CLEMSON, S.C. — All through the preseason, 1-0 was everywhere for LSU.

From the practice field to the locker room to the purple T-shirts that the Tigers wore here in pregame practice, clearly thumbing their collective noses at Clemson.

It was Brian Kelly — LSU’s highly second-guessed, highly paid fourth-year coach — pushing his team’s chips into the middle of the table in as significant of a season opener for this program that I could recall. LSU's first-ever top-10 opener in a true road game.

Into Clemson’s version of Death Valley (debatable) rode the LSU 11, to borrow a very old football term. As hostile a place as you could want to begin a season dripping with such promise and such danger. A football high-wire act without a net.

One-and-oh, indeed. As orange-clad Clemson fans glum

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