NEW ORLEANS — What’s at stake for LSU in Monday’s College Football National Championship Game?
“Everything. Everything,” coach and Louisiana native Ed Orgeron said. “Everything that we’ve done up until now is good, but it’s not great. We want to be great.”
Everything is on the line because top-ranked LSU (14-0) hasn’t won the title in 12 years and hasn’t gone undefeated in more than six decades. Everything hangs in the balance because Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow will be playing his final game and Alabama will be the SEC favorite again next season.
Everything is at stake because LSU is the favorite, because it will essentially play the title game on its own property at the Superdome, because a weeklong purple-and-gold party could end with a new definition of nausea on Bourbon Street, forced to host Clemson’s (14-0) latest celebration.
“It’s all on the line,” Burrow said. “We went into the season saying if the national title is in New Orleans, we weren’t going to let anybody else be there. We had to be there. … This is why we haven’t celebrated a lot of wins, because this is the one we wanted.”
For Clemson? Nothing’s riding on this except a 29-game winning streak, a second straight title, a third championship in four years, a dynasty for all time.
No team has gone back-to-back since Alabama (2011-12). No team has put together consecutive perfect seasons since Nebraska (1994-95). Only three teams since 1936 have won three titles in four years.
“They’re playing for legacy,” Clemson co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott said. “When you step back 10 years from now, you realize what kind of history you’ve been a part of.”
Making history may never be harder for the reigning champs, playing on a field barely an hour away from their Baton Rouge campus. LSU won its two most recent national championships at the Superdome (2004, 2008), but also suffered the humiliation of being shut out against Alabama in a de facto home game eight years back.
This time, points shouldn’t be a problem.
The nation’s top offense — averaging 48.9 points per game — is fresh off a 63-point effort against Oklahoma in its semifinal blowout win and presents the sport’s first combination of 5,000-yard passer, 1,000-yard rusher (Clyde Edwards-Helaire) and multiple 1,000-yard receivers (Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson).
This time, the Superdome should rarely be silent.
“I think this almost worse than an away game. It’s like we’re in another country,” Clemson star linebacker Isaiah Simmons said. “We always do ‘Rocky’ comparisons on our team. It’s like when Rocky fought [Ivan] Drago. I guess we’re in Russia. No one here is on our side. I think that’s very obvious.”
Once again, Dabo Swinney’s ‘Little ‘ol’ Clemson is the underdog, despite quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s unblemished college record (25-0). Twice, though, a top-ranked SEC power watched Clemson claim the throne, most recently holding Alabama’s offensive juggernaut to 16 points in last year’s championship rout.
This season, Clemson boasts the country’s top-ranked defense again, allowing 11.5 points per game.
“I’ve played the best, so-called best, every year it seems like,” Clemson senior safety Tanner Muse said. “Knowing what I’m capable of, knowing what this team is capable of, I have no doubts.
“We’re going to see how great they are.”
Tigers versus Tigers. Death Valley versus Death Valley. The two best quarterbacks. The two best teams.
“You could just change jerseys and helmets and they’d kind of all look the same. Just really, really talented, beautiful football players that are getting ready to compete against each other with a really small margin of victory,” Swinney said. “This is the way it should be.”
