LSU Flexes Muscles in Morgantown: Do the Tigers Deserve a No. 1 Ranking?

After LSU’s 47-21 victory over West Virginia on Saturday night, there’s only one question that needs to be asked.

Can any team tame the Tigers?

Three ranked teams have tried and all have failed.

LSU has planted its sword in college football’s stone, and so far, there hasn’t been a worthy adversary that has come along to pull it out.

This is a team that has endured so much skepticism between their win in last year’s Cotton Bowl and their big matchup with Oregon in the season opener this year.

They waved goodbye to their top three defensive players—CB Patrick Peterson, DT Drake Nevis and LB Kelvin Sheppard.

They parted ways a year too soon with productive running back Stevan Ridley, the offense’s most consistent player, who rushed for over 1,100 yards and 15 TDs in 2010.

Most importantly, they suspended starting quarterback Jordan Jefferson, who was charged with Battery Assault after an August bar fight in Baton Rouge.

And yet, here they are, 4-0.

No other team in the country can boast the kind of resume that LSU has right now.

No. 3 Oregon?

LaMichael who?

No. 25 Mississippi State?

There just wasn't enough cowbell to cut it.

No. 16 West Virginia?

Well at least the fans had fun at the Mountainlair in the morning.

This defense, yes, it’s as good as advertised.

If you let me build a college defense from scratch out of any players in the country, I’d probably put at least three LSU defensive players on it.

Tyrann Mathieu?

He tops the list.

You’ve got to love the hair and you’ve got to love the difference-making ability this guy brings to the table.

What an unbelievable defensive playmaker.

Morris Claiborne?

Sorry Alfonzo and Dre, but this guy’s going to be the first corner off the board next year.

Michael Brockers?

Is it too early to start comparing him to Nick Fairley?

Yes, the LSU defense is all it’s cracked up to be and more.

Sure, West Virginia QB Geno Smith threw for a bunch of yards on them, but honestly, did it even matter?

Dana Holgorsen and the rest of the Mountaineer offensive brain trust knew it wasn’t even worth it to try to run the ball against the LSU defensive front seven.

West Virginia gained a total of 70 yards on the ground, and if you watched the game tonight, you probably wouldn’t have even expected that kind of output.

Honestly, I can’t even remember one productive running play that West Virginia ran throughout the whole game.

LSU was just too big, too strong and too fast for West Virginia to keep pace with.

Now as we enter conference play, it’s only going to get tougher.

Everyone is already pointing to the November 5th matchup with Alabama, but hey, let’s not discount teams like Florida, Auburn and Arkansas.

OK, well maybe we can discount them after the performance we saw tonight.

I know people still want to rag on QB Jarrett Lee and the rest of the Tigers offense, but have those same people taken a look at this Spencer Ware-Michael Ford running back duo.

They make me scared and I know full well that I’ll never even have to tackle them.

So can anything stand between the Tigers, who are now 4-0 and don’t show any signs of slowing down, and the national championship game in New Orleans?

Yes, only one thing, and that’s the quarterback position.

Jordan Jefferson will probably be reinstated at some point during the season, but you have to wonder if coach Les Miles will just hand Jefferson the keys to the offense if the team is rolling on an undefeated streak.

Jefferson's replacement, Jarrett Lee, hasn’t done anything that will make you forget about Andrew Luck, but you certainly can’t argue with the results he’s produced.

Lee has embraced his role and guided the Tigers through some hostile environments to start off the season.

He’s now disposed of three ranked teams in just four weeks, and no matter what you have to say, that’s not too shabby at all.

We’ve seen guys like Matt Flynn and Matt Mauck somehow manage to guide LSU to a national championship recently, and Lee would certainly seem to fit that same type of mold.

I’ll admit it, after watching the Tigers outplay and out-physical my alma mater, West Virginia, I’m now a believer.

Oh god, I’ve converted to "The Hat."

LSU is the real deal this year, folks.

I know I don’t need to list the reasons why, but I’m going to anyway.

Steady quarterback play (Jarrett Lee).

A dynamic running back duo (Spencer Ware and Michael Ford).

A stud wide receiver (Rueben Randle).

One of the strongest offensive lines in the country.

Oh, and one of the top defenses we’ve seen since the turn of the millennium.

That’s a pretty strong case to consider LSU the No. 1 team in the land.

I know a lot of people are still infatuated with Oklahoma, but we just can’t push this LSU team to the back burner anymore.

After the September they just had, the Tigers deserve to be ranked as the No. 1 team in the country, and until someone steps up and knocks them off, they deserve to keep that ranking.