There was a time in college football when one loss spelled doom for any power vying for a national championship. Most of the winners were undefeated for generations, and LSU remains the lone titlist to finish at the top with two defeats. The Tigers were 12-2 in 2007 in year three of the Les Miles experiment, dropping contests in triple overtime to Kentucky and Arkansas. The defiant squad captured the SEC crown and a series of last game defeats by other contenders sent the Tigers to the Superdome. There Miles and crew beat Ohio State 38-24 in a second title run in four years.
LSU posted undefeated records in 1908, 1958 and 2019 and is regarded as the best in the land in those years. No. 1 status was achieved in 2003 and in 2007 with less than perfect seasons. Nick Saban withstood a 19-7 loss to Florida at home in 2003, but his team roared down the stretch for the first of his seven national titles. Only two of Saban’s teams finished unbeaten. Alabama went 14-0 in 2009 and 13-0 in the Covid season of 2020.
In the playoff era, Indiana may reign as the last undefeated champ for a while. Just as the 32-0 Hoosiers of 1976 are the most recent perfect record team in NCAA basketball, the IU footballers of 2025 became the first major college juggernaut to go 16-0, eclipsing the 15-0 mark of the Burrow Bengals of 2019. More games and longer seasons produce ample opportunity for hiccups on the path to glory.
Lane Kiffin lifts the curtain on his Louisiana opus with the most ambitious LSU football slate of opponents since the murderer’s row Charles McClendon faced in his final season of 1979. It is curious that McClendon’s hope of retaining his job spurred his unit to play magnificently in close defeats to No. 1 Alabama (3-0), No. 2 USC (17-12) and No. 6 Florida State (24-19).
The losses to the Tide, Trojans and Seminoles were epic battles at Tiger Stadium in a span of six weeks. The three marquee foes completed the season with 34 wins, one loss and one tie.
The affable Arkansan was just one score short against Alabama from winning the SEC and depriving Bear Bryant of his last title. It would have been difficult for Athletic Director Paul Dietzel to dump Mac with that scenario.
LSU featured a veteran roster with John Ed Bradley, Steve Ensminger, David Woodley, Carlos Carson, Hokie Gajan, Tom Tully, Greg LaFleur, John Adams, Chris Williams, Willie Teal, Marcus Quinn, George Atiyeh, Benjy Thibodeaux and Lyman White coupled with freshman standouts Albert Richardson, Greg Bowser, Ramsey Dardar and Alan Risher.
Talented indeed. But USC was waiting in game three with the most gifted roster in college history with four Pro Football Hall of Famers and two Heisman Trophy recipients in Charles White and Marcus Allen. Southern Cal was a professional operation and almost succumbed to a team that reflected the traditional college outfit of the latter part of the Twentieth Century.
Mac was dispatched to retirement at 56 despite the heroic effort of 1979. Thirty-four-year-old Bo Rein left North Carolina State to replace McClendon and was dead six weeks later in a plane crash. His successor at Raleigh was Monte Kiffin, father of then five-year Lane Monte Kiffin.
McClendon had tough luck with his best teams in his tenure. His 1969 Tigers lost only once, 26-23 at Jackson to Ole Miss and Archie Manning. The Rebels erased a late 23-12 lead by LSU and cost the Tigers a shot at playing for the national title against Texas in the Cotton Bowl.
LSU won the SEC title in 1970, but the Tigers lost their national quest on opening night when Texas A&M scored with 13 seconds remaining on a 79-yard pass from Lex James to Hugh McElroy. It was the first touchdown in Aggie history by a black player. The 20-18 win came only eleven days after LSU quarterback Butch Duhe died of a brain hemorrhage.
A year later, LSU was stunned at home in the 1971 opener, 31-21 by Colorado. The Tigers were loaded with Bert Jones, Tommy Casanova, Andy Hamilton and Art Cantrelle, but they never recovered from the shocker against the Buffaloes. .
Governor John McKeithen was so incensed over LSU’s opening night woes that he punched out a window in a state car in frustration. The year’s opener is also fraught with danger at Death Valley.
Kiffin’s initial assignment is against Clemson and two-time NCAA champion Dabo Swinney. The Tigers from South Carolina have fallen back to the pack in recent seasons and lost at home to LSU to start the 2025 season. Yet Clemson remains a legitimate opponent. Kiffin’s honeymoon will last exactly one week if Swinney scores an upset victory on Sept. 5.
After the liftoff against Clemson, LSU has other home dates with Texas A&M, Alabama and Texas sprinkled with road tests at Ole Miss, Auburn and Tennessee. Those seven games will determine whether Kiffin is a hit or a work in progress in his debut campaign. He likely will need to win five of those clashes to make the playoffs.
It is anticipated the Tigers to prevail often enough to make the round of 12 contestants for NCAA gold. Kiffin nonetheless encounters an array of minefields at the start of his odyssey in Baton Rouge. We will witness how the hot yoga coach handles the vast pressure coming with championship expectations.
Bill Cassidy is no Butch Cassidy
Great political campaigns are like well-orchestrated robberies with lots of strategy, precision, timing amid uncertainty. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, immortalized in the 1969 film starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, performed the longest string of successful train and bank robberies in history.
U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy was facing daunting odds in his quest for a third term after voting to convict President Trump on articles of impeachment. He lost his bid in humiliating fashion despite a massive war chest and an array of well compensated advisors telling him he could beat Juilia Letlow and John Fleming. Politicians like bank robbers often hear what they want, not what they need.
The loss by Cassidy means that LSU will not be represented in the U.S. Senate for the first time in nearly 80 years. Cassidy, brother of former Tiger great Steve Cassidy, finished third in the May 16 Republican primary, sending the gastroenterologist back to Baton Rouge.
Letlow went to South Florida and U.L. Monroe while Fleming is an Ole Miss man. The other Louisiana Senator is John Kennedy who attended Louisiana Tech, Vanderbilt and Virginia, not LSU.
Previous LSU Senators include Russell Long (1948-87), Bennett Johnston (1972-97), John Breaux (1987-05) and Mary Landrieu (1997-15).
Intro for Dale Brown Column
The Pete Maravich Assembly Center has been the stage for some colorful basketball maestros, but none more charismatic and successful than Dale Brown, who coached at the arena from 1972-97.
Brown won four SEC championships and directed his troops to a pair of Final Fours as the LSU basketball coach who won more games in the building than anyone else. Press Maravich and John Brady gave fans some memorable moments at the PMAC as did current coach Will Wade, the last LSU hoops boss to win the SEC title. Kim Mulkey also triggered some rekindled roundball passion with her national championship run of 2023 on the women’s court.
When he returned to LSU, Wade received a contract that will pay him a record salary and abundance of other incentives. In the age of imperial coaching, people like Wade get base pay over the duration of their contract for $30 million plus a plethora of perks.
Coach Brown provided Tiger Rag with his initial contract drafted by Athletic Director Carl Maddox. Brown’s base compensation was under $2,000 per month in 1972. Much has changed in 54 years as this document confirms.
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