“I’m not sure what it was like to walk into the Coliseum, but I bet it was something like this. The best place in the world to watch a sporting event.” - Wright Thompson, ESPN.com On Nov. 3, 2012, ESPN personality Scott Van Pelt got his first taste of “Saturday Night in Death Valley” and was overwhelmed by the stadium’s atmosphere:
“For three hours on Saturday Night, I don’t know that there has ever been an atmosphere in sports that I’ve been a part of that was as memorable to me. I have no dog in this fight. I mean look, I’ve been to games where I’ve watched Maryland win a national championship. Makes me think of my dad who left us too soon. I have nothing but being a sports fan on the line on Saturday night. And I’ve never seen something that felt like that. Or heard anything that was as sustained as that … There is nothing I would put ahead of that that I’ve ever seen in any sport. When you’re there, you don’t want to miss anything.”
Scariest Places to Play FROM OCTOBER 2007 ON ESPN.COM
1. LSU, Tiger Stadium 2. Virginia Tech, Lane Stadium 3. Florida, Ben Hill Griffin Stadium 4. USC, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 5. Penn State, Beaver Stadium
Most Spirited Student Sections FROM ESPN THE MAGAZINE, AUGUST 2008
1. LSU 2. Wisconsin 3. West Virginia 4. NC State 5. Michigan State
AND HERE COME YOUR FIGHTING TIGERS OF LSU!” “I can tell you there is no finer stadium to play in. The traditions that they place in that stadium like when they announce that it’s Saturday night in Death Valley, when that band plays, when that crowd stands and cheers for the Tigers, there is no place like it in America.” - LSU head coach Les Miles
“Unless your with the opposing team, Tiger Stadium at night is football nirvana.” - Chris Low, ESPN.com
“So welcome to LSU, where the football is so good the earth moves, where the tailgate chow is so good the Food Network should own broadcast rights, and where the entire atmosphere is so special that people from the other side of the world would rather spend their days listening to a tiger’s roar in Death Valley than go home to the peace and comfort of the Shire.” - Jim Caple, Senior Writer ESPN The Magazine
2013 FOOTBALL MEDIA GUIDE
LSU 27 27