LSU and Alabama face off for the 66th time Saturday, with each team looking to add another chapter to one of the fiercest rivalries in the Southeastern Conference.
The 12th-ranked Tigers will be looking for only their seventh win in Baton Rouge against the Crimson Tide. The team never has won three in a row against Alabama and has only won back-to-back games five times.
The series, which Alabama leads 42-18-5, began in 1895 with LSU winning 12-6 and has had great games on both teams’ fields.
Rohan Davey led last year’s charge in Tuscaloosa, throwing for a school-record 528 yards to propel LSU to a 35-21 win. Josh Reed broke conference records with 19 catches for 293 yards.
The win kept LSU’s dream season rolling, as it won six straight games, including the SEC Championship and 2002 Sugar Bowl.
The rivalry also has had its share of streaks. Maligned quarterback Josh Booty broke the “Curse of the Bear” in 2000, beating UA 30-28 at home for the first time since 1969. Booty threw for 275 yards and four touchdowns.
“The last time we beat Alabama in Tiger Stadium, man walked on the moon,” said then-LSU strong safety Lionel Thomas after the game.
LSU blanked UA 27-0 in 1997 in Mike Dubose’s first year as coach, en route to a 9-3 campaign. Alabama finished 4-7.
In 1996 ESPN’s Game Day crew made its first trip to preview the wild west showdown. Freshman running back Shaun Alexander then bulldozed through LSU, rushing for 291 yards to carry Alabama to a 26-0 win and eventual SEC West crown.
The No. 1-ranked Tide escaped Tiger Stadium with a narrow 3-0 victory in 1979. Alabama won its sixth and last national crown under coach Paul “Bear” Bryant that year.
The Tigers did pull the upset on the road over the defending national champs in 1993 with a 17-13 win. LSU went on to finish the year 5-6.
Bryant was perhaps the best Tide coach to fair against LSU. He compiled a 16-4 record against the Tigers, including 11 straight wins.
The Tigers also ended that losing drought in 1982, edging the Tide 20-10 in Bryant’s final season as coach.
Five LSU coaches have gone 2-0 against Alabama, including current coach Nick Saban. No LSU coach has won more than two games against the team in his tenure.
LSU’s worst loss in the series came in 1922 when it visited the woodshed to the tune of 47-3.
In 1958, the Tigers handed Alabama its worst loss of the series, 28-0. LSU won its only national championship later that year.
The Tide rolled to a 31-11 victory in 1992 and went on to win the inaugural SEC title game and one of its 12 national championships.
Whatever the outcome of the game, the winner tends to have success for the rest of its season. Alabama beat LSU every year it won the national championship, while the Tigers beat ‘Bama each year they won the SEC Championship.