A little more than 10 years ago, the LSU athletic department wasn’t ready to host a Saturday night game in Death Valley in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
To allow its campus to stabilize in a time of chaos, it needed a change of scenery before games could be played at Tiger Stadium. Arizona State University, the first opponent on its altered schedule, opened its arms when the purple and gold football team was looking for another home.
Now, it’s LSU’s turn to lay out the welcome mat for a team and a university in need.
With severe flooding devastating the South Carolina area, LSU will be the away team as it opens its doors for South Carolina at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Tiger Stadium.
Originally scheduled for 11 a.m. at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina, both programs agreed to shift the location to Baton Rouge, allowing for the university, the city and the state to continue its recovery efforts.
The Gamecocks (2-3, 0-3 Southeastern Conference) have chosen to wear white jerseys, so the Tigers (4-0, 2-0 SEC) will wear purple against a league opponent at Tiger Stadium for the first time in more than 20 years.
While LSU coach Les Miles mentioned the advantages of a game in front of a home crowd, he said his players are sympathetic to South Carolina’s situation.
“Obviously, it’s an advantage for their friends and families to watch them in Tiger Stadium,” Miles said. “That’s evident. They also recognize it’s being done for a very specific reason, and they understand the difficulty that their opponent is going through.”
In 2005, LSU’s season openers against University of North Texas became an afterthought as Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast in late August, forcing many residents from areas such as New Orleans to find refuge on LSU’s campus.
Though the athletic department postponed the Sept. 3 matchup against the Mean Green, football became a needed diversion from disaster a week later for Louisiana residents. The next game, a top-25 matchup with the Sun Devils in Baton Rouge, was moved to Tempe, Arizona.
After accommodating all of LSU’s expenses, the Tigers were finally able to step on the Sun Devil Stadium grass for football. They eventually walked off as victors, squeaking out a four-point win.
“That was a pretty special team,” Miles said at the Southeastern Conference Teleconference. “That was one with great leadership and one that really wanted to be a part of the devastation that was taking part in the state of Louisiana at that time and wanted to be a part of its recovery.”
In an attempt to make South Carolina feel at home, the gameday experience will sound a little different. The Tiger Band will play South Carolina’s fight song and alma mater, and stadium speakers will blare Darude’s “Sandstorm,” a Williams-Brice Stadium tradition before kickoff.
As a similar gesture, Sun Devil Stadium featured the words “Together We Stand” in its end zones with color-coded cutouts of each state on opposite sides of the message.
Although LSU won’t be able to paint South Carolina’s colors or logo on its field because of next week’s home game against Florida, sophomore running back Leonard Fournette understands Saturday brings a little more emotion than just football.
“I’m praying for them,” Fournette said. “That’s something to get over. I hope they continue to stay blessed.”
With classes canceled since Monday, it has been a turbulent week for the South Carolina football team off the field. Likewise, the Gamecocks’ first five games, especially the three against conference opponents, weren’t much kinder.
The Gamecocks lost redshirt sophomore quarterback Connor Mitch for extended time due to a separated shoulder in their second game against University of Kentucky, forcing junior walk-on Perry Orth on to the field for week three. Orth took over in the second quarter of the 26-22 loss to Kentucky, but he faltered against Georgia the following week in 52-20 defeat.
The outing against the Bulldogs led South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier to give freshman Lorenzo Nunez the nod against University of Central Florida, when Nunez rushed and passed for more than 100 yards to match two passing touchdowns in a 31-14 win. Then, Nunez suffered a shoulder injury of his own in the fourth quarter of last week’s 14-point loss to University of Missouri.
Now, Spurrier will call on Orth for the second time this season, but the coach said Nunez still has a chance to play. While the news of Orth starting instead of Nunez is recent, junior nickel back Dwayne Thomas said Monday the game plan remains the same, even if the LSU defense was facing a mobile quarterback like Nunez.
“We just have to play our game,” Thomas said. “Our defense is known for speed. In the past, we’ve been known to contain mobile quarterbacks. So we’re going to look forward to just playing our scheme on the defense and just containing him and forcing him to throw the ball with him arm.”