Unfortunately, it’s becoming easier to list the LSU football seasons that haven’t been affected by a natural disaster.
Ed Orgeron’s Tigers enter this year looking to bounce back from last season’s 5-5 plummet that followed the 15-0 national championship run the year before. LSU will open its season with a tricky test at UCLA this Saturday night, with the Tigers having left Baton Rouge this past Saturday night for Houston in order to avoid Sunday’s arrival of Hurricane Ida.
“Our thoughts and our prayers go out to our great fans in the state of Louisiana,” Orgeron said Wednesday on the opening Southeastern Conference teleconference of the season. “Guys in south Louisiana were hit pretty hard, but our guys are safe, and that’s what is important. We came here to Houston, and the Houston Texans have been very, very nice to us. They have given us NRG Stadium, and we’re staying at a Hyatt Regency.
“Everybody is treating us great, and our families are safe, so thank God for all of that.”
LSU somehow won the SEC’s Western Division title in 2005, when the Tigers were greeted by both Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita at the start of that season, and this week’s relocation to Houston marks the fourth time in the past six years that a hurricane has altered the program’s plans. Hurricane Matthew in 2016 resulted in the Florida-LSU rivalry moving from Gainesville to Baton Rouge, and it was Hurricane Harvey the following year that switched LSU’s opener against Brigham Young from Houston to New Orleans.