healthy and riding a wave, knowing that on the wackiest day of the young season they avoided the same fate of three teams ranked above them. But they did have to endure seeing Nick Saban bask in the glory of Alabama’s big victory.

“You shall have no other big-time coaches be fore me … ”

Saban. Hmmm. That’s a subject for another day, but now that Alabama is fully in the mix, come November 8, when the Crimson Tide comes to town, there’s another Harry Nilsson epic that comes to mind, “You’re Breaking My Heart,” with lyrics much too bawdy for these pages.

But you get the idea.

It all adds up to a whole lotta fun, coming on the heels of a season after which you thought following LSU couldn’t get any better. But this season has been a blast and you get the feeling it’s only going to get even more fun as it develops.

—

Baton Rouge sportswriter Lee Feinswog is the host of the weekly television show Sports Monday. He’s covered LSU athletics since 1984. He’ll gladly sell you an autographed copy of his book “Tales From the LSU Sidelines” if you contact him at sportsmonday@aol.com or (225) 926-3256.