17-0 still remains as Miles worst loss of his career

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It was one thing losing to Alabama, 21-0, on Jan. 9, 2012. The Crimson Tide was No. 2 in the nation, 11-1 on the season, had just won the 2009 national championship, and that game was for the national championship as LSU finished 13-1.

LSU’s 17-0 loss at Arkansas Saturday night was similar to watch, but with far different circumstances. The Razorbacks limped in at 4-5 overall, 0-5 in the Southeastern Conference and 0-17 in the SEC since 2012.

Arkansas became the first winless team in SEC play so late in a season to beat LSU since a 4-6 Mississippi State outfit that was 0-6 in the SEC defeated the Tigers, 34-22, on Nov. 17, 1990, in Jackson, Miss.

But that was a dying, 4-5 and 2-4 LSU team that was coached by lame duck Mike Archer, who learned just a few days before that he would be fired after the season because word leaked from LSU’s athletic department.

This was a 20th-ranked, 7-3 LSU team here Saturday that just a week prior had No. 3 Alabama beaten until the final seconds of regulation before losing, 20-13, in overtime. Just two weeks before that, LSU knocked off No. 3 Ole Miss, 10-7, to improve to 7-2 and 3-2 in the SEC. LSU found itself out of all polls Sunday.

So based on record of the opponent, this was the worst loss of LSU coach Les Miles’ decade at LSU. It has been 32 years since a winning LSU team this late in a season has lost to a team with such a poor record as Arkansas. On Nov. 27, 1982, a seventh-ranked, 8-1-1 and Orange Bowl-bound LSU lost, 31-28, to a 3-7 Tulane team in Tiger Stadium.

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