On Oct 4, 1999, San Jose State went down to Death Valley to play in a 'body bag' game with LSU. I think we were 42 point underdogs, at least. For the most part, we had mediocre players half the size of LSU's players. But my boys were determined to make their mark that day, and we had a 'secret weapon': Deonce Whitaker. Deonce was a 5' 7" back who was extremely talented. He was so small he'd hide behind his lead blocker and then suddenly make a cut off his backside and go for some serious yards. Well, the game started off in typical fashion with 100,000 or so screaming LSU fans wanting to draw blood first:

1st 03:35 LSU - Rondell Mealey 27 yd run (Danny Boyd kick), 4-63 2:18, SJSU 0 - LSU 7
2nd 12:22 LSU - Fred Booker 50 yd interception return (Danny Boyd kick), , SJSU 0 - LSU 14
04:26 LSU - Danny Boyd 20 yd field goal, 6-16 2:36, SJSU 0 - LSU 17

We were on the verge of getting blown out having followed the script of an true underdog when Deonce suddenly figured out how to beat the single safety high. He made one cut off his lead blocker and was staring down the safety who waited to apply a punishing hit, when Deonce juked him out of his cleats, went 80 yards for the score. Nobody had done that to LSU that year or in recent memory. Suddenly the LSU fans went quiet. They were so surpised, they didn't know whether to cheer for him or start throwing stuff, it happened so suddenly. Even the SJS radio broadcaster sounded incredulous at what he had just witnessed.

04:03 SJSU - Whitaker, D. 80 yd run (Morgan, T. kick), 1-80 0:23, SJSU 7 - LSU 17

We went on to lose that day 29-20 and Deonce racked up 169 yards rushing on the vaunted LSU defense. He would later in his career be nominated as a Heismann trophy candidate with over 1,600 yards rushing in 2000. The LSU fans gave him a healthy cheer when the game was finally over, having seen how hard my California boys had played them that day, but it was a loss of us, nonetheless, and most of the players were disappointed we hadn't won.

I often think about that game, and would like to remind Auburn fans, that despite this game being heavily in your favor, that my boys have no quit in them and will give a good account of themselves on Saturday. Please show them the respect they deserve for their performance and may the best team win.

Here were the final stats of that 1999 SJS/LSU match-up:

SJSU LSU
FIRST DOWNS................... 16 18
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............ 38-189 35-190
PASSING YDS (NET)............. 188 157
Passes Att-Comp-Int........... 39-21-4 25-12-2
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS..... 77-377 60-347
Fumble Returns-Yards.......... 0-0 0-0
Punt Returns-Yards............ 1-0 4-35
Kickoff Returns-Yards......... 1-21 4-94
Interception Returns-Yards.... 2-5 4-120
Punts (Number-Avg)............ 7-44.9 6-37.7
Fumbles-Lost.................. 2-0 3-2
Penalties-Yards............... 4-25 6-35
Possession Time............... 33:06 26:54
Third-Down Conversions........ 7 of 18 2 of 9
Fourth-Down Conversions....... 0 of 1 0 of 0
Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 2-3 2-3
Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 2-18 5-31