Football: 2011 Tigers look to 2007 team for inspiration

Former LSU football coach Nick Saban hoisted a crystal football on Jan. 4, 2004, in the Superdome to represent his team's BCS National Championship. Four years later, Saban's successor Les Miles held up the same trophy in the same stadium.

Four more years have passed, and Miles has the No. 1 team in the country poised for another championship run in the same venue.

Though no players who saw the field during the 2007 championship are currently on the team, similarities between the two teams exist, and senior offensive guard Will Blackwell said he and his teammates frequently look to the 2007 team for inspiration.

"When you want to pick a team from your school to compare yourself to, it has to be the most recent champion," said Blackwell, who redshirted in 2007. "We've still got a little bit of work to compare ourselves to them, but we'll see how it goes after this week."

Some players on this year's team credit the 2007 championship as the reason they chose LSU.

"That's what made me come here," said sophomore running back Michael Ford, a Leesville native who was a high school junior in 2007. "They had just won a national championship. Living off all the hype, it was exciting."

Led by former quarterback Matt Flynn and running back Jacob Hester, the 2007 Tigers held a No. 2 ranking for most of their roller coaster season. LSU rose to No. 1 before losing in triple overtime to then-No. 17 Kentucky.

LSU fell to No. 5 after the loss but fought its way back to the top spot after a 58-10 rout of Louisiana Tech on Nov. 10. Two weeks later, LSU dropped another triple overtime thriller, this time to Arkansas, and its national championship aspirations at the time looked bleak.

The Tigers needed an upset-filled final weekend, but rode a victory in the 2007 Southeastern Conference championship into the BCS title game. Blackwell said this season has been more comfortable, as LSU holds a No. 1 ranking in advance of the SEC Championship against Georgia.

"[2007] was a stressful time," Blackwell said. "We weren't really counting on getting into [the national championship game]. We needed a lot of help. It's nice to be on the other side of things and know if we [beat Georgia], we're in no matter what."

The similarities between the two teams start in the backfield. Only 44 rushing yards separate the two teams' rushing totals through 12 games, with the edge going to the 2007 team led by Hester, who ran for 1,103 yards in LSU's championship season.

This season's team, which ranks second in the SEC with 2,590 rushing yards, has reached that total behind a multitude of backs. LSU has three different running backs on pace to eclipse 500 rushing yards this season, whereas the second leading rusher in 2007, Keiland Williams, finished the year with 478 rushing yards.

The 2007 Tigers also found more success through the air. Flynn and Ryan Perrilloux, who mostly saw time in running situations, combined to throw for 2,728 yards during the regular season.

Senior quarterbacks Jordan Jefferson and Jarrett Lee have combined for 2,052 passing yards in 2011 but have thrown seven fewer interceptions than the 2007 quarterbacks did in the regular season.

On defense, the 2011 Tigers outshine their 2007 counterparts. LSU has held its opponents to 366 fewer yards than in 2007, which has helped the Tigers defeat opponents by an average margin of 27.5 points — about seven more points than in 2007.

Though the 2007 team finished with two more losses than this year's team, Blackwell isn't ready to say who would win if the two sides met on the field.

"It would be a good game," Blackwell said. "It depends on which day of the week we caught them on, but I don't know which one I'd pick."

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Contact Hunter Paniagua at hpaniagua@lsureveille.com