WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2020
BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A
COLLEGE FOOTBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Terrific Tigers: LSU caps perfect
season by rolling past Clemson
By Ralph D. Russo
AP College Football Writer
NEW ORLEANS — From
small-town Ohio kid to
Louisiana legend, Joe Burrow
capped his record-breaking,
Heisman-winning season by
bringing a national champi-
onship to LSU.
Burrow threw fi ve touch-
down passes, ran for another
score and fi nished off one of
the most accomplished sea-
sons in college football history
by leading the top-ranked Ti-
gers to a 42-25 victory against
No. 3 Clemson on Monday
night in the playoff fi nal.
“He’s one of the great-
est players in LSU history,”
Tigers coach Ed Orgeron said.
“He’s done so much for the
state of Louisiana and LSU.
We are so grateful to Joe
Burrow.”
The senior quarterback
from The Plains, Ohio, deliv-
ered the Tigers (15-0) their
fi rst national title since 2007
and fourth overall, breaking
a few more records along the
way in what was already a
historic season. His fi ve TD
passes and 463 yards passing
are the most for a BCS or
College Football Playoff title
game. So were his six total
touchdowns.
“This is what I wanted
to do from the time I was 5
years old, was hoist this tro-
phy. And bringing it back to
Louisiana,” Burrow said, then
caught himself. “I guess we’re
in Louisiana, but staying in
Louisiana, we weren’t going
to let someone come in here
and steal this from us in our
Ducks 5th in fi nal poll
Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today-TNS
LSU Tigers wide receiver Terrace Marshall Jr. (6) celebrates with running back Clyde
Edwards-Helaire (22) after scoring a touchdown against the Clemson Tigers in the
fourth quarter in the College Football Playoff national championship game Monday.
home state.
“We have a great fan base
that came out and supported
us. We were going to keep this
thing right here.”
Under a shower of spar-
kling white, gold and purple
confetti, Burrow raised the
CFP championship trophy
toward the Superdome roof.
The party was on — no doubt
already raging on nearby
Bourbon Street.
Burrow became the fi rst
major college quarterback to
throw 60 touchdown passes
in a season and LSU snapped
defending national champion
Clemson’s 29-game winning
streak. For the fi rst time in
his college career, Clemson
star quarterback Trevor Law-
rence was on the losing team.
“I hate how it fi nished,” the
sophomore said. “But man,
we did some really amazing
things.”
The Tigers (14-1) had won
Lawrence’s fi rst 25 starts.
On this night, Lawrence
(18 for 37 for 234 yards) was
no match for Burrow — the
Ohio State transfer who
threw all of 16 TD passes last
season with LSU.
After tossing his fi fth
touchdown pass of the night,
a perfectly placed jumped ball
to Terrace Marshall Jr. from
24 yards out to make it 42-25
with 12:08 left in the fourth,
Burrow signaled TD and
strolled to the sideline.
The Superdome is LSU’s
dome away from home, about
80 miles from the Tigers’
Baton Rouge campus — and
it was rocking.
The LSU band broke out
its unoffi cial anthem, “Neck,”
and as the Tigers bounced
and waved towels on the
sideline, Burrow just sat on
the bench, bobbing his head
and waving one arm.
Joe Cool. Just doing his
thing. Next stop: The NFL
draft, where he will likely be
the fi rst pick in April.
The fi nal score was
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — LSU fi nished No. 1 in the AP
Top 25 for the third time in school history, with Clemson
No. 2 and Ohio State No. 3.
The Tigers (15-0) beat Clemson 42-25 in the national
championship game Monday night and then received all
62 fi rst-place votes from the media panel in the season’s
fi nal Top 25 presented by Regions Bank.
LSU was No. 1 for the fi nal eight weeks of the season
and set a record by beating seven teams ranked in the top
10 at the time of the game. Miami in 1987 and Alabama in
2015 each beat fi ve teams ranked in the top 10 at the time
of their games.
The Tigers also won AP titles in 2007 and 1958.
Georgia, LSU’s Southeastern Conference rival, was
fourth and Pac-12 champion Oregon was fi fth. Florida
was sixth and Oklahoma, which made the playoff, was
seventh.
Alabama fi nished eighth, its lowest fi nal ranking since
2010, giving the SEC four of the top 10. It’s the fi fth time
one conference has had four teams in the fi nal top 10, and
fourth for the SEC.
No. 9 Penn State and No. 10 Minnesota gave the Big Ten
three teams in the top 10.
lopsided, but it was far from
easy for LSU and Burrow.
Clemson pushed LSU
into the deepest hole it had
to climb out of this season
in the fi rst half. Two weeks
after Lawrence ran for a
career-best 107 yards against
Ohio State, he opened the
scoring with a 1-yard jaunt
around right end in the fi rst
quarter.
After B.T. Potter kicked a
career-long 52-yard fi eld goal
for Clemson to make it 10-7,
the Tigers sprung receiver
Tee Higgins on a 36-yard
reverse for a score to make it
17-7 in the second quarter.
It took LSU 5:19 to wipe
that out and take the lead,
with Burrow and his favorite
receiver, Ja’Marr Chase,
doing most of the damage.
The Heisman winner hit the
Biletnikoff Award winner
with a long ball to set up a
quarterback draw from 3
yards out to make it 17-14.
Burrow and Chase hooked
up for a 14-yard touchdown
with 5:19 left in the sec-
ond quarter and LSU fans
erupted as their Tigers took
the lead for the fi rst time, 21-
17. They never looked back.
Chase fi nished with nine
catches for 221 yards.