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Documenting the UCLA-LSU 'Sissy Blue Shirt' Beef

LSU coach Ed Orgeron's pregame comments sparked mockery and trolling from Bruin fans and players after Saturday's big game.

Sam Connon

Documenting the UCLA-LSU 'Sissy Blue Shirt' Beef
Documenting the UCLA-LSU 'Sissy Blue Shirt' Beef /

It all started with a simple heckle.

As LSU coach Ed Orgeron was entering the Rose Bowl on Saturday, a UCLA fan reminded him of the last time he went up against the Bruins. Orgeron and USC hosted UCLA back in 2013, and despite Orgeron's rant at that week's crosstown rivalry rally calling the Bruins "little boys" who were going to get locked inside the Trojans' gates, his team lost 35-14 and he was passed over for the full-time job in South Central.

Responding to the fan who mocked Orgeron's rally comments from almost a decade ago, the Tigers' leading man looked up and offered a brief rebuttal.

"Bring your ass on in your sissy blue shirt," Orgeron said.

That exchange has since snowballed into an avalanche of receipt gathering, corporate promotion and postgame mockery.

Orgeron's team once again wound up on the losing end after he poked the Bruins, as No. 16 LSU fell to UCLA 38-27 on primetime national TV Saturday night. The "sissy blue shirt" comment had already picked up steam when the video was first released prior to kickoff, but things really got rolling when the Bruins started to pull away in the second half.

When the game went final and the celebrations had begun, UCLA Athletic Director Martin Jarmond made a play on the SEC's slogan, "It just means more." Cornerback Obi Eboh, safety Quentin Lake and cornerback Cam Johnson got a quick "LSU who?" chant going in the locker room, perhaps a reference to Orgeron's NSFW "Roll Tide what?" rant from a few years back.

Once the players got on social media, they didn't let up either.

Everyone from Eboh and defensive end Mitchell Agude to UCLA Director of Football Equipment Operations Frederick Lovett, class of 2022 commit Clint Stephens and the Solid Gold Sound student band commandeered LSU's French-Cajun inspired cheer and tweeted out the phrase "Geaux Bruins."

The disrespect continued when receiver Kam Brown, offensive lineman Baraka Beckett, safety DJ Warnell and other UCLA players gathered around to dance to "Get the Gat," which became a postgame tradition for LSU during its undefeated championship season in 2019.

Brown just transferred to UCLA from Texas A&M, an SEC West division rival with LSU, in the offseason. Linebacker Ale Kaho transferred to Westwood from another SEC West powerhouse, Alabama.

While those certainly are some tangible anti-Tiger ties, it doesn't account for the absolute onslaught of trash talk that followed Saturday's game. UCLA and LSU had never played each other on the gridiron before, so it wasn't as if there was a history behind this beef.

Orgeron made things personal, and that lit a fire under Bruin nation that kept burning well beyond the game itself.

Barstool Sports started selling "Sissy Blue" script t-shirts. The official UCLA football Twitter account changed its header image to boast its own brand new t-shirt design.

The UCLA fanbase is riding high after the team's first 2-0 start under coach Chip Kelly, and becoming the first Pac-12 program to beat a ranked SEC team in 13 years only adds to that hype.

Good old-fashioned trolling is just a symptom of that, and Orgeron is at least partially to thank or blame for drumming it up to the next level.

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Sam Connon
SAM CONNON

Sam Connon was the Publisher and Managing Editor at Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s All Bruins from 2021 to 2023. He is now a staff writer at Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s Fastball. He previously covered UCLA football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, men's soccer, cross country and golf for The Daily Bruin from 2017 to 2021, serving as the paper's Sports Editor from 2019 to 2020. Connon has also been a contributor for 247Sports' Bruin Report Online, Rivals' BruinBlitz, Dash Sports TV, SuperWestSports, Prime Time Sports Talk, The Sports Life Blog and Patriots Country, Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s New England Patriots site. His work as a sports columnist has been awarded by the College Media Association and Society of Professional Journalists. Connon graduated from UCLA in June 2021 and is originally from Winchester, Massachusetts.

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