In 2000, the LSU football team was attempting to emerge from a decade of darkness and despair.
 
The Tigers exited the 1990s with a forgettable 54-58-1 record, which included seven losing seasons.
 
With the new decade came a new era in LSU football — the Nick Saban era. Saban came to LSU via Michigan State and was entrusted with the responsibility of restoring the program to its past glory.
 
But following a 2-2 start, which included a loss at home to Alabama-Birmingham, the Tigers needed a spark.
 
They got that and more when No. 11 Tennessee came to Baton Rouge 10 years ago from today.
 
Despite playing a week after an embarrassing loss at home and facing a highly touted opponent, the Tigers were confident they could walk away with a victory — which they did.
 
“I can remember that we had beat ourselves [against UAB], so we knew we were better than what we were playing,” said Ryan O’Neal, a special teams player at LSU from 1999 to 2002.
 
The Tigers roared out of the gate, taking a 24-6 lead on two receiving touchdowns by Josh Reed, a 74-yard touchdown run by LaBrandon Toefield and a John Corbello field goal.
 
The Vols refused to go down without a fight.
 
They outscored the Tigers 25-7 in the second half to send the game into overtime tied at 31.
 
“It was one of the loudest games I’ve ever played in,” O’Neal said. “Overtime was when it got really loud. You could feel them screaming.”
 
Tennessee won the overtime coin toss and elected to play defense first. The Tigers took the ball, facing the student section in the north end zone and struck immediately.
 
LSU quarterback Rohan Davey took the snap, dropped back and connected with tight end Robert Royal for a 25-yard touchdown and 38-31 LSU lead.
 
LSU defensive coordinator John Chavis, who held the same position at Tennessee in 2000, remembers the play vividly.
 
“We’d worked on that route, matching it up,” Chavis said. “They did a great job of getting the ball to the tight end, and all of a sudden they’ve got the touchdown.”
 
O’Neal said the play was one he had watched Tennessee perfect on film.
 
“That’s what they would always do,” O’Neal said. “When I was talking to Corbello I said, ‘Man, we beat them with their own play.'”
 
Facing fourth down on the 4-yard line, Volunteers quarterback A.J. Suggs was hurried by three Tigers and forced a pass to Eric Parker in the front corner of the end zone. The pass was broken up by LSU’s Damien James and fell incomplete.
 
Before the pass had time to hit Tiger Stadium’s hallowed turf, the crowd of 91,682 had swarmed the team and goal posts. The posts were uprooted from the ground and carried out of the stadium.
 
“It was just pandemonium,” O’Neal said. “You just grab everything and hold onto everything. Everyone is trying to grab onto you, your helmet, your gloves.”
 
Chavis’ memory of the game is of one that got away.
 
“It was one of those deals that you always feel that you should have won,” Chavis said.
 
While the game felt like an upset of monumental proportions, current Tennessee coach Derek Dooley, who was LSU’s tight ends coach in 2000, saw the potential the Tigers had.
 
“We had phenomenal quarterbacks in [Josh] Booty and Rohan. We had receivers like Josh Reed that we inherited,” Dooley said. We had a tight end in Robert Royal. All were NFL guys. And then we had two running backs that were NFL guys in Domanick Davis and LaBrandon Toefield.”
 
The Tigers went on to win five of their final seven games following the upset, including victories against No. 13 Mississippi State and Alabama, the first time they had defeated the Crimson Tide in Baton Rouge since 1969.
 
LSU would follow up the 2000 season with the most successful decade in the program’s history. The 2000s saw LSU win four Southeastern Conference Western Division titles (2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007), three SEC championships (2001, 2003 and 2007) and two national championships (2003 and 2007).
 
Dooley looks at the Tennessee game as a pivotal moment in LSU’s return to glory.
 
“That was a real big game because obviously losing to UAB was a big blow,” Dooley said. “To be able to bounce back … the energy in the stadium was phenomenal, and it showed you what our team was capable of. I think it helped build confidence in the program.”
 
 
 
 
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Contact Rob Landry at [email protected]