The sound of cleats clicking on concrete shatters the silence of the corridor that lies beneath the northern quadrant of Tiger Stadium.
Players file out of the locker room and jog across the field as musical notes tumble out of the brass instruments of the Golden Band from Tigerland.
It is Saturday night in Death Valley, and the second half of football is about to commence.
However, there is a noticeable difference in the atmosphere at the start of the third quarter.
Though there is still an entire half left in coach Ed Orgeron’s football sermon, the pews that fill “the cathedral of college football” have begun to empty.
A crowd of 101,000 quickly dwindles to 70,000 and continues to shrink as seconds tick away from the game clock.
Some argue that fans only leave early when LSU plays a lesser opponent, but that’s not an absolute rule of thumb.
I’ve seen the Tiger Stadium student section clear out well before the end of Southeastern Conference games, simply because one team was winning by three touchdowns.
Still, some would counter and say fans will leave early if the game is a “blowout,” yet that theory doesn’t necessarily hold water either.
LSU was locked in a 7-3 football game Saturday with a Syracuse team that pulled within two points of the Tigers late in the game. No one saw because the stadium was practically empty by the fourth quarter.
While inferior opponents and wide-margin scores certainly factor into LSU’s dissipating attendance, I believe the true problem stems from the program itself.
The LSU athletic department tries to paint the facade that Tiger football is an elite program, but the truth is that LSU football is nowhere near elite.
That’s an odd statement considering there are so many elite elements that make up LSU football.
The Tigers consistently garner some of the best high school recruits in the nation, averaging a recruiting class rank of 7th in the country since 2012.
LSU has also enjoyed the luxury of an acclaimed coaching staff. The Tigers had the highest paid coaching staff in America from the 2012 season until the beginning of this year.
A reasonable person would assume that coupling elite talent and coaching with the elite facilities at LSU football’s disposal would result in an elite football program.
Unfortunately, the landscape of college football routinely defies the notions of reason.
In the past 5 years, the Tigers have gone 25-16 in an SEC conference that is no longer considered the most dominant league in college football.
After LSU’s last national championship appearance in 2011, the Tigers have gone 3-2 in bowl games, the majority of which were decent in quality but certainly weren’t considered elite bowl berths.
Every year, LSU is guaranteed to take a handful of its competition lightly by routinely playing down to opponents and sometimes deciding to not show up for games.
Let’s be honest. Any fan that left the Mississippi State game at halftime was at the game longer than the actual LSU team.
I understand that elite status is difficult to achieve and maintain, and the level of consistency seen at universities like Alabama is extremely rare.
I am, however, saying that the department’s inevitable griping about lackluster attendance among fans and students will be a pointless and unproductive endeavor.
Due to this team’s youth and lack of depth at key positions, LSU football’s record and attendance will both continue their bearish trends.
It’s not like any of that matters though. LSU is a gymnastics school anyway.
