After weeks of controversy surrounding LSU’s new football coach and Jayden Daniels’ old jersey number, one thing still remains:
Billy Cannon was the last person to wear No. 20 for the Tigers, and is still the first LSU football legend against which all the program’s other great players are judged.
LSU’s first Heisman Trophy winner in 1959 and only LSU football player with a trophy, Cannon is getting his own documentary. Titled, “Circles, The Life of Billy Cannon,” the program makes its debut at 7 p.m. Monday on h Public Broadcasting.
The documentary chronicles Cannon’s life, from childhood through his days at LSU where he led the Tigers to their first national championship, to professional football, to his federal counterfeiting conviction and his life afterward, working as a dentist at Angola state penitentiary.
“If you know our family, you know that if they ask us a question, we're just going to tell it as honest as we can,” said Bunnie Cannon, Billy’s daughter who helped spearhead the project. “We felt that it was the time to tell it (Cannon’s story).
“I tried to do this when he was alive, and he wouldn't let me do it. He didn't want the attention. And when he wrote the book (in 2015), then I thought, ‘OK, this is the opportunity.’ ”
Cannon died in 2018 at age 80.
“It's time that people truly know what took place,” Bunnie Cannon said. “And there were so many questions that we always got. And if you don't know the answer, you're going to blow it up. You're going to think something else. And we just felt as a family, it was time to heal.”
TV ratings
LSU’s 51-10 victory Saturday over Clemson was the most-watched college football game of the weekend, according to ESPN.
Despite kickoff being delayed until 8:40 p.m. by weather, the game averaged 5.8 million viewers on ABC with a peak of 8.7 million. Auburn-Baylor was second with 4.2 million viewers.
LSU-La. Tech series
A sign apparently went up in the LSU football complex this week, reminding players in rather colorful language not to take the Bulldogs lightly because they have beaten the Tigers before.
That’s true, but it has been a minute.
LSU is 20-1 all-time against the team from Ruston, including a 23-7 win in 2025. Tech’s lone win over LSU was 6-0 in … 1904.
Overall, LSU is 150-25-6 against in-state opponents, with the majority of those games against Tulane. The Tigers haven’t lost to an in-state opponent since being upset in 1982 by the Green Wave 31-28.
Lagniappe
As is LSU’s tradition for its second home game against a non-conference opponent, the Tigers will wear purple jerseys and gold pants Saturday. … The game will be shown streaming only via SECNetwork+ on the WatchESPN app and at . … Less than 250 tickets remain for Saturday’s game, according to LSU’s website.