Bossier Press-Tribune Online

According to one bowl projection specialist, the LSU Tigers may be going to Dallas to play the Texas Longhorns in the Cotton Bowl.
For local LSU fans, that would be a shorter (and much faster) trip than going to Baton Rouge to watch a game in Tiger Stadium.
Of course, it won’t be the first time the Tigers have played in the Cotton Bowl. And it won’t be the first time LSU has played Texas in the Cotton Bowl.
The Longhorns beat the Tigers 35-20 in the 2003 Cotton Bowl. LSU beat Texas 13-0 in the 1963 Cotton Bowl.
Other Cotton Bowl appearances for LSU included a 41-24 win over Texas A&M in 2011 and a 14-7 win over Arkansas in 1966.
But the most memorable Cotton Bowl for LSU was the “Ice Bowl,” when the Tigers and Arkansas Razorbacks battled to a scoreless tie on New Year’s Day of 1947.
Y.A. Tittle was the quarterback of that LSU team. The Razorbacks were led by Clyde “Smackover” Scott. But neither team could score on a snow-blanketed field, although LSU rolled up 271 yards total offense and the Razorbacks managed only 54. LSU had a 15-1 advantage in first downs.
LSU filled oil drums with charcoal and started fires in them to keep players warm, and spread 25 bales of hay in front of the bench. All of the LSU linemen wore gloves. But neither team was able to overcome the weather conditions.
The only loss for Coach Bernie Moore’s Tigers in that 1946 season was to Georgia Tech, 26-7. That game was closer than the score indicated, as Georgia Tech scored two of its four touchdowns on interceptions late in the fourth quarter. LSU was ranked No. 8 going into the Cotton Bowl matchup with Arkansas.  Two of the starting backs on that LSU team were Shreveport-Bossier City products: Byrd’s Dan Sandifer and Bossier High’s Eugene “Red” Knight.
But all of that ancient history has nothing to do with the bowl matchup between LSU and Texas this year.
LSU was ranked No. 5 in the Associated Press poll before a 21-17 loss to then-No. 1 Alabama at Tiger Stadium, and is still in the Top Ten.
On the same day that Alabama beat LSU, Texas rolled past Texas Tech 31-22 with quarterback David Ash passing for 264 yards and three touchdowns. Texas coach Mack Brown called that performance “the best team win we’ve had all year.”
If his Longhorns beat LSU in the Cotton Bowl, Brown is likely to drop the win over the Red Raiders to second place.
LSU coach Les Miles received  a lot of criticism for a few calls he made in the Tigers’ loss to Alabama that backfired. But the Tigers didn’t lose that game because Miles made a few bad calls. They lost it because Alabama  is a better team. The Tide lost their first game of the season Saturday 29-24 to Texas A&M and dropped to No. 5 in the AP poll.
A personal foul called against LSU fullback J.C. Copeland cost LSU a first down at the Alabama 13-yard line in the middle of the second quarter, when Bama was leading by 7-3. The Tigers gained only one yard in three plays, and a fake field goal on fourth down resulted in a two-yard loss.
“It’s not acceptable,” Miles later said of the personal foul.
A lot of disappointed LSU fans felt the same way about another LSU loss to Alabama, which has dominated the Southeastern Conference in recent years.

Jerry Byrd is the former sports editor of the Bossier Press-Tribune and an award-winning columnist. You can contact him by E-mail at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it