(04-22-2011 09:23 PM)TerryD Wrote: I was at that game with my then 10 year old oldest son.
LSU was ranked #11 at the time. ND was 4-5 in its first year after Holtz retired and Bob Davie took over.
Callers and hosts of Baton Rouge sports talk radio were predicting a 35 point LSU victory.
It was a cold, windy game. The Irish smothered the Tigers. It was a total ND rout.
LSU fans began leaving Tiger Stadium in droves shortly after halftime. By the middle of the fourth quarter, it was mostly only the 5,000 or so Irish fans left in the stadium celebrating and listening to the Victory March.
The final score was 24-6, Irish. it was no way even that close. As you said, ND had no turnovers and no penalties (in Tiger Stadium, with SEC refs....).
I stayed until well after the game ended. I had been living in Baton Rouge for over 14 years by then.
I walked through the almost empty stadium parking lots whistling the Victory March. it was glorious..........
I have a souvenir from that game - a stiff neck. On the way to the game, there was a traffic jam westbound on I-12 near the College drive exit, and the guy driving a pickup behind me didn't notice in time and plowed into me pretty good. I weighed about 330 pounds at the time but remember floating in space for a moment, i was lifted straight up out of my seat by the impact, wasn't wearing a seat belt.
Fortunately, my body didn't bang around in the cab and hit anything so i was just "shaken up". The car suffered about $2000 in damage to the rear (and some in the front, since he knocked me into the car ahead of me), but it was still drivable so i just kept on going to the game! It was only the next morning that i woke up with the whiplash pain, and that has never entirely gone away. Every couple months it flairs up for a couple days and bothers me. A doctor told me that one of my neck joints is somewhat askew, but not bad enough to warrant surgery (i'm supposed to avoid rollercoasters, LOL). You hear about people putting on neck braces and faking whiplash to sue the insurance company, but i really did have it but didn't file any medical claims.
Anyway, my recollection of the game itself was the same as yours. It was Davie's first year and the Irish were flailing their way through a mediocre year, a mid-November game, chilly and rainy (but "Nola gator" is wrong, it was NOT a "monsoon" by any stretch, more like a drizzle, i never pulled out an umbrella), and the LSU fans in the stands around me were obnoxious, expecting an easy win for the Tigers. I wore a USF shirt to indicate my neutrality (even though probably 90% of those around me had never even heard of USF, it was our first year of IAA football), so wasn't bothered by anyone.
Notre Dame played a perfect game (even Ron Paulus was accurate on his passes, LOL), the running game clicked, and LSU was beaten soundly much to the dismay of the arrogant Tigers fans. Of course LSU did even it out for that season by beating ND badly in the Independence Bowl re-match a couple months later.