UL-Monroe 21, Alabama 14

Another astonishing first-year embarrassment for The Douche. Back in 2000, I witnessed first hand the depantsing of LSU by the University of Alabama-Birmingham in Tiger Stadium. I remember disgusted fans calling into the postgame radio show immediately afterward and not-so-politely suggesting that Saban was hardly qualified to coach at the high school level. One week later, the Tigers knocked off a Tennessee team that was supposed to commit murder and not leave behind a corpse. So don’t count the little guy out, ‘Bama fans. But still…HA!

Soon to be joining the pantheon of former LSU coaches is Les Miles, who has an interesting seven weeks ahead of him now that Lloyd Carr has retired. I keep hearing these murmurs about Carr not wanting to be succeeded by Miles. Does a guy who’s lost six of his last seven against Ohio State even have a say in the matter? And while I’m on the subject, is it really more important to fans of Big Blue to have a winning record against the Buckeyes than to win national titles? Yes? Oh, okay then.

Peter Finney suggests two high-profile SEC candidates for the LSU job. One has gone undefeated and likely would have won a national championship with his 2004 team in any other year. The other evidently will be fired even if he knocks the Tigers out of contention for the BCS title on Friday. My view is that Skip Bertman should sit down with Bo Pelini and figure out what can be done to keep him in Baton Rouge for the long haul - but only if we can’t outbid Texas A&M for Tommy Tuberville. Don’t worry about the bad blood between Tuberville and Tiger Nation – you can be sure that there will be much kissing and making up if he takes the job. He isn’t even the most hated coach in our division anymore.

In NFL news, the Saints suck again and the Patriots are an alien team from the planet Xandor. They’d probably hang 56 on the ’72 Dolphins if that were possible. I guess it is, technically, though I wonder what amount of money it would take to get Nick Buoniconti and co. to suit up and chase Tom Brady and Randy Moss around for a few hours.