Ladies and gentlemen, it’s Saturday afternoon in Death Valley!
To many Tiger faithful, the daylight greeting doesn’t carry the same traction it does under the veil of night.
For the first time since 1935, not a single Southeastern Conference game will be played under the lights of Tiger Stadium. The venue that has hosted 243 Tiger wins — 220 of those being night games — will not need to turn on its lights to face an SEC opponent this year.
“I’m mad. I don’t know about anybody else, but I don’t like it,” said sophomore defensive end Sam Montgomery. “I hate, hate having day games. There’s something about going into battle at night in Death Valley. It’s a different place when the sun’s up, and it’s a different place when the sun’s football.”
In 1931 the Tigers played their first ever night game, defeating Spring Hill, 35-0.
Since then, LSU holds a .786 win percentage in games played at night, compared to a .469 percentage in daytime matchups.
That number may be skewed, however, due to the recent influx in big games being moved to earlier time slots. LSU has played many of its day games against ranked opponents.
Some of Tiger Stadium’s most cherished moments have occurred at night. Five of the 10 largest crowds in Tiger Stadium have been for night games, including the No. 1 attendance for the 2009 matchup against Florida, when Death Valley hosted 93,129 spectators.
“We talk about it every day. We know that when the sun goes down, the crowd goes wild,” senior safety Brandon Taylor said.
In the 2007 national championship season, the Tigers turned on the lights to see Matt Flynn connect with Demetrius Byrd on a 22-yard touchdown pass with one second remaining to give LSU a 30-24 victory over No. 18 Auburn. That game ranked No. 14 all-time in LSU attendance with 92,630.
In 1988, former LSU quarterback Tommy Hodson completed an 11-yard pass to LSU tailback Eddie Fuller for the winning touchdown against Auburn. The thunderous eruption that followed the play created tremors that were picked up across campus by the Geology Department’s seismograph. LSU ranked No. 7 in the nation with an average 77,334 in attendance.
Possibly the single most famous night-game moment was former LSU running back Billy Cannon’s Halloween night run against No. 3 Ole Miss in 1959, in which Cannon returned a punt 89 yards to give LSU the victory. LSU was No. 3 that year in average attendance with 58,390 per game.
“As far as a night in Tiger Stadium, there is no greater feeling in the world than playing at nighttime in that place,” Montgomery said. “The lights are off, you see a place of black and purple all around you. Everyone is going crazy, everyone is more lively at night, the crowd yells. … It’s crazy.”
 
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Contact Michael Gegenheimer at [email protected]