'A team for the ages': Ed Orgeron thinks LSU has a case as the best college football team of all time
After knocking off Clemson 42-25 in the national championship game on Monday night, the 2019 LSU Tigers will be mentioned among the best college football teams of all time.
In fact, Ed Orgeron thinks his team has a legitimate argument as the best to ever do it.
“I think this is a team for the ages, especially how prolific we were on offense, and to have that type of quarterback that we have, to go 15-0 and to beat the teams that we beat, all the top teams that we played, we beat them,” Orgeron said Tuesday morning.
Along the way, LSU beat five teams that finished in the top eight of the final Associated Press Top 25 of the season. The Tigers defeated No. 4 Georgia, No. 6 Florida, No. 7 Oklahoma and No. 8 Alabama before dispatching No. 2 Clemson in the College Football Playoff title game. Overall, LSU had seven wins over top 10 teams. That’s the most in FBS history.
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Clemson, last year’s national champion, entered Monday night’s game in New Orleans on a 29-game winning streak. LSU, led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Joe Burrow, was just too much for Clemson to handle — even after jumping out to a 17-7 lead. Burrow set an NCAA record with 60 touchdown passes this season, including five on Monday night. He finished the year with 5,671 yards, third-most in NCAA history, and a 76.3 completion percentage, the second-best single-season mark of all time.
“We had a tremendous schedule. We answered the bell. These guys didn't blink,” Orgeron said. “We didn't have a bad game. We played 15 good football games, and this is going to be hard to beat.”
The 2018-19 Clemson team was the first team in history to go 15-0. LSU becomes the second to reach that mark and will be ranked among famous teams like the 1995 Nebraska team and the 2001 Miami team, among many others.
But this LSU group has a seemingly never-ending collection of accolades to stack alongside the 15-0 record and national championship trophy. These Tigers have the Heisman winner, Burrow, who won by a historic landslide and ended up being responsible for more touchdowns in a season than any player in history. This LSU team scored the most points in the AP poll era (726), has the coach of the year (Orgeron), assistant coach of the year (co-offensive coordinator Joe Brady), Joe Moore Award winner (best offensive line), Biletnikoff Trophy winner (Ja’Marr Chase) and Jim Thorpe Award winner (Grant Delpit).
LSU became the first team ever to beat each of the top four teams in the preseason AP poll.
Average margin of victory: 21.0 PPG. pic.twitter.com/dm3dagUSyy— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) January 14, 2020
“You never can go back in time, it's a different era, but I've never been around a prolific offense like this. I remember being around the offense at USC and at Miami and saying we could have those type of offenses. We shattered all those records,” Orgeron said. “It's a different age, it's a different offense. I learned from Jimmy Johnson, who texted me this morning, and watched Bear Bryant, obviously, we all did, and Pete Carroll. So those guys are legendary. But as far as our football team, I think they can play with anybody anywhere.”
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