The Class of ’05
Andrew Whitworth remembers the first day he moved onto campus, leaving his hometown of West Monroe. He may have packed up his accomplishments at West Monroe High School — two state titles, one national title and All-American awards, but he was optimistic he would accomplish even greater things at LSU.
As he approaches the end of his career at LSU, he will need to get an extra box for all the awards and success he and the other seniors have accomplished during their college careers.
The senior class will leave Tiger Stadium after its last game against Arkansas on Friday at 1:30 p.m. as the most successful team in school history. Since the 2002 season, LSU has accumulated a 39-10 record.
“There is going to be emotion,” said defensive tackle Kyle Williams. “I don’t know how or what kind, but I know it will be there.”
As an All-American in high school, Whitworth had the chance to join his future college teammates in the All-American high school game. As the players finished up their high school careers – they already were talking about the changes they were going to make at LSU.
“We told every kid there that we were going to win the National Championship and everybody doubted us, but we told everyone we were going to do it,” Whitworth said. “We even told coach [Nick] Saban at the time that we were going to be special.”
Five years and 49 consecutive starts later, Whitworth has not had to eat any of his words. The Tigers are pushing a third Southeastern Conference West title in five years and grabbed one national title in 2003.
While their success may be apparent in the games and titles won, Miles said it is their leadership that makes the senior class special and has carried the team through the ups and downs this season.
“Veteran guys that are your key players and veteran guys who have been through seasons understand,” Miles said. “I remember Whitworth after the Tennessee game said ‘Ah, I’ve been through this before. We can do this. It’s not a problem.’ That feel that he certainly allowed the rest of the team and the guys around him to say ‘Yeah, we’ve done that before.’ The veteran guys and their leadership are keys at times like that.”
After changing LSU history, the senior class will say goodbye to Tiger Stadium on Friday afternoon when they play their last home game against Arkansas, a team that gave this class one of its most disappointing games.
Despite the large deficits over the past two years 55-24 and 43-14, Arkansas kept LSU out of the SEC title game in 2002 with an upset victory 21-20 in Little Rock. With another SEC West title on the line this Friday, Whitworth said he will not overlook Arkansas regardless of senior day.
“I don’t think the emotion is going to hit me until Saturday or Sunday,” Whitworth said. “My main focus is beating Arkansas and finishing the season off right.”
As opposed to four years with former coach Nick Saban, the seniors have only gotten one year to make the transition to coach Les Miles. Miles said there was never a question to how the team – especially the seniors – would respond, but this year has brought something extra.
“Being with this group of guys, this team and the opportunity to play what we have to play for, having seen the devastation with Katrina that really started our season our football team – coaches, players – it brought our team closer in one year,” Miles said. “Any time you graduate 21 seniors that have had the success that they have had here on the field, the kind of young men that they are, how they’ve represented LSU off the field a lot of emotion will go into this week.”