Out of Chaos, LSU Scores Dramatic 16-14 Victory Over Tennessee

Filed under: LSU, Tennessee, SEC

Tennessee celebrates on what it thought was the final play. Instead, the Vols were penalized and lost.

BATON ROUGE, La. -- In the less politically correct era of the 1950s, LSU coach Paul Dietzel took advantage of college football's existing substitution rules to win a national championship by fielding three 11-man units, one of which was a wild group of less-talented but frenzied backups called "The Chinese Bandits."

The Chinese Bandits entered games en masse, appropriately frothing at the mouth and dishing out mayhem after Billy Cannon and Jimmy Taylor, the Tigers' thoroughbreds, had forced their opponents to suck wind.

The Chinese Bandits' one mission in life was to create utter chaos.

But never in the history of Tiger Stadium has chaos reigned more sublimely than it did Saturday afternoon in the final seconds (and beyond) of LSU's improbable and impossible 16-14 victory over Tennessee, which occurred after all time and sanity had expired.

This was no pedestrian, Woody Allen "Bananas" insurrection. This was enough to resurrect Howard Cosell from the grave and light his victory cigar.

In fact, let's go live to Les Miles, LSU's El Presidente, still patting down his body for exit wounds. Look, there he is, right there, getting up off his knees, smiling, a little wobbly, rejoicing, saying it was nothing but a few flesh wounds.

"Certainly, it was not pretty," said Miles, whose charmed team advanced to 5-0 on the season, "but, damn, it was fun."

---

More Week 5: Full Scoreboard | Live Tweet | Latest Stories
Buy College Football Gear

---

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Roger Federer New Jersey Devils Nicklas Lidstrom Michael Jorden Tiger woods