LSU, Oklahoma meet in rematch of watershed moment for Tigers' program

ATLANTA — The Von Rosenberg living room in Lake Charles was lively as ever Jan. 4, 2004.

"I remember Justin Vincent's run on the first drive — he didn't score, but he got close," LSU punter Zach Von Rosenberg reminisces about watching the Sugar Bowl on television that Monday night. "It was about a 70-yard run, and he got tackled before the goal line. And I don't know what it was about that moment, but I told my parents we were gonna win.

"And I remember near the end of the game, dog-piling on our couch with my neighbors and some people that I played soccer and baseball with. That was sweet, because I remember going into that game, everybody was saying, 'Oh, you can't beat Oklahoma. It's Oklahoma.' And we honestly handled them pretty good. We left no doubt, it seems like."

LSU claimed its first national championship in almost half a century that night in a rare meeting between the two schools.

Nearly all the current Tigers are too young to remember, although many were — toddlers at the time — watching similar scenes to Von Rosenbergs erupt in living rooms across Louisiana.

The 21-14 victory against favored Oklahoma, a traditional power on a national level, helped announce to the country a new era and level for LSU football.

The continued growth of the program occasionally still awes former stars such as Vincent, as the Tigers and Sooners prepare for their first meeting in nearly 16 years.

"Even until today, you think about that's kind of when everything started going this way — it started catapulting upwards," Vincent says, starting to point to a wide range of memorabilia around his office. "I mean, look at that photo. At the time, you don't know what that thing does, man, you know? Then there's that picture behind you. Like what is that? You understand we won the national championship, but that (wider scope) doesn't ever really come into your mind."

The Tigers had not won a national championship since 1958.

In fact, they had suffered more than twice as many losing seasons (11) as SEC championships (5) since then.

And the opportunity to potentially rewrite history didn't come easily.

Fourth-year coach Nick Saban led the team to the No. 3 ranking in the AP and USA Today polls, as well as the sixth-year BCS rankings, behind top-ranked Oklahoma and No. 2 USC, entering conference championship weekend.

LSU rolled past Georgia, 34-13, for its second SEC title in three years.

Meanwhile, about 1,000 miles west, the Sooners became the country's last team to stumble from the undefeated ranks.

Oklahoma's 35-7 loss to 14-point underdog Kansas State in the Big 12 championship opened the door for the Tigers — and one of the bigger controversies of the BCS era.

"You never know how those polls and stuff play out," then-freshman running back Alley Broussard remembers. "Our goal was to just go out and beat Georgia and make a statement that we deserved to play for a national title, and that's what it came down to."

The AP and USA Today polls ranked USC at No. 1, LSU at No. 2 and Oklahoma at No. 3.

But the BCS rankings flipped those positions, stunning the Trojans as the odd men out with a lower computer average and strength of schedule.

"I remember coach Saban called a team meeting (Sunday) and made the announcement, 'You can tell your close friends and family that we're gonna be playing for the national championship,'" says Broussard, a product of Acadiana High School in Lafayette. "The players just went bananas. And from that moment on, everything else is history."

The Tigers and Sooners met four weeks and one day later in New Orleans.

The schools hadn't crossed football paths since the 1950 Sugar Bowl at Tulane Stadium — 25 years before the Superdome opened.

LSU lost that initial matchup, 35-0, and entered this eventual followup as six-point underdogs to top-ranked Oklahoma and Heisman-winning quarterback Jason White.

"Everybody was in tune to it, because it wasn't something we were used to," says Baton Rouge area native and life-long LSU fan Dwayne Queen, father of current linebacker Patrick Queen. "That's all anybody talked about for weeks leading up to that game.

"Everybody was worried about the offense, as usual, but we knew with the talent we had on defense that Oklahoma wasn't gonna be able to move the ball. And, sure enough, they couldn't move the ball. At all."

Saban and offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher tried the hot hand early.

Vincent entered the weekend on the momentum of three consecutive 100-yard performances and SEC Championship MVP honors.

And the freshman running back took a handoff the first play from scrimmage, broke a tackle behind the line, cut back to his left and dashed 64 yards to the red zone.

"It was big for us, because — the reason I mentioned Justin Vincent — I watched him play all four years at Barbe," Von Rosenberg explains. "I had watched him play with my older brother, so I had watched this guy go from a freshman to a senior at Barbe for four straight years of worshipping Barbe football and then watch him go to LSU, and that was for me the coolest part of the whole deal."

Backed against the goal line, the Sooners' defense appeared to survive the initial spark when All-American defensive back Derrick Strait recovered a fumbled snap at the 2-yard line.

But NFL-bound cornerback Corey Webster swiped an interception two plays later to help set up the game's first score on a jet sweep by LSU speedster Skyler Green.

A blocked punt in the second quarter set up Oklahoma's answer, a 1-yard run by sophomore Kejuan Jones.

The Tigers marched 80 yards during the next three minutes, capped by an 18-yard Vincent touchdown.

And the Sooners would never again regain even a share of the lead.

"That team was supposed to be the greatest team ever assembled," Vincent remembers. "I mean obviously if you watched the game, you know that we beat their ass. But the score didn't show that.

"And that was supposed to be the best team ever from Jason White, to Dusty Dvoracek, big Tommie (Harris), to Teddy Lehmann, Brandon Everage, Brodney Pool, Derrick Strait. They had real dudes. They had two offensive linemen who were first- and second-round picks."

Star defensive end Marcus Spears, an All-American and first-round draft pick the following season, intercepted White to start the third quarter and rumbled 20 yards to the end zone.

Jones would add another 1-yard run in the fourth quarter to pull back to within 21-14.

But Oklahoma's lone real threat to possibly tie the game, two possessions later, ended with four straight incompletions from the 12-yard line.

"They shut 'em down, and it was great," Dwayne Queen says. "It was exciting times back then. That's all everybody talked about was LSU football, just like they're doing right now with this new team."

Vincent finished with 16 carries for another 124 yards and his go-ahead, second-quarter touchdown.

"I have some family in Oklahoma, and, hell, that year, my claim to fame, as I told them, is I made (eventual NFL MVP running back) Adrian Peterson go to OU," Vincent says. "Everybody doesn't know that he wanted to come here. He came here on a visit, and he wanted to come to school here. But that's my claim to fame is he said, 'Man, I ain't coming here."

Highly touted freshmen Vincent and Broussard had joined junior Shyrone Carey and sophomore Joseph Addai, another future NFL standout, and made an immediate impact with several years of eligibility still ahead.

"So I said, 'Y'all need to be thanking me,'" Vincent continues. "Because Adrian Peterson's the best college football running back I've ever seen with my own two eyes up close. They had Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas and all those people, but in my generation, that was the best I've seen.

"Obviously Reggie Bush gives you a different aspect of it, but I'm talking," he slapped his hands together, "a running back, you know what I mean? Downhill, mash on the gas — that's the best I've ever seen."

Vincent returned to campus full-time in 2012 as an assistant director of player personnel for four years before transitioning into a role as a development officer with the Tiger Athletic Foundation.

The significance of that 2003 national championship is still difficult to grasp, even with symbols all around him.

"You walk the hallways now, man, and you see the pictures and the rings and the trophy and still think, 'Man, we won the national championship, and, damn, I was the MVP,'" he says. "That's mind-blowing to me even to today to be on that team and do your part and have your role, and it lead to you being victorious and being national champions.

"To have an integral part in turning the landscape of this thing is truly amazing."

At 161-46 (77.8 percent) since then, LSU has been among the nation's winningest programs.

Nine more 10-win seasons followed the 2003 title run — after just six in the more than 100 years prior — including another championship in 2007 and national runner-up finish in 2011.

"Beating Oklahoma in 2003, you could tell the LSU program, the next 10 years were going to be a lot different than the previous 10 years and football in Louisiana had kind of changed," Von Rosenberg says. "Everybody loved LSU before that, but it became more of a national brand. We're a national brand, and it's been that way ever since."

Fans purchase purple and gold apparel and other merchandise at an annual pace that keeps the Tigers among the nation's top 10 to 15 schools not only on the field, but in sales revenue.

LSU built a $15 million Football Operations Center in 2006 and concluded another $28 million renovation and expansion earlier this year that featured a new state-of-the-art locker room, cafeteria and training rooms.

And a variety of construction projects have added more than 10,000 additional seats, including thousands of luxury options, to Tiger Stadium, along with various video boards, the Paul Manasseh Press Box, the Skyline Club, a beer garden and other special sections.

Its 102,321 capacity ranked No. 6 this year among all stadiums worldwide.

And, working hand in hand with the team's success this fall, the athletic department's digital reach has continued to boom.

The Tigers' Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts have enjoyed approximately 4.5 million interactions in the past three weeks alone — double their nearest competition.

"At the moment, no, I didn't realize," Broussard says. "But as the years went on, I saw how basically it did change the direction of the program. It helped with recruiting, with the facilities. We have state-of-the-art facilities now. It's been really good basically for the state of Louisiana. I never knew at that moment it would have this big of an impact on the LSU program, but it was a big impact.

"Overall, it's kind of unreal, just the significance of it."

Von Rosenberg may be the only current LSU players who remembers Jan. 4, 2004.

The 29-year-old pursued a professional baseball career after completing high school in Zachary before returning to college in 2016 as a 25-year-old freshman.

Von Rosenberg was 13 when the Tigers beat the Sooners.

Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley joked that he wasn't much older, but has only vague memories.

"I was probably like 15 at the time," he says. "I haven't thought much about it since. I remember watching it. I remember it being a heck of a game."

Riley was actually a 20-year-old undergraduate assistant to coach Mike Leach at Texas Tech.

LSU coach Ed Orgeron, 42 at the time, remembers the 2003 season much more vividly.

But the Louisiana native, who had initially signed with he Tigers out of South Lafourche in 1979, has limited memories of the Sugar Bowl itself for other reasons.

"Obviously, I was at another school," playfully half-smiles and half-grimaces Orgeron, who was an assistant at USC in the early 2000s. "It was kind of an interesting year, but anyway — I know it was great for the state of Louisiana. There's no question about that.

"In fact, I think they were playing it on ESPNU the other day, so that was the first time I'd seen it."

Many of his players have only vague — if any — recollections of the 2007 championship, let alone its predecessor.

"I really don't remember either — I'm not gonna lie to you," Patrick Queen smiles. "I was young."

But young as the current Tigers may have been then, if they were in Louisiana, Dwayne Queen said, they were near a television.

"Patrick doesn't remember it, but he was sitting in front the TV watching the game," he says. "That's what everybody did. I mean, the whole town of Baton Rouge shut down. Everybody was stuck on the game on TV or in New Orleans."

Similarly to 2003, this week's meeting didn't appear likely until the final puzzle pieces of conference championship week fell into place.

Alabama had lurked on the College Football Playoff bubble for much of November before a 48-45 loss to rival Auburn in the regular-season finale extinguished

"If you would've told me four weeks earlier we were gonna be playing Oklahoma, I guess I wouldn't have been that surprised," Von Rosenberg says. "But I would've thought we would've been playing a PAC-12 team... But I do think Oklahoma is the most deserving team.

"Honestly, I thought we were gonna play Alabama again until they lost to Auburn. Not that I don't think Oklahoma is good, like Alabama. I just thought Alabama would find a way to still sneak in, because they'd been in every Playoff thus far. So that was my assumption was they'd claw back in and be a one-loss non-champions back in. But obviously it didn't work out that way for them."

Utah entered the PAC-12 title game well-positioned to join LSU, Ohio State and Clemson in the semifinals.

Instead, the Utes fumbled the opportunity with a 37-15 loss to Oregon.

And so, back came Oklahoma.

The Sooners rebounded from 48-41 loss Oct. 26 to the same Kansas State program that nearly cost their berth in the 2003 Sugar Bowl to claw back into their third straight Playoff appearance.

Vincent and Spears, now a commentator for ESPN and the SEC Network, watched from the sideline as LSU, No. 2 at the time, dismantle Georgia in the SEC Championship.

"I told him, 'Unless Ohio State goes out and plays a dominant game, we're gonna jump them,'" Vincent says. "Because they considered Georgia the real deal, and we literally just walked the dog on them, so unless they come out and blow Wisconsin out of the water, we're gonna jump them."

He and 2003 championship quarterback Matt Mauck went to a nearby bar after the Tigers' 37-10 victory and watched as the Buckeyes quickly fall behind the Badgers, 14-0, in the Big-10 title game.

Ohio State bounced back for an impressive 34-21 win.

But the rematch had already developed for Sunday's announcement:

No. 1 LSU vs. No. 4 Oklahoma.

"When it hit, I probably ended up getting about 40 or 50 text messages on both my phones," Vincent laughs. "People were tweeting at me, pictures and stuff. And there was a (sports management) professor (Kwame Agyemang), who's actually at Ohio State now. He did his undergrad at Oklahoma (in 2003), but then was a professor here. And I gave him a hard time.

"He said, 'Oh, I know Justin Vincent and (assistant director of player personnel) Jeff Martin are gonna give me a hard time about this.' So every day I've been sending him a picture of LSU-Oklahoma — just 'cause, because he started it, and I'm the petty king, so he's gonna get it."

While few current players have memories of that game, they know how badly they want to continue following similar footsteps to create their own.

"All I've really heard about is when (strength and conditioning coach) Tommy Moffitt was talking about it, he said LSU dominated physically," Patrick Queen says. "So hopefully we can do the same thing and have a repeat of what happened."

Says junior center Lloyd Cushenberry III: "I don't remember seeing the game, but I just remember seeing highlights growing up, like Marcus Spears with the touchdown... But it's crazy. Just watching LSU my whole life and watching college football my whole life, it's special to be a part of this. It's a blessing to be a part of this situation right here, right now. And we just want to finish and get the job done and celebrate."

The Tigers have postponed as much celebration as possible throughout a focused fall.

Senior quarterback Joe Burrow, their first Heisman trophy winner since 1959 and first ever at his position, has led an explosive offense that has set records all season long.

His and Orgeron's impressive lists of awards have headlined the team's still-growing haul.

"Nobody's gonna beat this team," Dwayne Queen says. "This team has got too much talent, they play together, they love each other and they've bought into everything that Coach O has taught. Nobody's gonna beat this team.

"This is their year. It's a special year ... It's high expectations with this team right now, much more than even when Saban was here."

LSU is 13-0 for the second time in program history with an opportunity to break further new ground Saturday.

Broussard and Vincent are confident their successors will do exactly that.

"I wouldn't really have any advice for them right now, because they're doing stuff that we've never done," Broussard says. "So all I can say is keep doing what they've been doing, because they're gettin got job done. Just don't change up, follow the game plan, and everything should fall into place."

Everything has fallen into place before.

So Broussard has already told his wife to find a babysitter for Jan. 13.

He insists on being part of what figures to be a massive purple-and-gold crowd for a potential national championship ...

And, whether they eventually remember or not, their five children would likely be near a television in a living room that resembles the Von Rosenberg's 16 years earlier.

"This is one of the best LSU teams, in my opinion," says a member of one of the Tigers' previous three national championship teams. "The offensive side and the defensive side, it's just like they've got the pistons pumping at the same time now. They're clicking together. And Joe, come on now, that's the Heisman winner and one of the best I've ever seen.

"But that's one of the best LSU teams I've ever seen, and I'm just glad to be a part of the LSU Tigers and witnessing history."