Dr. Charles E. Coates, a chemistry professor at the university known for his work on sugar, and former football player at Johns Hopkins, assembled a group of students to create the school's first team.

By the time LSU was able to play its only game of the season, Allen Jeardeau had departed from the school as head football coach, and no provision had been made to replace him.

After a strong 1909 campaign under coaches Joe Pritchard and John W. Mayhew, which saw their only conference loss come to SIAA champion Sewanee, the team lost some star power; Stovall, Lally, and Seip had all graduated.

The following week coach Wallace Wade's national champion Alabama blew-out LSU in Tiger Stadium, 42–0, which was at the time the worst home loss in school history.

Led by All-Southern captain Jess Tinsley, Tigers posted a 6–2–1 record, suffering losses to Arkansas and Wallace Wade's Alabama Crimson Tide.

The 1943 team was led by Steve Van Buren, moved to running back because of a lack of players due to World War II conscription,[33] and won the Orange Bowl.

[38] In 1972, number 6 LSU survived an upset bid from unranked Ole Miss in Tiger Stadium by winning the game on a touchdown pass from quarterback Bert Jones to running back Brad Davis.

His 1986 LSU squad won the school's first outright SEC title since 1970 and the Tigers' last in the pre-championship game era, though the season was marred somewhat by an upset home loss to Miami University, his alma mater.

After Sports Illustrated ran a cover story about the university's issues, Arnsparger met privately with athletic director Bob Brodhead to complain that the negative coverage was harming football recruiting and to threaten to leave the school if something wasn't done.

[65] With no time remaining in the game, LSU defensive back Troy Twillie intercepted Auburn quarterback Patrick Nix's 11-yard pass into the end zone to secure the victory.

[69] On November 15, 1999, two days after the Tigers lost to unranked Houston at home, LSU chancellor Mark Emmert fired DiNardo with one game remaining in the season.

16 LSU survived an upset bid from unranked Kentucky in 2002 by winning the game 33–30 on a miraculous 75-yard Hail Mary pass as time expired known as the "Bluegrass Miracle".

With ESPN College Gameday on hand for the first time since 1997, Quarterback Matt Mauck found wide receiver Skyler Green for a 34-yard touchdown with 3:03 remaining in the game.

[80] On September 25, 2016, LSU fired Miles and offensive coordinator Cam Cameron after an 18–13 loss to Auburn the previous day and a 2–2 start to begin the season.

The traditionally defensive-minded Tigers averaged over 48 points per game, led by quarterback Joe Burrow, Baton Rouge-native running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, and star receivers Ja'Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson.

[95] Moving forward, the Tigers would win 4 straight against Southern, Mississippi State, New Mexico, and Auburn before eventually losing to Tennessee by a score of 13–40.

LSU has worn gold jerseys four times recently: vs. Vanderbilt in 1996, vs. Notre Dame in the 1997 Independence Bowl, at Florida in 1998 and throwbacks vs. Mississippi State in 2016.

Save for the throwback jerseys, LSU wore gold due to the intense dislike of purple exhibited by then-LSU coach Gerry DiNardo.

[107] The crossbar from the goalposts which stood in the north end zone of Tiger Stadium from 1955 through 1984 is now mounted above the door which leads from LSU's locker room onto the playing field.

[citation needed] The Sporting News proclaimed "Saturday Night in Death Valley" and Tiger tailgating as the top tradition in college football.

Then, while playing the introduction to "Touchdown for LSU," the band begins to run in tempo through the streets and down the hill amidst the crowd of cheering fans.

It has been mentioned by the LSU fan base, the origins of the rivalry date back to a 15-game undefeated streak Alabama had in Tiger Stadium, which is generally considered to be one of the most hostile atmospheres in college football.

In 2007, Arkansas defeated top-ranked LSU in triple overtime, giving them their first win in Baton Rouge since 1993, and again defended the Golden Boot trophy with a last-minute touchdown drive in 2008.

17 Tigers; Arkansas's tenth time holding LSU to 0 points and the only shutout in the series since 1995) and 2015 (a 31–14 romp in Baton Rouge which saw the unranked Razorbacks lead the No.

With a few exceptions, mostly during Spurrier's coaching tenure when the Gators routinely won by large margins, this rivalry has been known for close games in recent years, with both teams usually coming into the match-up highly ranked.

Mississippi State's 34–29 victory on September 20, 2014, engineered by quarterback Dak Prescott, a Louisiana native, was the Bulldogs' first over LSU since 1999, their first in Baton Rouge since 1991, and just their fourth overall since 1985.

LSU and Ole Miss played at Oxford in 1989 for the first time in 29 seasons, then moved the series permanently to Vaught–Hemingway Stadium in 1994 after the 1991 and 1992 contests returned to Jackson.

[155] The intrastate rivalry featured two teams which were geographically close (Baton Rouge and New Orleans are roughly 80 miles (130 km) apart) and drew on socio-political tensions between the state's capital and seat of government and its biggest and most culturally important city.

In that time, 12 coaches have led the Tigers in postseason bowl games: Bernie Moore, Gus Tinsley, Paul Dietzel, Charles McClendon, Jerry Stovall, Bill Arnsparger, Mike Archer, Gerry DiNardo, Nick Saban, Les Miles, Ed Orgeron, and Brian Kelly.

Of the 32 different head coaches who have led the Tigers, Dana X. Bible, Michael Donahue, Lawrence "Biff" Jones, Moore and McClendon have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.