LSU leaps at shot to visit Lambeau

Published 7:19 am Wednesday, August 31, 2016

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">According to the stadium literature, Green Bay’s Lambeau Field is equipped with underground pipes that churn antifreeze under the turf to keep the ice-grass from breaking in half.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That’s good to know.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">At least LSU won’t have to deal with the famed “frozen tundra” come Saturday when the Tigers venture north, just outside the Arctic Circle for the season opener against Wisconsin.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">You never can be too careful. It might plunge into the high 60s by the fourth quarter.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">You get the feeling, though, that some LSU fans will be disappointed. They might go ahead and pack gloves the size of Yugos and industrial ear warmers for a September football game.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Just to say they did.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Perhaps they want the total Lambeau experience, traditional and historic version.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Maybe they want to look out through the stadium and see enough defiant fog coming out of nostrils to suggest a vaping convention (with a few fools shirtless of course).</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Maybe they want to peer down at the goal line and see Davon Godchaux trying to dig a trough in the ice on fourth-and-1.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That’s the Lambeau Field you want.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But LSU will just have to pack extra sunscreen and settle for Lambeau Light.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s still — insert deep voice — Laaaambeau Field.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">This game has been circled on LSU fans’ calendars ever since it was announced several years ago.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">No offense to the Badgers — a fine program — but it wasn’t the thought of playing Wisconsin.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Been there, done that — in Tiger Stadium, in Madison, Wisconsin, even at a neutral site (Houston’s NRG Stadium two years ago).</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It wasn’t the idea of visiting Wisconsin before the tundra flares up and the cold-and-flu season sets in.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">No, it was the notion of checking one off the bucket list with a visit to probably the NFL’s most iconic stadium and getting to see the Tigers play too.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That’s why I love these neutral-site season openers, aside from them being about the only way you force-feed most schools a decent nonconference matchup these days.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s college football with a harmless gimmick providing the game with a different look and feel — and a whole lot more fun than alternative uniforms.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s not quite a big bowl atmosphere, but there’s definitely not a regular season feel to it, either.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s a unique atmosphere, with the anticipation of a new season coupled with unfamiliar surroundings.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">If LSU plays a road game out of the usual routine, particularly to open the season, sometimes it looks like an evacuation of the state.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">When the Tigers went to Seattle to open the 2009 season against Washington — LSU’s longest-ever road trip — you’d have thought the entire state had found its way to Puget Sound.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That wasn’t a neutral site, but fans knew it was probably their only lifetime chance to see LSU play in that part of the country.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Same with Lambeau, and not just for fans. Don’t you think the players know where they’re playing, and dreaming of playing there regularly?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But here’s what surprised me.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">I probably don’t have to tell you that LSU has never played at Lambeau Field. Much of the excitement centers around the once-in-a-lifetime chance to see it.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But it shocked me to learn that Wisconsin has never played a game there either.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Imagine if LSU had never played in the Superdome. What would the build-up for that game be?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Wisconsin did once play a hockey game in Lambeau (LSU apparently balked at notion of helping recreate that particular event).</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It won’t be the first college football game there, although you couldn’t prove by me that St. Norbert had a football team when it played Fordham (Vince Lombardi’s alma mater) in 1983.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But the closest thing the NFL has to a college football atmosphere with SEC-caliber tailgating otherwise has discouraged the various varsities.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The Badgers football team has never been invited.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So if you think LSU is excited about the game, just think how many Wisconsin players grew up dreaming of doing the Lambeau Leap.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">In fact, LSU’s Leonard Fournette, who no doubt will return to Lambeau at some point in his NFL career, was asked if he’d take the plunge, assuming he scores a touchdown Saturday.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“No,” he said, and with good reason. It would surely draw a flag under college football rules.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Little known fact: The Lambeau Leap is against the NFL’s rules on excessive celebration, but it was grandfathered in just for Lambeau when the rule stiffened.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">For all the nostalgia involved, LSU will have to make it to Atlanta’s Georgia Dome for the SEC championship to play in a newer stadium this year.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Lambeau isn’t really that old.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It opened for the 1957 season, a mere toddler by college standards, but is the longest continuously used stadium in the NFL.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Before that, believe it or not, the Packers played at Green Bay East High School’s stadium.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But the college game, far more than the NFL, embraces tradition and history.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That’s why the crossover venue Saturday is the true calling card.</span>

<span class="R~sep~AZaphdingbatdot7pt">l</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Scooter Hobbs</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">covers LSU</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">athletics. Email him at</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">shobbs@americanpress.com</span>

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<p class="p1">Follow Scooter Hobbs on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/ScooterAmPress"><span class="s1">twitter.com/ScooterAmPress</span></a>

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