If the LSU football season were any closer, the refs would bring out the chain to measure.  But regardless of how close we are to Saturdays of watching Tiger football again, the reality is that this Saturday we aren’t, and the anticipation can be agonizing.

We couldn’t take another Saturday without LSU football, so we scoured Youtube to find their best plays of the 21st century, which have been arguably the best 14 seasons to be an LSU fan.  Here are our picks for the 10 best LSU plays:

 

 

10. Morris Claiborne’s 99-yard kick return.
Shreveport’s own with just about the longest kickoff a college player could have. And it was hard-fought, too.

 

9. Tyrann Mathieu – Strip, Fumble Recovery, Touchdown, Repeat.
This happened so many times in the Tyrann Mathieu Era that we couldn’t pick one that was better than the rest.

 

8. Jacob Hester Running Over Florida’s Major Wright.
It may not have been the game-winning play (which he’d later give us), but Jacob Hester’s bullish run up the middle for a first down late in the 4th ignited an LSU team that would go on to win the National Championship that year.

 

7. LSU-Arkansas 2013 – Landry’s Improbable Catch
It still doesn’t make sense as to how he caught this.

 

6. Tyrann Mathieu’s 92-year kickoff return against Arkansas.
This is just Tyrann doing Tyrann things.

 

5. Tyrann “El Savior” Mathieu’s Punt Return TD in the 2011 SEC Championship
With the Tigers down 10-0 late in the 2nd quarter, Tyrann took matters into his own hands.

 

4. LSU-Tennessee Ending – 2010
This isn’t necessarily a very flashy series of plays, but just the electricity in the air makes up for it. This is what it’s like to have a riverboat gambler as a coach.

 

3. The Mad Hatter is born – The last-second touchdown catch against Auburn in 2007
This was the play that basically solidified every LSU fan’s suspicion that Les Miles was clinically insane. But, to his credit, we DID win the game. And we’ve one many, many more in the Les Miles era. Why didn’t we just kick a field goal? No one knows, but everyone knows this: It wouldn’t have been near as exciting. And such is Les Miles.

 

2. Eric Reid saves the 2011 season against Bama.

Had he not held on, the 2011 season may have been drastically different.

 

1. The Bluegrass Miracle
How can we not pick this play! Does it still give you goosebumps, too? Devery Henderson, even now being 12 years later, we’ll gladly give you our voting support should you choose to run for governor of Louisiana.

 

How would you rank LSU’s top plays of the 21st Century?