It's no bed of roses, but LSU still happy

Many Tigers still feel an obligation to lift New Orleans' spirits.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- It's not that the Sugar Bowl isn't special to LSU. It's just a visit to the Crescent City isn't exactly a novelty for many of the Tigers.
Nearly seven in 10 players on LSU's roster are from Louisiana, many from the New Orleans area. And an 80-mile bus trip on Interstate 10 is hardly a glamorous reward for a 10-2 season.
Yet, the No. 4 Tigers have had little trouble masking any disappointment over the circumstances that prevented them from flying west for the school's first Rose Bowl.
"The fact that we're here, I think it's right," LSU coach Les Miles said Friday after his team's first practice in the recently rebuilt Louisiana Superdome. "I can't imagine it any other way, to be honest."
As the regular season wound down, LSU had lobbied Rose Bowl officials hard, even securing commitments for more than 40,000 tickets from fans eager to travel to the West Coast to see the Tigers take on one of the best Michigan squads in years.
Southern Cal's upset loss to UCLA took the Trojans out of the national championship hunt, however, and left them with their traditional Pac-10 tie-in to the Rose Bowl. It also opened the way for Southeastern Conference champ Florida to face Ohio State in the Bowl Championship Series title game in Arizona. The domino effect left LSU representing the SEC in the Sugar Bowl against No. 11 Notre Dame.
LSU has been to the Sugar Bowl twice this decade, winning both, and will make regular trips to the Superdome over the next decade to play Tulane.
Atypical trip
But this isn't a typical Sugar Bowl. Blue banners hanging on lamp posts downtown carry the slogan, "Sweet Revival," a nod to the sporting institution's return to a city rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina after the game was moved last year to Atlanta.
LSU players and coaches have spoken often about their sense of obligation to have an uplifting presence in Louisiana since Katrina and Hurricane Rita laid waste to communities all across the Louisiana coast around the beginning of the 2005 football season. The Tigers have gone 21-4 since, and players like LaRon Landry, a hard-hitting safety who grew up in nearby Hahnville, see special meaning in being part of the first Sugar Bowl here since Katrina flooded about 80 percent of the city.
"I'm just happy to be here in my home town again playing in front of my fans," said Landry, a senior. "It's my last game. We're playing in my hometown. And after the disaster from last year, playing in the city of New Orleans, it would be great if we come out with a win in the first Sugar Bowl back here. My goal is just to give it all back to the city and the state."
The recovery from the back-to-back hurricanes has been frustrating and slow for tens of thousands of displaced victims. Many small waterside communities remain a collection of wooden, pier foundations upon which raised homes used to sit before they were swept away by rising seas. While parts of New Orleans are thriving again, neighborhoods in the city that took on the highest water remain far quieter, with many houses still gutted and awaiting renovations or demolition.
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