We’ve seen a lot of good college football teams over the years. While success may come and go, we’ve had plenty of special individual seasons.
But not all of those teams made a mark on the sport. With that in mind, ESPN’s Bill Connelly ranked the most influential teams in the history of college football going back more than 100 years.
LSU is one of the programs represented on Connelly’s rankings, and unsurprisingly, the 2019 team made the cut. That group is considered one of the greatest college football teams of all time with Heisman-winner [autotag]Joe Burrow[/autotag] and future star NFL receivers [autotag]Justin Jefferson[/autotag] and [autotag]Ja’Marr Chase[/autotag].
Connelly ranked it at No. 9 all-time.
There was the actual innovation factor: With a wide variety of RPO and pass concepts derived both from passing game coordinator Joe Brady’s brain and the absurd array of receiving options available — Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, Terrace Marshall Jr., tight end Thaddeus Moss, running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire out of the backfield — LSU was able to both create and exploit matchup advantages instantly. And while RPOs are designed mostly to exploit zone defenses, LSU could beat man and zone equally well.
There was the “finally, someone different!” factor: Clemson and Alabama had split the past four national titles and played each other in the College Football Playoff all four years. There was a hunger for something new, and LSU provided it.
Most importantly, there was just the plain old coolness factor: Chase and Jefferson did effortlessly cool things. Edwards-Helaire was an old-school hard worker in a new-school offense. Orgeron and his gravelly voice and redemption arc were incredible. The secondary, with ruthlessly physical stars like safety JaCoby Stevens and breakout freshman corner Derek Stingley Jr., brought the offense’s swagger to the defense. And Joe Burrow, with his “Burreaux” jersey on Senior Night and his post-title locker room cigar, exuded a captivating coolness and poise. This team captured imaginations in a way that few recent teams could.
The 2019 wasn’t the only one that made the cut, however. In a blast from the past, Connelly also included the Tigers’ undefeated, consensus national champion team from 1958 that featured [autotag]Billy Cannon[/autotag], who won LSU’s first Heisman Trophy a year later.
That team ranks No. 21.
In 1964, one-platoon football, with its limited substitutions that required players to play offense, defense and special teams, was removed from the college football rulebook. It opened the sport up for specialization in lots of aesthetically appealing ways, and it also allowed some of the sport’s most dominant powers to dominate even further with sheer, overwhelming depth. With platoons, depth mattered only so much.
Paul Dietzel, however, figured out a way to dominate with depth in the platoon era. Using three full teams of 11 — the White Team (his starters), the Go Team (primarily offensive specialists) and a set of young, fast and ruthless defenders. He would sub in either the Go Team or the defenders (or both) late in a given quarter depending on the game state.
Dietzel mastered the art of the substitution as LSU won 21 of 22 games from 1957 to 1959. The Tigers won the national title in 1958 behind a defense that allowed more than seven points just once all season and shut out Clemson 7-0 in the Sugar Bowl. The next year, they expanded their winning streak to 19 — including a 7-3 win over the best Ole Miss team of all time thanks to Billy Cannon’s brilliance — before finally falling 14-13 to Tennessee.
LSU may not have the most historical success when compare to some other blue bloods in the sport, but the Tigers have had some of the most impressive, influential teams that college football has ever seen.
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