GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
CLEMSON, S.C. – LSU 55, Georgia Southern 3.
It seems so long ago. That was the score the last time the Tigers won a season opening game.
It was Aug. 31, 2019.
COVID-19 was still five months away from hitting the shores of the United States.
And Joe Burrow still had 55 touchdown passes to throw over his next 14 games after completing 23 of 37 passes for 278 yards and five touchdowns in the win that night at Tiger Stadium. Burrow would go on to win LSU’s first Heisman Trophy since Billy Cannon in 1959, and the Tigers won their first national championship since 2007.
LSU has not won an opener since, losing 44-34 to Mississippi State in 2020, then 38-27 at UCLA, 24-23 to Florida State in the Superdome, 45-24 to Florida State in Orlando and 27-20 to USC last season in Las Vegas.
0-5. LSU tied the school record for most consecutive season opening losses last year with its fifth. LSU also lost five straight openers from 1991-95.
0-3 is coach Brian Kelly in his openers at LSU.
Only two of those five were ranked – No. 8 Florida State in 2023 on its way to a 13-1 season and USC last year. But only Florida State in 2022 and ’23 finished ranked.
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On Saturday night in Clemson, South Carolina, LSU opens the 2025 season at No. 4 Clemson, which is the Tigers’ highest ranked opponent in a season opener since they beat No. 3 Oregon, 40-27, in Dallas in 2011. LSU went on to finish 13-0 and win the SEC before losing the national title game to Alabama, 21-0.
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LSU hasn’t played a higher ranked team in that team’s home stadium to open a season since losing at No. 3 Texas A&M, 33-17, in 1995. The highest ranked team LSU has ever beaten on the road to open a season was No. 15 Texas A&M by 17-3 in 1987, and No. 15 Arizona State, 35-31, in 2005, in a game moved from Tiger Stadium because of Hurricane Katrina.
Had LSU won two or three of those last five openers, a close loss on the road at the No. 4 team in the nation that returns much of its 10-4 team of a year ago that reached the College Football Playoff wouldn’t be so bad.
But it’s going to be terrible back home if LSU loses because of the Residual Effect. A huge 0-6 will hover over the LSU airplane as it lands back in Baton Rouge. And a big 0-for-4 over Kelly’s head. Never mind that the Tigers could navigate the rest of their schedule with only one other loss or two. And LSU could reach the 12-team playoff with three losses – if they’re good losses to ranked teams, which is what a Clemson loss would be.
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But just think if somehow LSU beats Clemson. Can you even imagine it? I can’t. I wrote in July that LSU would lose, 27-13, at Clemson, but will finish 10-2 and reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2019.
But who knows? Maybe Clemson is overrated. And it is only favored by four points at home, so the oddsmakers see it as a toss-up. Clemson’s defense is much the same as it was last season when it finished No. 85 in the nation against the run with 160.6 allowed a game. It has an excellent new defensive coordinator in Tom Allen, formerly the DC at Penn State. But first seasons can be tough for coordinators.
If LSU can run a decent amount, that will open up things for quarterback Garrett Nussmeier and a bevy of fast receivers, if LSU’s brand new offensive line can give him enough time. It could happen, as they say in “Angels In The Outfield.”
And what would happen if LSU actually wins an opener? Will they start setting cars on fire in downtown Baton Rouge? Let’s hope not. But it would be that kind of a feeling.
It would be a monumental win for the program and for Kelly because of the Residual Effect, which would be erased. It would be the Tigers’ biggest win since knocking off No. 6 Alabama and coach Nick Saban, 32-31, in overtime in Kelly’s first season in 2022.
It would be LSU’s first win over a top five team on the road since Burrow and coach Ed Orgeron’s won at No. 2 Alabama, 46-41, in 2019.
It would be LSU’s first win ever over a top five team at that team’s home stadium in an opener. The Tigers have only played three such games, losing 20-6 at No. 4 Texas in 1954, 24-0 at No. 5 Texas A&M in 1993 and 33-17 at No. 3 Texas A&M in 1995.
And what an historic win it would be for Kelly, who is 1-8 in all games against top five teams at Notre Dame and LSU anywhere on the schedule. His only win was 47-40 over No. 1 Clemson in double overtime at Notre Dame in 2020. He is 0-3 against top five opponents’ at their home stadiums – 28-14 at No. 4 Stanford in 2011, 31-27 at No. 2 Florida State in 2014 and 23-17 at No. 3 Georgia in 2019.
The other five losses to top five teams were at neutral sites and mostly ugly – 42-14 to No. 2 Alabama in the national title game in 2012, 30-3 to No. 2 Clemson in a College Football Playoff semifinal in 2018, 34-10 to No. 3 Clemson in the ACC title game in 2020, 31-14 to Alabama in a CFP semi in 2020 and 50-30 to Georgia as LSU’s coach in the SEC title game in 2022.
Kelly might start trying to talk with a Louisiana accent again, if he pulls off such a win Saturday night.
IT WILL BE A WEEKS WEEKEND AT CLEMSON
LSU linebacker Whit Weeks smiles just about all the time, but when he was asked what a win at Clemson would do, he went into full glow.
“It would give us boosted confidence,” he said. “And we’ve been preaching 1-0 for months now.”
LSU’s last scrimmage last Saturday in Tiger Stadium was played under huge 1-0 signs in purple and gold on the video screens.
“To go out there and get that victory would boost our confidence even more,” Weeks said.
Would they give everybody a day off of school Tuesday after Labor Day on Monday?
Or perhaps LSU could just stay in Clemson on Sunday and Monday if it wins Saturday and sort of occupy the town.
“We know it’s going to be a dogfight,” LSU linebacker/Star Harold Perkins Jr. said. “But that’s what we’re made for. That’s what we’re built for.”
But they’ve been building since 2020. … About done?
“I love games like this,” Perkins said. “You’re going to see who’s really there.”
Clemson hasn’t been there in an opener since the 2022 season, by the way, as coach Dabo Swinney’s team lost, 34-3, to No. 1 Georgia at home last year and 28-7 at Duke the year before.
And there it is again. “It’s going to be a great road win.”
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) August 29, 2025
-Brian Kelly to close his last radio show before opener at No. 4 Clemson. He is 0-3 in openers as LSU’s coach and predicted opening wins last 2 seasons.
“It’s going to be a great road win,” Kelly said to end his weekly radio show Thursday night.
Of course, he predicted wins in his openers before the 2023 and ’24 seasons, too.
One of these years, he’s going to get one right.
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