By Hunt Palmer
LSU’s five-year heater burns brightly Monday Night.
Two of the school’s three Heisman Trophy winners take the field on Monday Night Football as Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders visit Joe Burrow’s Cincinnati Bengals.
Sign me up.
Burrow and the legendary 2019 team started all of this. Those Tigers put the country on notice in Austin by drinking from Texas’s water bottles and hitting The Griddy all over Darrell K. Royal Stadium. That kick-started a four-month hostile takeover of the college football scene.
Hype videos ruled the internet. Passing records were etched in history. They turned the White House into a dance studio.
Five years later, it hasn’t slowed down.
Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase rekindled their college bond in Cincy, and they ended up in the Super Bowl their first year reunited. Meanwhile Justin Jefferson rewrote the NFL record books in Minnesota.
While that was going on, Name, Image and Likeness rules changed, and so did the lives of student athletes in purple and gold.
Livvy Dunne signed mega-deals and was plastered all over Times Square. Angel Reese entered the spotlight. So did Flau’jae with her flow and “J”.
And then they all won national titles.
So did Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews. The Pirates and Nationals decided to make that duo the first ever to go 1-2 in the MLB Draft from the same school.
And to tie it all together, Dunne and Skenes became a couple. Of course they did.
While Skenes and Crews were collecting more than $18 million in signing bonuses, Daniels was electrifying Tiger fans every Saturday.
He backed his truck up to the college football awards scene and loaded up the Davey O’Brien, AP Player of the Year, Unitas and Manning awards. He became LSU’s second Heisman winner in five years. Then Washington took him second overall in the NFL Draft.
Skenes skyrocketed through the minor leagues, making his MLB debut less than a full year after being drafted. He torched the big league hitters just the same way he manhandled SEC foes. The National League dubbed him the All-Star Game starter making him the first rookie to do so in nearly three decades.
All the big right-hander did was retire the side in order while the camera panned over to Dunne with “LSU” pasted on the television screen.
Skenes is the first pitcher in the modern era to post 150-plus strikeouts and an ERA under 2.00 in his first 22 career games, and he’s just the second player since 1913 to post an ERA of less than 2.00 through 22 career appearances.
Since his debut on May 11, he’s got the lowest ERA in the league among starting pitchers.
LSU is everywhere. Even the Olympics where Mondo Duplantis and Sha’Carri Richardson won golds this summer. Now on Amazon where “The Money Game” has chronicled the rise of the LSU student athlete celebrity.
And Monday Night the two most decorated football players in the history of the school will duel on the country’s biggest weekly stage.
Burrow’s Bengals are desperate for a win after a frustrating 0-2 start. Stumbling out of the blocks is nothing new in Cincinnati. In five years, Burrow’s record as a starter in Weeks 1 and 2 is 1-9.
Daniels notched his first career win last week versus the Giants.
The matchup will be the first between LSU quarterbacks since Bert Jones and David Woodley squared off September 27, 1981. Woodley’s Dolphins beat Jones’s Colts, 31-28, that day.
The Tiger twosome will become just the second set of Heisman winners from the same school to square off, joining Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray of Oklahoma.
South Louisiana is Saints Country. No one would attempt to refute that. But when the former Tigers don new colors in the NFL, a piece of the LSU fan base latches on. Watching the stars of Saturday Night in Death Valley shine in the professional ranks stokes the fires of those unforgettable moments.
When watching Monday Night, I’ll remember Burrow embarrassing Oklahoma. I’ll remember the quiet confidence I felt even trailing in the national title game. Burrow instilled that. I’ll remember Daniels streaking the far sideline against Florida and toppling the Tide in Saban’s last trip to Baton Rouge.
ABC will assuredly turn the first quarter into an LSU infomercial. True Bengals fans will be desperate for a win, and Commanders fans remain hopeful for a blossoming era.
I’ll just be watching LSU’s best ever quarterbacks on the same field and the continuation of one of the greatest runs an athletics program has ever produced.
