Lane Kiffin spent this week making sure LSU’s football building kept one game on repeat.
Not a highlight package. Not a cut-up of the current Alabama roster.
He went back to Nov. 5, 2011, and put No. 1 LSU’s 9-6 overtime win over No.
2 Alabama on every TV in the Tigers’ operations building.
“I’ve just always liked to play games to get guys in the mode of who they’re playing,” Kiffin said on his radio show. “That game was we played it all day long (on the TV monitors), so as you walk out of the office, you go down to the defense room or the offense room, and you see it all day long. And the really interesting thing is after playing that game all day long there still is not a touchdown.”
That was the point. Kiffin, who in the same radio appearance joked that he would never call “I-formation and give it to the fullback,” leaned into old-school football this week while preparing No.
14 LSU (6-2, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) for No. 5 Alabama (6-2, 4-2 SEC) on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. on ABC in Tiger Stadium.
The 2011 game, played at Alabama, was LSU’s first Game of the Century against the Crimson Tide, and it looked every bit like a defensive grinder from the opening kicks. Alabama missed field goals from 44 and 50 yards in the first quarter, then later missed from 52 yards in overtime. LSU answered with Drew Alleman field goals from 19 yards and 30 yards in regulation before Alleman won it with a 25-yard kick in overtime.
Alabama’s only points came on field goals from Cade Foster, who hit from 46 yards, and Jeremy Shelley, who connected from 34. Shelley also missed from 49 yards in the second quarter.
The game still had one massive swing that could have changed everything. Alabama led 6-3 in the third quarter and had a chance to stretch it to 13-3 on a flea flicker when Michael Williams got loose in the middle of the end zone.
Marquis Maze, taking the ball from A.J. McCarron, saw Williams open.
The throw, though, was lofted instead of driven, and Eric Reid recovered to intercept it.
Alabama finished with the better numbers in total offense, 295 yards to 239, and had 17 first downs to LSU’s 15. Both teams turned it over twice.
McCarron went 16 of 28 for 199 yards and threw an interception to Morris Claiborne. LSU’s Jordan Jefferson completed 6 of 10 passes for 67 yards and ran 11 times for 43 yards after Jarrett Lee threw two early interceptions.
Still, LSU won because the defense held up for four quarters and then some. The Tigers finished that season No. 2 nationally in total defense at 261.5 yards allowed per game, No. 2 in scoring defense at 11.2 points allowed, and fifth in rush defense at 90 yards allowed per game.
“Very unusual game that you can put on the whole day and remind people to play great defense and to play physical in this matchup,” Kiffin said.
The game also turned into an NFL pipeline. From 2012 through 2015, 14 players from that night were drafted in the first round, with Alabama producing nine and LSU five. LSU’s first-rounders from that stretch included Claiborne, who went sixth overall in 2012; a defensive tackle taken 14th that same year; Barkevious Mingo, the sixth pick in 2013; Reid, the 18th selection in 2013; and Odell Beckham Jr., the 12th pick in 2014.
This year’s meeting is not being billed as another Game of the Century, but Kiffin made clear the stakes still feel enormous.
“Yeah, I could feel it when I walked in - a little bit different,” Kiffin said to open his radio show Thursday. “These games matter a little more.
It was awesome. I could feel the energy.
I know it’s a big game for a lot of people. It’s almost like we’re in the playoffs now.”
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