Alabama revenge tour rolls on with blowout win at LSU (2024)

BATON ROUGE, La. — They say an elephant never forgets.

A long memory can be helpful (stirring people to new heights) or it can be a hindrance (an obsession that blurs the focus). Alabama’s elephants didn’t forget last week in the Iron Bowl, and they didn’t forget Saturday night in Death Valley. They remembered every part of both 2019 losses and used them to fuel what’s being dubbed their Revenge Tour.

They remembered the words spoken by LSU last year in Tuscaloosa, words about dominating on the field, in recruiting and every time they saw Alabama. They remembered Ed Orgeron gathering his team on the script “A” logo at the 50-yard line inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. They remembered the “Roll Tide what? F— you” remarks delivered in the locker room after the game by Orgeron. They remembered LSU players racing to one end of the stadium to get in front of recruits to tell them that Alabama was old news and that LSU was the new heir to the throne.

Alabama players and its coach remembered all that, and then they went out and made sure LSU would never forget the night Alabama toyed with a team that hardly resembles the Tigers who won a national championship a year ago or any of the ones we’ve seen in this series for more than a decade.

No. 1 Alabama (9-0) took LSU (3-5) behind the woodshed in a 55-17 blowout that wasn’t even near as close as the 38-point margin suggests.

It did so without four assistant coaches (Sal Sunseri, Karl Scott, Freddie Roach and Holmon Wiggins), and it did so with a Louisiana player returning to his home state as perhaps the greatest Alabama wide receiver of all time. That’s debatable, depending on your subjective ranking, but DeVonta Smith might be college football’s best player this season. He at least is playing like he is the best player right now.

Smith was targeted nine times by starting quarterback Mac Jones, and he caught eight passes for 231 yards and three touchdowns. He averaged 28.9 yards per reception, and he came down with a catch fans will be talking about for years when he jumped over LSU cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. and hauled in an overthrown pass one-handed for a touchdown.

DEVONTA SMITH IS RIDICULOUS pic.twitter.com/NhCkPJAccB

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) December 6, 2020

In his past four games, Smith has 749 yards receiving (187 yards per game) and 11 touchdowns. His play has been so dominant that the question is being asked if he deserves to be in the Heisman Trophy discussion. Asked if Smith is the best player in the country, UA coach Nick Saban didn’t equivocate, even when giving a politically correct answer.

“He’s probably done as much this year for our team as any player that we’ve ever had,” Saban said. “He’s a great leader on the team. It’s not fair to compare him to somebody else that you didn’t even see, but I don’t think there’s many players in the country that has done more for their team than Smitty does for our team.”

The problem with regard to the Heisman Trophy is that he’s competing with his own quarterback, who happened to torch another defense. Jones completed 20 of 28 passes for 385 yards and four touchdowns. He’s thrown nine touchdowns in the past two games.

Jones started the game completing his first 12 passes, including three for touchdowns. By halftime, Jones, Smith and Najee Harris helped the Crimson Tide to 45 points. If they hadn’t let it up in the second half, the score would’ve been really out of hand.

It was that kind of night inside Tiger Stadium, a venue usually replete with goose-bump-inducing energy. But Baton Rouge has often been a comfortable home away from home for UA. The Crimson Tide’s 29 wins in Baton Rouge are more than LSU’s total wins (26) in the series history. The 55 points, though, were the most Alabama’s ever scored against LSU, topping a 47-3 win in 1922.

Emotions seemed to carry the day. Alabama played with a certain energy that suggested it was more than just a regular game. Players’ postgame tweets suggested that as well.

Roll tide what? https://t.co/yfIJIcEU8l

— Byron Young (@ByronYoung19) December 6, 2020

“Of course this game meant more,” senior linebacker Dylan Moses said. “We wanted to come back and play better than we did last year and finish strong. We wanted to play our best.”

It was a strange trip all around, considering the absence of 40 percent of the on-the-field assistant coaching staff. Some who took their place included former UA players and current staffers Josh Chapman and Nick Perry and defensive analyst Charlie Strong. If that wasn’t odd enough, there was a power outage Saturday morning that interrupted a team religious service and the pre-game meal.

It was also Saban’s first game back after missing the Auburn game because of a positive COVID-19 test. He said he learned Thursday that the team would be without those coaches and behind-the-scenes staffers.

“We made a lot of staff adaptations Thursday,” Saban said. “Our players have gotten so resilient to the different things that have happened. I mean, the electricity went out. … We had to eat the pregame meal in the dark. It’s like, stuff happens, and everybody just kind of keep on keeping on because a lot of things happen. I think once you have good culture on your team and you’ve established that culture with your team, they can adapt and adjust to things that don’t go exactly like they expect them to.

“I did really appreciate the fact that several of the players were happy to see me back.”

With the win, Alabama clinched the SEC West division title and secured a date against Florida in the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 19. Alabama is scheduled to face Arkansas in Fayetteville next Saturday.

The defense gave up a few plays, but it produced a season high in sacks with five. The unit allowed LSU to convert only 5 of 15 third downs, and for the fourth time this season, it held an opponent to under 100 yards rushing. It did so playing with controlled emotion.

Alabama didn’t dance on the eye of the Tiger at midfield after the game, and there was no video broadcast from a victorious locker room. Alabama was slaying no multi-game losing streak, as LSU did last year, so perhaps the emotions weren’t comparable. For UA, this was, in reality, nothing more than the ninth win of the season. For the fans, it concluded the Revenge Tour.

That’s where it ends. Controlled emotions.

“A lot of emotion on both sides,” Saban said. “We don’t like for our guys to talk to the other players and get involved in stuff like that. That way we can win with class. That’s something we want to do.”

You can be the judge on whether or not that was a shot at how LSU handled its postgame business a season ago. Alabama handled its business differently Saturday night in Tiger Stadium. But it did so remembering in great detail the perceived transgressions from a year before.

(Photo of DeVonta Smith: Kent Gidley / Getty Images)