The football conditions in Baton Rouge on Nov. 8, 2008, were just about perfect—sunshine, temperatures in the mid-70s, with a nice breeze coming off of the Mississippi River. And yet, the 93,000-plus Tigers fans packed into Death Valley growled like it was a humid August day, blood boiling in anticipation for their first home date with former LSU coach Nick Saban, now the head man at hated rival Alabama.
“LSU is known for the excellence of its football teams and the passion of its fans. For the past couple of years, that passion, that anger, has been focused on one man—Nick Saban—almost to the exclusion of any other,” said legendary CBS play-by-play man Verne Lundquist in the opening of the network’s 3:30 p.m. ET broadcast.
