Resurgent LSU Is the Ultimate College Football Playoff Crasher

LSU's players have a better sense of their place in college football this week than the rest of us. You see them as a spoiler, a broken-down powerhouse reduced to wrecking somebody else's dreams instead of acting on their own. It is being written, tweeted, blogged and trolled that the Tigers are trying to snatch a consolation prize with a win over Alabama on Saturday.

LSU insists it is more relevant than being a banana peel.     

"We're not out of it," fullback Connor Neighbors said. "We're not."

Neighbors did not mean "out of it" as in "out of milk," "out of bread" or "out of brain cells." He meant "out of it" as in the national championship picture. You're laughing, smirking, ridiculing and thinking, "He's out of it, alright. Out of his mind."

But seven years ago, LSU had two losses and played for the national championship and won it all. That was in the BCS era, when two teams were picked for the title-game sweepstakes. This is the College Football Playoff era. Four teams are in the final pool. Somewhere a man has bitten a dog. Strange things can happen.

LSU has lost to No. 1 Mississippi State and No. 3 Auburn. If you are going to have smears on your resume, those are the ones to have. The Tigers just beat then-No. 3 Ole Miss. If they beat No. 5 Alabama, that's two wins over Top 5 teams.

The Tigers are dangerous because they have some of the best talent in the country and are playing with the spunk and mean of their fullback, who started his career as a walk-on. Neighbors, even with the advanced pedigree of three generations wearing 'Bama Crimson, got no offers in recruiting. He was not only shut out by Division I, but he was shut out by FCS schools, Division II and Division III.

Gerald Herbert/Associated Press

Neighbors, who is 5'11", 240 pounds, fits none of the height-weight-speed criteria that go with playing football in Division I, much less for a blue-chip harvester like LSU. He was recruited by one guy, though, and it counted. LSU defensive coordinator John Chavis got a tip and convinced Neighbors to walk on as a linebacker. He was switched to fullback and became a Smash Brother.

So the heck with heritage this week. His grandfather, Billy, played for Bear Bryant. His father, Wes, played for Ray Perkins. His brother, Wes, played for Nick Saban. Billy took Connor on a trip to LSU and told his grandson, "This place suits you." Wes told his son, "It's your life, do what you want. Go for it."

Sure, a whole lot has to happen for Neighbors' vision to come true, like Mississippi State losing twice, Auburn losing again and Alabama losing to LSU. But the contenders all swim in a pool of sharks in the SEC West, which means they have to go on the road and can lose.

We could see the conference office marching down a list of tiebreakers involving three or more SEC West teams tied at 6-2. Think about it as you read tiebreaker No. 7 on cross-divisional opponents. If Florida keeps winning, the resurgent Gators could not only save Will Muschamp's job, but they could catapult LSU into the SEC West title.

Then, if Oregon loses, if Michigan State loses, if, if, if...

The "ifs" have lined up for the Tigers before. Undefeated in regulation in 2007, two overtime losses, and they got matched up with Ohio State and won the national title.

Yeah, it is a lot of dominoes falling right, but think about it from Alabama's perspective. LSU, once considered mediocre with losses to Mississippi State and Auburn, has been juiced again. The Hat, Les Miles, has been selling this same line to his team:

"We're not out of it."

The Tigers were embarrassed by one team from Alabama already. Neighbors said the loss to Auburn and all the mental mistakes made him sick to his stomach. The mental mess has been cleaned up, he said. More important, their freshman quarterback has grown, the defense is better, the freshman running back is bossing defenders.

Neighbors says it again. The Tigers still have a chance to play for the big money.

Alabama is going to get a motivated opponent that could ruin the Tide's own title hopes. That should make Alabama fans nervous because it won't be the typical Mississippi State pushover arriving in Tuscaloosa the following week. Look how bruised Ole Miss was when it left Baton Rouge.

Here is something else to remember about LSU.

While the rest of us overuse the week's cliche "They remember November," the Tigers brood over October. On the Monday after the 41-7 loss to Auburn, they gathered in the middle of the practice field, players only, and got a scalding from the team's leaders.

In the days that followed, the prima donna wide receivers were singled out for not blocking downfield when the ball wasn't being thrown to them. Defensive linemen were told to buck up on the run. No more missed assignments on the offensive line. No more dancing and looking for the big hole from running backs. Hit it up in there.

It was a players-only meeting that Monday, but they borrowed a line from the coaching staff.

Starting jobs around here are etched in sand, easily wiped away. Anybody can get screwed to the bench. Anybody.

Here is something else the Tigers are really angry about. You and me said LSU won the game against Ole Miss because that crowd was so loud in Tiger Stadium it scared the Rebels quarterback stiff. The raucous crowd is why Ole Miss scored a measly seven points, we said. That really ticked off Neighbors.

"Man, it should have been 21-0 us before they got anything on the scoreboard," he said. "It made me mad, like the stadium had more to do with them losing than us players.

"Then they [Ole Miss] don't even fall in the polls. It was like, 'Oh, it was just where they played,' not like they got beat by a good team.

"Hell with that."

Neighbors would settle for Saturday's game to be played in a dusty lot in Baton Rouge, or Tuscaloosa, or maybe back in his hometown of Huntsville, Alabama. LSU is not the same team that got trashed by Auburn and whipped by Mississippi State. The Tigers are feeling ruthless.

Ray Glier covers college football for Bleacher Report. He has covered college football and various other sports for 20 years. His work has appeared in USA Today, The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post and Al Jazeera America. He is the author of How the SEC Became Goliath (Howard/Simon & Schuster, 2013). All quotations were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.