I thought I had seen it all before watching LSU’s breathtaking comeback against Kentucky last Saturday. I know everyone already has heard and seen the play a million times, but if you’re a true Tiger fan, you never will get tired of talking about it. Many will say it is the luckiest game LSU ever won. Others have said it is a win the Tigers didn’t deserve. I’m here to tell you that LSU and its fans deserved this win. It’s all due to something I like to call the “law of odds.”
LSU teams have experienced some of the most heartbreaking losses throughout my years as a Tiger fan. Those losses were the ones television stations across the nation showed in highlights over and over again for everyone’s viewing pleasure.
One of the most recent heartbreaking losses in football came against Alabama in 1998. The Tigers were dominating the game 16-7 with a little more than two minutes left in the fourth quarter. Tiger fans were rejoicing because the “Crimson Tide” curse was over. Alabama was going to lose in Tiger Stadium for the first time since 1969.
However, the curse continued. Alabama somehow managed to score two touchdowns in that miniscule amount of time, leaving LSU’s team and fans dumbfounded. Two of Alabama’s touchdowns in that game were tipped passes that amazingly wound up in the hands of Alabama players.
Before then, LSU was involved in one of the strangest games ever. In 1994, the LSU football team dominated the Auburn Tigers/War Eagles/Plainsmen/morons who can’t stick with one nickname for three quarters of the game. Then, in the fourth quarter, Auburn returned three intercepted passes all the way for touchdowns, as Auburn defeated LSU at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Once again, LSU was on the other side of an absolutely bewildering loss sportscasters couldn’t get enough of.
Also, in 1994, an LSU basketball team got in on the action. It was Mardi Gras night when the Tigers faced the highly ranked Kentucky Wildcats. LSU played possibly the best first half of basketball in its entire history. The Tigers continued, pouring it on the Wildcats until just more than 15 minutes remained on the clock. Then, with the Wildcats getting slaughtered by 31 points, the unthinkable happened. Kentucky players got on an unbelievable roll and scored 62 points in the final 15 minutes of the game to shock LSU and its fans by beating the Tigers 99-95.
After the game, nicknamed the Mardi Gras miracle, Kentucky made T-shirts proclaiming it as Kentucky’s greatest comeback ever. One more time, the nation watched as LSU players, coaches and fans cried together.
Then came Saturday’s game. Kentucky looked as if it was going to pull off a late comeback win against an LSU team once again. Kentucky players celebrated by pouring the contents of the water cooler on their head coach. Wildcat fans flowed onto the field in anticipation of the inevitable Kentucky win. The Jefferson Pilot announcers conversed about the monumental win for the Wildcats.
It is at this point the law of odds caught up with LSU. With two seconds left on the clock, Devery Henderson somehow caught Marcus Randall’s 75-yard “Hail Mary” pass after a number of Kentucky players tipped the it. Henderson eluded a Kentucky player and raced into the end zone and into the record books as LSU pulled off one of the most amazing victories in the history of college football. LSU fans erupted in pure bliss as the Tiger players jumped on top of Henderson, forming a mountain of purple and gold.
This time, another team and its fans were the butt of the joke. LSU finally got all the glory around the nation from one of those strange endings. It was just a matter of time before the odds were on LSU’s side. With the fantastic finish, LSU controls its own destiny in the SEC West. And for the moment, it appears that destiny has taken control of LSU.