Finally healthy, LSU will ride experience to title win

When healthy, LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey is one of the most dominant players in college football. Chris Graythen/Getty Images

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RELATED • McCARTNEY: Five reasons Ohio St. will win • Ohio State's Road to the BCS Title Game • LSU's Road to the BCS Title Game • TALE OF THE TAPE: LSU vs. Ohio State

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NEW ORLEANS -- First off, let it be known that I am not one of those who thinks Ohio State's appearance in this game is some kind of sham. I'm certainly not a believer in the popular myth that SEC teams are inherently "faster" than Big Ten teams.

I consider Monday night's BCS National Championship Game to be a fairly even matchup between two highly talented teams with loaded defenses, which should make for a rare, close-fought, defense-dominated title game.

I've believed since nearly the start of the season, however, that LSU is the most dangerous team in the country when healthy, and its late-season SEC struggles did little to change that opinion.

Here are five reasons why the Tigers will pull out one last dramatic victory Monday night:

1) They're finally healthy. It's been written before, but there's no understating just how badly LSU was banged up the second half of the regular season and what a profound effect the past five weeks of recuperation will have on the Tigers' performance Monday night.

Quarterback Matt Flynn should be fully healthy for the first time since the second game of the season. Top receiver Early Doucet will be 100 percent for the first time since September.

Star defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey, the overriding cog in coordinator Bo Pelini's defense, will no longer be playing at half-speed. Several other defensive starters (DT Marlon Favorite, LB Darry Beckwith, safeties Craig Steltz and Curtis Taylor) will be back at full strength as well.

As a result, we'll be seeing the true LSU team for the first time since its resounding 48-7 win over Virginia Tech way back on Sept. 8 -- and that team, on that night, would not have lost to anybody.

"I think you'll find that all the key participants of our football team are healthier than they've ever been and look forward to playing long and hard," said LSU coach Les Miles.

2) OSU can't stop all of LSU's playmakers. With the exception of their sole loss to Illinois, the Buckeyes' top-ranked defense proved capable of shutting down everyone from a traditional power team (holding Michigan to three points) to a wide-open spread team (shutting out Purdue for 59 minutes). But few offenses in the country present as unique a challenge as LSU's oft-described "multiple scheme."

"We're in a comfort zone going in both spread-out and bunched-in formations," said Tigers offensive coordinator Gary Crowton.

LSU has a seemingly endless array of weapons, from straight-ahead runner Jacob Hester to the speedier Keiland Williams and Trindon Holliday to versatile receivers Doucet, Brandon LaFell and Demetrius Byrd. Flynn can beat you with the deep ball, and backup QB Ryan Perrilloux, while also a capable thrower, can come in and run the spread-option.

With no shortage of time to prepare for this game, Crowton, you better believe, will be mixing and matching all those moving parts nearly every play. While the Tigers are unlikely to march up and down the field on Ohio State, a few big plays here and there will make a difference.

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