By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
LAS VEGAS – Twenty-one years ago, 42-year-old Brian Kelly was busy coaching Grand Valley State to the second of back-to-back NCAA Division 2 national championships.
Twenty-one years ago, Lincoln Riley was a 20-year-old Texas Tech walk-on quarterback from Muleshoe, Texas. He was quickly converted by then-head coach Mike Leach into a student assistant working with the offense.
Twenty-one years ago after LSU beat Oklahoma in the BCS national championship game and USC conquered Michigan in the Rose Bowl, LSU and USC split the national title by finishing No. 1 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches and the Associated Press polls respectively.
Twenty-one years later here on Sunday afternoon before an Allegiant Stadium sellout crowd boosted by approximately 30,000 hard-partying LSU fans who began filtering in town on Thursday, the Tigers and the Trojans meet in the de facto 2003 national title tiebreaker matchup in the season-opening Modelo Vegas Classic.
The game is set for a 6:30 p.m. CT kickoff (4:30 in Las Vegas) and is nationally on ABC as the only televised college game of the day. LSU is a 4½-point favorite.
“You’ve got teams that shared a national championship, two elite programs coming together,” third-year LSU head coach Kelly said. “That’s the reason we wanted this matchup.”
Even though third-year USC head coach Riley was beating his chest earlier this week about the matchup between the 13th-ranked Tigers and 23rd-ranked Trojans – “If you don’t crave that (a challenge), then this ain’t the game for you and USC ain’t the place for you,” he said – Riley tried for two years to get out of the contract to play the Tigers.
Multiple-sourced media reports said since Riley and Kelly both have Trace Armstrong as their agent, Riley asked Armstrong for help changing Kelly’s mind.
USC’s administration offered LSU possible replacement opponents. Tigers’ athletic director Scott Woodward didn’t budge.
Since the contract was signed in August 2021, musical chair conference alignments have re-designed the college football landscape starting this season.
The SEC expanded to 16 teams adding Texas and Oklahoma and the Pac 12 imploded scattering members to several conferences, including USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon to the Big Ten (which has 18 members).
“We were too far down the line to make any (schedule) changes in this opener,” Kelly said. “Even given the (conference realignment) changes, it’s still an appealing opener.”
Especially because LSU and USC circa 2024 are two peas in a pod.
Both are replacing Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks (2023 winner Jayden Daniels of LSU, 2022 winner Caleb Williams of USC) with Garrett Nussmeier and Miller Moss respectively who were named Most Valuable Player after starting and leading their teams to bowl wins (ReliaQuest for LSU, Holiday for USC) in the last post-season.
“I’m not a finished product yet, we’re not a finished product yet,” said Nussmeier, a 6-1, 200-pound redshirt junior who has patiently waited his turn and paid his dues to earn the permanent starting job. “Hopefully, I’m better in December than I am right now.”
Moss, a 6-2, 205-pound redshirt junior, followed Nussmeier’s career path of being a backup for the last two seasons. Riley waited until Aug. 20 to name Moss as the starting QB vs. LSU.
“It’s a good positive first step,” Moss said. “Now, it’s about going out and winning football games.”
And after LSU and USC finished 105th and 116th in total defense last season among 130 FB teams, Kelly and Riley made drastic changes.
Kelly fired the Tigers’ entire defensive staff and spent $16.11 million on new hires, including coordinator Blake Baker from Missouri. Riley fired all but one defensive assistant and went across town to hire UCLA’s D’Anton Lynn as coordinator.
Baker and Lynn have similar philosophies of showing different alignments to confuse offenses yet simplifying assignments to play fast and not overload defenders with too much information.
The new D-coordinators have quickly had their players buy into their systems.
“Coach Baker has a spectacular mind,” LSU pre-season first-team All-American linebacker Harold Perkins said. “He always brings something fresh to the table.”
USC linebacker Easton Mascarenas-Arnold, an Oregon State transfer, has similar confidence in Lynn.
“In his one year at UCLA, he (Lynn) made them one of the best defenses in the country,” Mascarenas-Arnold said. “I expect nothing less for us.”
GO FIGURE
3-3: LSU’s record in Sunday night games
5: Heisman Trophy-winning running backs for USC
7: Straight 10-win seasons for Brian Kelly
8-3: Brian Kelly’s record vs. USC
10: Starters on USC’s defense who are transfers
18: States in which LSU has opened football seasons
23: Times in last 24 years LSU is ranked in preseason top 25
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com