SB Nation - Danny McCray

The Film Room: Looking At LSU

outsidethesidelines — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:03:15 -0000

This week in the film room I want to do a bit of a blurb piece, looking specifically at several of the bigger plays in the Alabama v. LSU game. Unlike in past weeks in which we have focused specifically on individual players with a specific point of evaluation in mind, this week we're going to bounce around a bit and just take a bit more casual look at some of the biggest plays in the game this past Saturday, looking for anything we can find.

First off, let's look at the first snap that we took out of the Wildcat. You will recall that in the Initial Impressions piece I said that, with Earl Alexander (a former high school quarterback) going in motion, we were almost certainly looking to throw the football. Let's look at the play again:

Notice the LSU cover package here. They have clearly manned up the three receivers, with safety Chad Jones over the top. I still think that this play was intended to be a pass, but given LSU's defensive response, it's hard to see how we would have successfully thrown the football. The only way it could have been done is if Alexander had thrown the football to the left and hit either Ingram or tight end Michael Williams slipping out of the backfield in the opposite direction.To be sure, the fumble was certainly disappointing because even with the recovery we were still faced with a third and long, but it's hard to see this one being a success through the air. We may have called a pass option on this one, but I imagine that it would have likely ended up being a run had the fumble not occurred.

Next, let's actually go back a play to the snap immediately before that. It's a first and ten near midfield and we decide to take a shot downfield to Maze early in the game. You'll probably remember this play well, but nevertheless you can get the jist of what happens with the following .gif (note, you need to click the .gif to make it work):

Disappointing, eh? I don't know exactly what route Jai Eugene was looking for, but he was clearly expecting that route to be broken off at the intermediate level somehow. He certainly wasn't expecting Maze to try to beat him deep, and as a result he ended up getting turned around and Maze blew right by him. This one just makes you want to throw the remote through the TV, plain and simple. Even with a semi-decent throw this is a touchdown, and not only does McElroy overthrow him he throws it out of bounds to boot. Double negative. This one hurts.

I guess we'll go ahead and knock out all of the negative McElroy stuff now, so let's take a look at the second Wildcat snap that we ran, this one coming late in the third quarter with 'Bama trailing 15-10.

I loved this play design from the outset. When Julio Jones comes down on the jet sweet and McElroy steps back, you know that every single LSU defender is looking for something on the frontside to Julio Jones. So what we do? We slip Brad Smelley out on the backside and we get them with it. The LSU defense isn't expecting it at all, and Smelley gets behind the secondary. A good throw and this is a touchdown, and even with a decent throw we probably have a first and goal. Unfortunately, this one sails long too, incomplete pass. We eventually settle for the field goal to cut the lead to 15-13.

Do, however, pay close attention up front on this one, particularly with regard to LSU defensive tackle Drake Nevis. The junior from Marrero whips William Vlachos at the point of attack, and he hurries the throw. It's still clearly a throw that McElroy should make, mind you, but nevertheless Nevis does a great job of getting into the backfield and making it a more difficult throw. The more you watch of the film, you see that Nevis played a whale of a game. I bet he graded out really high when Miles and company reviewed the film.

At any rate, let's close up the negative McElroy stuff here by taking a closer look at the safety:

First off, notice how we come out here guns a blazing, to paraphrase Saban. Not only are we throwing the football out of our own end zone on a third and long with a narrow lead in a low scoring game, notice that we are doing so with only five men in to protect the quarterback. Both Mark Ingram and Colin Peek go out on pass routes, and we are left with only the five linemen to get the job done. This one is as gutsy as it gets.

Unfortunately, Mike Johnson whiffs on the block of... guess who? Drake Nevis. Once again Nevis gets into the backfield and forces the safety, a fine play on his part. Again, though, McElroy shoulders a lot of the blame here. Even with the whiff by Johnson, McElroy still has approximately three seconds to get rid of the football, but for some reason -- even though everyone is covered -- he keeps holding onto the football for dear life. Predictably, the pressure eventually gets to him and the safety is the end result. He should have just thrown this one away. Thankfully, we lucked out that it was only a safety.

Now in all fairness to McElroy, while he did make a lot of bad plays, he also made his fair share of good plays too, and that is what we'll look at next. The following is McElroy's touchdown pass to Darius Hanks:

For all of the criticism of the passing game the past few weeks (and rightly so), here is a textbook example of where everything is executed perfectly and the play is performed exactly like you draw it up on paper. And this is also a textbook example of the type of things that you must do when an opposing defense loads the box to stop the run. Notice that after Ingram's previous success on the ground that LSU practically commits eight defenders to stopping the run this time around. That forces man to man coverage on the outside against all three receivers.

For McElroy, this is a simple read. We roll the pocket to the right to avoid the pressure, and it's obvious that he has a man-to-man match-up of Hanks on a safety. For McElroy, he either throws it downfield to Hanks if he is open, or checks it down to Earl Alexander. Fortunately, Hanks runs a fine route and gets good separation on the defender, and McElroy delivers an absolute strike. Just how you draw it up... touchdown 'Bama.

Next, let's look at a couple of defensive plays, specifically focusing on the two big runs that LSU had after the safety in the end zone. First, let's take a look at Charles Scott final run where he rips off a big gain to put his Bayou Bengals deep in 'Bama territory:

Notice that we come out and defend this effectively in our base 3-4 set. Eryk Anders has his hand on the ground, but even so this is pretty typical base 3-4 stuff, and also notice that we've got Mark Barron creeping up into the box. We've effectively got the back-up defensive line in the game for this snap -- Marcel Dareus, Luther Davis, and Josh Chapman -- but even so we have eight men ready to stop the run.

And in all fairness both Scott and the LSU offensive line does a solid job, but what really kills us here is poor tackling. Mark Barron is really playing the outside here and isn't in position to stop an interior run, but the real disaster is in the middle with Cory Reamer and Justin Woodall. Those two may be seniors, but they looked like freshmen with this effort. Instead of crashing down hard and making the tackle, the best Reamer can muster is a weak arm tackle attempt, which of course the powerful Scott blows right through, and then after that Woodall completely whiffs in the open field on a tackle. With a good play by Reamer this is a two-yard gain, and with a good play by Woodall it's an eight-yard gain, but unfortunately those two whiff and Scott is off to the races.

With LSU driving, Stevan Ridley comes off the bench and gives the Tigers a lead with his touchdown run. Let's take a closer look, particularly keeping a very close eye on the match-up of LSU center T-Bob Hebert on Terrence Cody:

Well, now that is certainly one for those conspiracy nuts, now isn't it? This is a run right into the heart of the line on second and short, and we have it snuffed out pretty well. Cody is in position to make the tackle, and looks to do so with Ridley trying to cut it to the outside. He ultimately misses the tackle, of course, simply because Hebert flat out tackles Cody in the open field. This should have been a holding penalty setting up a 2nd and 13, but alas no such flag came about.

Of course I'm not going to complain too much about the officiating because you do also need to focus on your own effort, and that certainly falls short here. Keep your eye on Eryk Anders, he has outside contain to the offensive right, and he basically just blows it. He gets sucked too far inside, and Ridley beats him to the outside. Touchdown LSU.

Finally, let's wrap this piece up by taking a closer look at the gamechanging touchdown on the screen pass to Julio Jones:

Notice how odd it is that LSU is actually in really good position, before the snap, to stop this play. They've got a base 4-3 look, and the linebackers are playing a bit soft. A safety is manned up against Julio Jones, to be sure, but this is the short side of the field and there is also another safety over there for help, plus a linebacker. I don't care who you are covering, someone between Brandon Taylor, Danny McCray, and Kelvin Sheppard should stop this play.

At any rate, we feign something of a pass to the right, and then McElroy wheels back around to throw to Julio. The entire left side of the Alabama offensive line, plus the center, all move out to the second level to block. Now, Brandon Taylor, knowing that he is a safety in man coverage against Julio Jones, plays it very safe, and leaves a massive cushion between him and the 'Bama wideout. And that, in many ways, costs him here. He sees the screen and runs in very hard, right by James Carpenter, who was supposed to block him -- and for what it's worth, the Auburn fans complained of a block in the back on this play by Carpenter on Taylor because there is a photo showing him blocking the LSU defensive back from behind, but if you watch the film, naturally the Auburn fans are wrong as Carpenter whiffs so badly that he barely touches the back of Taylor so lightly that Taylor himself probably never even noticed.

Unfortunately for Taylor, with him racing in, he loses body control, and Julio makes a quick, nifty cut to the outside to sidestep the LSU safety. Kelvin Sheppard effectively takes himself out of the play by biting on the fake to the right, and when Danny McCray tries to come in to make the tackle, he takes a poor angle and there William Vlachos gets just enough of him to knock him out of the play. And with the LSU defense firmly in the review mirror, Julio is off to the races. Touchdown 'Bama.

The LSU Preview

outsidethesidelines — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:16:56 -0000

No smoke and mirrors needed this week. No clever turn of phrase needed to build drama and intrigue with this game. Nope. To paraphrase what they say in the sales business, this is simply a game that sells itself. It's 'Bama v. LSU. Saban Bowl III. National championship implications clearly on the line. The entire country turning its eyes towards Tuscaloosa to play close attention at this contest. Again, this one sells itself. Let's look closer at the match-ups:

Alabama Offense v. LSU Defense

After putting up points and yards by the bushel in the first month of the season, the once prolific Alabama offense has slowly ground to a virtual halt over the course of the past five weeks. The vertical element of the passing game went into the Witness Protection Program in early October, and we still haven't seen any signs of it returning as of this writing. Mark Ingram has been nothing short of phenomenal -- sans the fumble against Tennessee -- but the lack of a vertical element to the passing game, combined with untimely penalties, questionable playcalling, and struggles in the red zone have kept the Tide offensive attack at bay and off the scoreboard.

Admittedly, the level of competition has been high the past several weeks. Kentucky has a good defense, and Ole Miss, South Carolina, and Tennessee rank in the top 25 nationally of more statistical categories than not. But such is life in the SEC... it's a brutal gauntlet of quality opponent after quality opponent, and there will be no rest for the weary this weekend when the Bayou Bengals come to town. Alas, when LSU arrives in Tuscaloosa, they will bring with them a defense that is as good as those we saw in October, if not better.

And unfortunately, injuries continue to take a toll on the Tide. Colin Peek looks to either miss this game or play nowhere near 100%, and that's a very big loss for the Tide. Michael Williams will likely play better than he did two weeks ago against Tennessee because he will be more prepared, but Peek is a critical element of our offense, and unfortunately Williams is an imperfect substitute.

Defensively, the weakness for LSU starts up front at the line of scrimmage. Shocking as though that may be -- I imagine I need remind no one that LSU's defensive line ate us for dinner from 2003-2007 -- it is nevertheless true. To be sure, it's certainly not a bad group, but it isn't a dominating one and it is not up to the level that we have come to expect the past several years out of LSU. Inside, seniors Al Woods and Charles Alexander are good players that any team would love to have, but they probably aren't to the level that we saw the past several years out of LSU with Kyle Williams and Glenn Dorsey. Likewise, the rotation isn't what it has been in previous years in terms of quality depth.

The real weakness for LSU on the defensive line largely comes outside at end. Senior Rahim Alem has been a bit of a disappointment this year. He was always a liability against the run -- which is why, despite leading the SEC in sacks in 2008, he wasn't a starter -- but he hasn't rushed the passer as well this year, generating only three sacks in the first eight games (only one of which came in conference play, and that was against Vandy). Opposite Alem, Lazarius Levingston hasn't exactly played poorly, but he hasn't really made an impact either. He has yet to generate a sack, and only has ten tackles on the year. Making matters worse, they are somewhat undersized, and mixed with their lack of a consistent pass rush, that generally explains why LSU's run defense has been somewhat middling, and also explains why they are at the bottom of the SEC in sacks.

Unfortunately, the rest of the LSU defense is significantly better. The linebacker corps struggled greatly in 2008, but they have made tremendous strides in 2009 under new defensive coordinator John Chavis. There is not one standout at linebacker like Alabama has with someone like Rolando McClain -- or had with Dont'a Hightower -- but it's a good group that gets the job done. Perry Riley, Kelvin Sheppard, Harry Coleman, and Jacob Cutrera are all good football players, and they are in many ways unique players that give Chavis a lot of options. Riley is a big, physical player who excels against against the run, and Coleman's past as a former safety makes him a very versatile player, particularly in passing situations. Kelvin Sheppard is probably the best all-around player of the bunch, and while Cutrera isn't a standout, he's a senior who can really play whatever position they need off the bench. Again, it's not a group that has the one rockstar standout like you find with a guy like Rolando McClain or Brandon Spikes, but it's a good group of players that have produced at a high level for John Chavis.

The real strength of the LSU defense, however, comes in the defensive backfield, where the Bayou Bengals have an absolutely ridiculous collection of talent. Just look at the names and their recruiting hype... Chad Jones, #1 safety prospect in the country in 2007. Jai Eugene, #1 cornerback prospect in the country in 2006. Patrick Peterson, #1 cornerback prospect in the country in 2007. And guys like Chris Hawkins, Brandon Taylor, Karnell Hatcher, Ron Brooks, and Danny McCray? Yeah, they were generally "only" four-star recruits who could have had pretty much their pick of any school in the country.

Not surprising given that collection of talent, LSU's defensive backfield has led the way. Patrick Peterson is the best cornerback in the conference now that Kentucky's Trevard Lindley is slowed by an ankle injury, and Chad Jones is every bit as good of a safety as Eric Berry. And, obviously, the rest aren't too shabby. These guys have been the key for the LSU defense this year. The defensive line has struggled and frankly been very bad in terms of rushing the passer, but the back end has covered so well that LSU still fields one of the best pass defenses in the country.

Coach Saban and company have talked about stretching the field vertically this weekend, and that is almost certainly something that we will have to do in order to breathe life back into our deceased offense. LSU does not have the great run defense that they have sported in years past, but it's far from a bad unit, and you can rest assured that they will be able to limit Alabama's running game well enough to force the Tide to do something in the passing game in order to score a lot of points. Keep in mind that, as I mentioned in the Radio Hour, if you are unable to throw the football, then defensively you don't need to stop the run, you only need to somewhat limit the run. In other words, you just have to make sure that the opposing offense doesn't run it down your throats to the tune of 250+ rushing yards. Rest assured, LSU is likely more than good enough to do that up front.

Offensively, Alabama faces the same dilemma that it largely faced against Tennessee. Greg McElroy and the passing attack have struggled to move the football, and the opposing defense will look to limit Ingram and company and force McElroy and the wide receiver corps to beat them. Unless we can be more consistent and explosive in the passing game, the end result looks to be very similar to what it was against Tennessee.

Alabama Defense v. LSU Offense

For all of the strength of the LSU defense, the LSU offense hasn't been anywhere near as good, and if you look closely this is a group that ranks near the bottom of the country in most statistical categories.

At the skill positions, at least, this is an extremely dangerous offense. Without doubt the LSU wide receiver corps is easily the most talented that the Tide will face all season, and literally every single LSU wide receiver that will touch the football this Saturday will be a truly elite athlete in every sense of the phrase. Brandon LaFell will be a first-day draft pick next April, and both Terrance Toliver and Reuben Randle are physically impressive players who were the #1 wide receiver prospects in the country when they came out of high school. Richard Dickson is a good tight end in his own right, and he too will probably play on Sunday. Furthermore, Charles Scott is also a future NFL player, and while Keiland Williams never really lived up to his five-star status when he signed with the Tigers in 2006, he's still a fine player in his own right. And finally, while Russell Shepard and Trindon Holliday are somewhat of one-trick ponies, both have such ungodly speed and athleticism that they can present major challenges to a defense once they get the ball in their hands. Bottom line, struggles or not, if you look at the quality at talent at the skill positions for LSU, you would swear this is an elite offense.

The real problem with LSU offensively has been in the trenches and, perhaps not surprisingly, at the quarterback position. Struggles in those two areas have largely grounded the LSU offensive attack, and have turned an offense that should be high-powered based solely on its skill position talent into a unit that has greatly struggled to move the football and score points.

Ciron Black at left tackle for the Bayou Bengals is a four-year starter who will likely be a first round NFL draft choice next April, and at right tackle Joseph Barksdale -- a five-star recruit in 2007 -- is one of the best right tackles in the SEC. Unfortunately for the Tigers, however, the performance of the centers and guards has dipped significantly. The loss of starting left guard Herman Johnson and starting center Brett Helms have been felt all season, and the replacements just aren't in the same league right now. Josh Dworaczyk took over for Johnson, and the replacement starter for the gargantuan comes in at barely 280 pounds. Likewise, sophomore T-Bob Hebert hasn't necessarily been bad, but again he's just not in the same league as Helms right now. Right guard Lyle Hitt looked solid enough when sandwiched between Helms and Barksdale, but he too has seen his performance dip by having to take on greater responsibilities with Hebert alongside him. As a whole, the performance of the center and the guards just hasn't been anywhere what it was a year ago.

The struggles on the interior offensive line have effectively proven fatal to the LSU rushing attack. I've long said that the biggest impact on your rushing attack comes from the play of your center and your guards, and 2009 Tigers would prove to be a fine case study in that regard. The tackles are there, as are the backs, but LSU has struggled on the interior in the running game, and that has largely killed their rushing attack. The once potent Scott and Williams are averaging only about 4.8 yards per carry now, and prior to facing Tulane and their god awful run defense they were barely averaging 4.0 yards per carry.

The other problem for LSU offensively is quarterback Jordan Jefferson. While clearly an intriguing prospect with a great upside -- Jefferson has a good frame, a big arm, and is a legitimate dual-threat -- Jefferson is really playing out of necessity right now, and it shows. Truth be told, if the LSU coaching staff really had their druthers, Jefferson would probably be riding the pine this year while watching fifth-year senior Ryan Perrilloux run the Tiger offense, but alas the Football Gods would not cooperate. As a result, Jefferson has been forced to make the best of a bad situation, and he has clearly had his growing pains. He holds onto the ball entirely too long which creates a lot of sacks -- which explains why LSU is near the bottom of the conference in sacks allowed despite having the best tackle combo in the league -- often struggles to work through his progression, and does struggle at times to get the ball to his talented wide receivers. Combined, this has largely grounded what should otherwise be an explosive passing attack.

In all fairness, though, what Jefferson has done is manage the game and not get his Tigers beat. For all of the criticisms that you can make regarding his performance to date, he has protected the football, which is clearly priority number one for the LSU coaching staff. Jefferson has thrown a mere four interceptions this year on roughly 200 passing attempts, and has allowed the LSU defense to lead them to victory in close games. If nothing else, that is far more than could ever be said for the man that Jefferson replaced.

Defensively, Alabama brings the attack that you all know so well, and there will probably be little changes this week. Charles Scott and Keiland Williams had great success running the football against us a year ago, but with a healthy Terrence Cody this time around, plus Herman Johnson and Brett Helms playing on Sunday, the Tide ought to shut down the LSU rushing attack. If Charles Scott and company have a good deal of success come Saturday, it will legitimately come as a bit of a surprise.

The real key for the Alabama defense will be containing big plays in the passing game. For lack of a better way of putting it, the skill position players for LSU are unreal good, and they will stretch us to the absolute maximum this weekend. Our defensive backfield, collectively, will have to play the game of their lives this weekend, and to make matters even more worrisome we will also have to make sure that Russell Shepard or Trindon Holliday also don't beat us with a long run out of the backfield. Given the way we have struggled offensively the past several weeks, even giving up only one or two really long plays can easily be the difference between victory and defeat, and unless the offense improve, our defense has effectively zero margin of error.

Going a long way towards preventing those big plays to the skill position players will be effectively rushing the passer. Jefferson isn't a world-beater at quarterback, but his receivers sure as hell are, and he has the arm to make all of the throws. If Jefferson consistently has time to throw the football, we're in big trouble defensively. The LSU skill position players are simply too good to expect any defensive backfield to keep covered for any real length of time.

Putting It All Together

All in all, these two teams match up closely. If the Alabama offense were producing like it did earlier in the year, the Tide could be reasonably expected to win this game with relative ease, but with our offensive struggles of the past month and no definite sign of improvement, this game figures to be a close one that goes right down to the wire. Unless we can significantly improve offensively, the LSU defense is good enough to keep our offensive attack at bay, and while the LSU offense probably won't score a lot of points against our defense, they clearly have another skill position talent on the outside to make a few big plays to squeak out a close victory in a low-scoring game

And do look for this game to be a close, low-scoring game, no two ways about that. Neither team looks to score that many points, and expect the coaching staffs of the respective teams to play accordingly. LSU almost lost to the Tide in 2007 when they chose to kick to Javier Arenas late, and their loss last year was fueled by a slew of costly turnovers. Expect Les Miles and company to avoid both this weekend with a struggling Alabama offense. LSU will kick the football away from Arenas, and play safe on offense so that -- even if they don't score a lot of points in their own right -- they won't take the risks that could result in several costly turnovers. We're struggling greatly on the offensive side of the ball, and when facing a team of that nature you make sure that you do not allow cheap points. Expect LSU to force the Tide's offense to consistently move the ball 60+ yards to get points.

For Alabama, the path to victory is clearly in the trenches. We hold a fairly significant advantage in both match-ups at the line of scrimmage, and there is where we must win this football game. We must stop the run defensively and rush Jefferson, and offensively establish the running game and make like easy for McElroy and the Alabama passing attack. If we can do that, we win this football game. On the other hand, if LSU can fight us to an effective draw in the trenches, then this game will be decided by the skill position players, and that's a losing proposition for us. That's not to say we absolutely cannot win a game of that nature, but LSU does have more raw talent at the skill positions than we do, and that is a game that will clearly favor the Bayou Bengals. Again, our path to victory lies in the trenches. We have to dominate this game at the line of scrimmage. Period.

One way or the other, look for this to be an absolutely brutal game. The stakes are extremely high for both LSU and Alabama, and their respective players will perform accordingly. Les Miles, regardless of whether or not it is fair, will forever be judged relative to Nick Saban, something that is clearly not lost on Miles or his team. This is their biggest game of the year, and clearly the biggest game of the year for their fan base as well. Truth be told, they have been preparing for this game for two weeks now. Making matters more interesting, this game determines the SEC West, LSU is still technically alive in the national championship race, and they are clearly looking to make a definitive showing that they are still at their 2003-2007 form. On the other sideline, Alabama has been staring this one down for two weeks. We control our own destiny in the national championship race, and we know full well that this is now effectively a one-game season. If we want to get to where we want to go, we all realize that we must directly go through LSU. And, also, don't think for one second that it is lost on our team that they need to win this game in the trenches. Expect these two teams to line up and wage absolute war. There will be blood.

Hope for the best.

LSU 31 - Auburn 10: Snap Judgments

Richard Pittman — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:10:02 -0000

More photos » by Bill Haber - AP

about 1 month ago: Auburn linebacker Josh Bynes (17) dives for LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson (9) in the first half of an NCAA college football game in Baton Rouge, La., Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)

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Well, that was easy. A 31-10 victory that probably wasn't as close as the score would indicate. Jordan Jefferson was the story of the night as he had a very positive game. Here are my thoughts:

What a night by the defense. Just an absolutely dominating performance by a defensive unit that has carried this team so far this season. They did it again, holding Auburn to 194 total yards, most of which came after the game was long decided.
Not to repeat myself, but Jordan Jefferson had an excellent game. His ATVSQBPI of 7.2 actually does not tell the story. There were a couple drops in there, and his rushes hurt his average, but he had a great game and my confidence in him has grown. We saw him run well. He put touch on his passes. He took 4 sacks, but I can't really say they were his fault this time. He got 236 yards passing with 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions, along with positive rushing statistics, with a touchdown.
Then again, we saw him fumble trying to get into the end zone because he was not protecting the ball. He went into a funk after that and the rest of the 2nd quarter was a dud for him.
But then he came out of it! He struggled for a while, and then got over it. That's a big step for a quarterback.
We finally saw Russell Shepard with an explosive play. He had a tough night until he broke off a spectacular 70 yard touchdown run from the tailback position.
It was a good night for true freshmen all around. Reuben Randle had a terrific catch for 31 yards. Fullback Dominique Allen got his redshirt pulled and became our blocking back. Morris Claiborne got into the game a lot in the second half.
It seems like ages ago, but back when this game was still competitive, Chris Hawkins made a spectacular interception. Then we hardly saw him again. We saw 4 cornerbacks and 5 safeties in this game, and all of them played well.
Redshirt freshman defensive end Chase Clement had the best looking kickoff return I've seen us get this year.
Other than Chase Clement, the return game was ho-hum, but the punt/kick coverage was outstanding, even if you don't consider the forced fumble and recovery.
We mostly avoided bad penalties, accumulating only 48 yards against in penalties. The penalties we got were sometimes intentional delay of game penalties. We got one illegal substitution penalty, a couple encroachments, and one personal foul that was never identified on replay. i can't really complain about that too much.
Danny McCray had a nice night, recovering two fumbles.
It's hard to complain at all about this game. So let's complain about it. We still don't have a power running game. Charles Scott and Keiland Williams combined for 24 yards rushing on 11 carries. 1/3 of those yards came on the first play from scrimmage.
But yeah, other than that, everything was great.

Where Does Les Miles Stand?

Richard Pittman — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:56:51 -0000

More photos » by Butch Dill - AP

What is this man's future? (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)

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Let's get one thing out of the way first. I have never seen a coach criticized as much without losing a game as Les Miles has been criticized this season. Let me quote part of a message that appeared on a prominent LSU website yesterday:

With the press and fans on Miles like they are at this point in the season, there is no way he can come back. There is nothing he can do IMO to win back the needed support.

It is just gotten to an unacceptable level. Media allies have turned and will not go down with him.

It's a harsh and dismal assessment. We see this sort of thing a lot on message boards, but this one is different. This is not coming from a yahoo, but rather from one of the more respected posters around. One who, honestly, I would consider to be an asset to any website he frequents.

This particular poster goes on to specifically criticize Miles for allegedly not always playing the best players, instead opting to reward seniority. In particular, he is critical of the offensive line personnel and the infrequency of Russell Shepard's appearances on the field.

I don't agree with his assessment, especially the "there is no way he can come back" conclusion. There's a very easy way for Miles to re-earn the esteem of LSU fans. Just win. If LSU wins next week against Georgia, ugly or pretty, personnel changes or no personnel changes, blowout or tight win, pure luck or inevitability, the troubles of the previous 4 weeks will be virtually forgotten. At least for one week, and probably until the Auburn game.

Before this season, I would have said that winning cures a lot of ills. And while that hasn't exactly been true this season so far, we always looked at the Georgia game as one of those season markers. It's a game we would have cautiously said before the season was a 50-50 game (at best). After four Saturdays, I see no reason to change that assessment.

This is not to say that Les Miles is above criticism until he loses. Far from it. In fact, there are numerous criticisms that I have. I agree with the above poster who says that it appears Miles favors seniority over talent. 2006's heavy reliance on an apparently completely washed-up Justin Vincent was Exhibit A. Last year's continued reliance on Danny McCray as a nickel back was Exhibit B.

I will also criticize some of Miles' decisions in recruiting. We had Frank Alexander in our back yard and let him go without ever seriously recruiting him. Now he's a highly regarded starting defensive end for Oklahoma, and we're struggling to get consistent production from the position except for Rahim Alem. And it's not like he was a late bloomer. OKLAHOMA wanted him. He refused to seriously recruit Dez Bryant, and let Darrington Sentimore go to Alabama almost without a fight. Bryant's an All-American, and while the jury is still out on Sentimore, LSU is facing a depth crisis at defensive tackle after this season and there appears to be no immediate help coming in the 2010 class. The defensive tackle situation has been exacerbated by recruiting a glut of offensive linemen and moving defensive tackles to the other side of the line to make their numbers even bigger.

The 2006 class is its own subject. Not a single offensive lineman from that class ever played a snap for LSU. The decision (or perhaps simply the eventuality) not to sign a quarterback to hedge our bets with Ryan Perrilloux arguably destroyed the 2008 season (along with the decision to promote from within to the vacated defensive coordinator job). The wide receiver corps from that recruiting class (Chris Mitchell, Jared Mitchell, and Ricky Dixon) is devoid of impact players. The linebackers appear to only now be emerging as good players.

I'm also not pleased that he couldn't reel in a good player like Janzen Jackson. That loss will hurt bad, as Jackson is on his way to being an impact player for Tennessee in the future. I will give him a pass for the McKnight situation, because it appears that McKnight was dead set on leaving the state from the beginning, and was only giving us lip service.

As for the specific suggestion that Miles is leaving one or more of his best 5 offensive linemen on the bench, I have no idea, but the experiences we've had with Justin Vincent and Danny McCray certainly lead us to believe it's possible. As an aside, it appears that now that McCray's role has changed, he's doing quite well, but that doesn't change the fact that he was ill-suited for his previous role.

Les Miles' tenure at LSU has not been above criticism, but again, football is about winning, and except for last year, Miles has done that with an admirable frequency. And so far this year he continues to win games. And everyone seems to forget Les's outstanding coaching job in 2005, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and a devastating pre-season injury to our best running back. We also tend to forget that Miles is only two seasons removed from winning a national championship. I don't care whose recruits you're playing with. You can't win the national championship if you can't coach, even if you have superior talent (which is debatable).

In short, I think there's something to the criticism Miles is receiving. It's not all false. It's just a little overwrought under the circumstances. Miles has made mistakes, and the problems this team is facing this year won't go away on their own, but they also haven't cost us anything yet. Nothing is irretrievable yet, but things must be retrieved.

I'm a pragmatist at heart, and when something doesn't work I think the best thing to do is to try something, and if that doesn't work try something else. Whatever you do, don't let a problem sit around festering without trying to do something about it. It's better to try something and be wrong than to try nothing. Heck at least you tried.

So let's see what happens in the next 7 days before we start really speculating about Miles' future.

LSU 31 - Washington 23: My Final Thoughts Before Moving On to Vandy

Richard Pittman — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:47:52 -0000

by John Froschauer - AP

3 months ago: Washington's Chris Polk carries the ball as LSU's Lazarius Levingston (95) pursues the play during the first half of an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009, in Seattle, 2009. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

View full size photo »

I watched the game again, and because I was watching it on the ESPNU replay, they didn't cut away to Rece Davis in the studio, and instead I got to see Terrence Toliver's first touchdown, from the beginning of the play. It was great.

Anyway, on second viewing, some of the things we've talked about already came into somewhat sharper focus. Defensively, we just did not cover the other team well enough in the middle of the field. Usually, if the opponent was on the outside against Peterson, Eugene, or Hawkins, we had pretty solid coverage. Even when Riley had man coverage way on the outside and down the field, the coverage was there. Jake Locker's a really good quarterback, and sometimes he made a perfect throw, and there's nothing that can be done about that other than generate a better pass rush. If the receiver was in the middle of the field in a safety's or linebacker's zone though, he was usually wide open.

In the running game, Washington had a lot of success when they ran misdirection or counters. This tells me that our defensive front seven was playing very aggressively but without much discipline. This is also seen when we would rush the passer and leave big holes for Locker to run through.

You can't really point out any player who didn't perform. Every defender made a play or two, particularly in the linebacker corps. I think you can point to Rahim Alem and say that he should have gotten a better pass rush and you could say that Chad Jones and the three-man rotation at safety (Danny McCray, Brandon Taylor, Karnell Hatcher) was pretty much invisible. And you'd be right.

On second viewing, I saw Josh Downs out there a good bit, and while his play is drawing praise, I can't really say he made any more plays than Charles Alexander or Drake Nevis made (both of whom made plays). He looked like he belonged, but did not look like he stood out. I also say Chancey Aghayere and Lavar Edwards on the ends a fair bit. I never saw Chase Clement or any of members of the Class of 2009 other than Downs.

The linebackers were solid in the running game. Kelvin Sheppard was not a starter, but seemed to get as much time as the other starters other than Harry Coleman, who was in the game for virtually every play as far as I could tell. Other than Cutrera's interception and Riley's nice coverage on a wheel route, the linebackers were pretty much invisible in the passing game.

Offensively, I think I can diagnose the problem with the power running game. It was the offensive line. The holes just weren't there. Charles Scott ran as hard as ever, and when there was a hole he got through it. If the problem was on the center-left guard I would be very concerned, as these are new starters T-Bob Hebert and Josh Dworaczyk. However, it seemed to be the line as a whole, which tells me it may just be a game-specific thing. We get another chance against a defensive front seven we should be able to overmatch next week when we play Vandy. We'll see how that goes.

When we ran option or ran to the outside, we had a lot of success. Jordan Jefferson really runs the option well. He did not make one bad decision in the outside zone or the inside zone when deciding whether to keep the ball or give it up. That's not to say every decision was right. He certainly needs to avoid taking big hits.

The passing game could not have been more basic. At no time did we try to get the ball down the field to an outside receiver, except for Lafell's touchdown. We ran a lot of short passes, passes to running backs, and a couple of throws to the tight end. Early in the game, Jefferson was not particularly accurate, but he settled down and started hitting his targets.

One area I would like to see an athletic, mobile quarterback like Jefferson improve is in his ability to make a play when the protection breaks down. Sometimes, when the protection wasn't there, Jefferson would scramble around but he never made a play. He just bought himself time to get rid of the ball. Maybe the receivers couldn't break open or something else was going wrong, but probably the biggest difference between Locker and Jefferson was that when the play broke down, Locker was able to make something positive happen while Jefferson generally had to just unload the ball out of bounds.

Our special teams play, other than our punting was pretty solid, I thought. Our kickoff coverage was good, and at no time did Washington threaten to break a long one. The kickoff return game took advantage of pooch kicks to get really good field position. We didn't miss a field goal attempt or get a penalty on a return. If we can get better distance on punts, I think special teams will be good.

Poll

Who was the Player of the Game for LSU?

Patrick Peterson

112 votes

Jordan Jefferson

36 votes

Terrence Toliver

100 votes

Other

8 votes

256 votes | Poll has closed

Miles Names A Strong Safety Starter

Poseur — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:41:52 -0000

In a classic example of burying the lede, The Advocate reviewed Les Miles' radio show and after several pages of the usual "we're working hard" stuff, there was some actual news:

Miles said senior Danny McCray could be the starter at strong safety against Washington. McCray has played mostly nickel back in his previous seasons at LSU.

McCray, like just about every returning member of the defense not named Jones, Alem, or Peterson, has come under some, shall was say, intense scrutiny. It's kind of a bizarre exercise to single out one or two players for the blame of last year's abomination of a defense, but that's what fans do.

A quick perusal of the LSU message boards reveals that McCray and Eugene are probably neck and neck for Most Blamed LSU Defensive Player (Jarrett Lee is a runaway winner on offense). I'm not going to argue that either of those defensive backs had a good year because they clearly didn't, but I'm still loathe to blame any one player for last season. It was a collective effort.

Loston is already earning absurd raves and, well, I'll let Dandy Don take it in his review of the radio show:

Dustin wanted to know when the earliest LSU fans could expect to see Craig Loston on the playing field. Miles said that Loston has great talent and would likely play against Washington with less than two weeks of practice.

Loston must be awesome. Absolutely awesome. Do you know how absurdly gifted a player must be to come in as a freshman and earn playing time after only two weeks of practice? If Loston can push for playing time after being here for a week, he will probably be in the mix for a starting job by midseason. I'm not prone to optimistic predictions for freshmen, but I'm absolutely floored by this. And I still am curious where Ron Brooks and Karnell Hatcher, two pretty talented sophomores, are going to play.

Safety might be transforming from a team weakness to a strength before our very eyes (that Chad Jones guy has of course locked down the free safety slot). There's just tons of underclassmen fighting for time, which is probably why McCray is getting the start now. He's about the only senior on the depth chart. Someone's got to show the young kittens the ropes before he eventually slides back to more of a support role. Experience matters, but eventually, talent wins out.

Maybe, just maybe, the Tiger faithful will stop blaming McCray for last year's pass defense.

5 Keys To A Successful Season, Part 4: The Revamped Secondary

Richard Pittman — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:30:08 -0000

I think everyone can point to the two biggest things that went wrong with the 2008 season. [Aside: I would say there were three things that went wrong; the two usually named things, and a very inconsistent pass rush.] In the coaches' quest to exorcise the demons of 2008, they have been forced to make a lot of changes to the secondary, which was, of course, one of the two things that went horribly wrong in 2008.

The opening game of the 2008 season saw a starting secondary of RCB Jai Eugene, FS Curtis Taylor, SS Harry Coleman, and LCB Chris Hawkins, with Danny McCray at the nickel and Chad Jones as sort of a utility player. Only one of those players was a senior, but there is no guarantee any of them will see significant snaps in the same role for the 2009 season.

The opening night lineup of the 2009 season will see Patrick Peterson at one corner position and Chad Jones at free safety. These are two very athletic and very promising players, but after this the spots are open for competition, and it is anyone's guess who will occupy the nickel and dime back positions, or if those positions will even exist as we currently understand them.

We have been over the secondary is great detail once before in this offseason,and I won't repeat those articles here except to the extent I already have. You can go back and read Part 1 and Part 2 of the Spring Preview: The Secondary series. Some of that information is quite outdated (Phelon Jones transferred and Harry Coleman is definitely a linebacker now). But for the most part the information we had back in March is still solid today, and we'll do a formal update on the position after Fall camp starts.

Suffice it to say that there have been wholesale changes in the coaching and in the personnel in the secondary. If one was being uncharitable, one might compare it to a game of poker in which we did not like the hand we were dealt and so we reshuffled the cards and dealt a new one. I prefer to think of it as learning from mistakes.

I don't know who will start at strong safety, but I was a HUGE fan of Karnell Hatcher's play in spot duty last year. The other prime candidate for the position is Ron Brooks, who got the most press of any up-and-coming player in the Spring. Danny McCray certainly isn't conceding the race, and he is the most experienced safety we have who isn't moving to linebacker. Plus he's actually well-suited for the role of strong safety, where he was not well-suited for his prior role as nickel back.

At corner it appears to be a battle between last year's starters, Jai Eugene and Chris Hawkins, but I would keep an eye out on true sophomore Brandon Taylor, who impressed the heck out of the coaches in practice as a true freshman and figures to be in line to improve as much or more than anyone on the team from last season to this season.

Whatever the personnel groupings, the unit absolutely has to play better than it did last year. I don't mean, "they have to play better in order for us to win." I mean there is no possible way they couldn't play better, as they played so poorly last year. Some of the worst passing teams in the conference looked competent against us. For example, Chris Todd of auburn went 17 for 32 for 250 yards against us (OK, he had 2 interceptions). Tyson Lee went 17 for 26 for 165 yards. Stephen Garcia went 14 of 26 for 215 yards.

Don't ask what the good passing teams did to us.

It's hard to do worse than that. Hopefully with more suitable personnel groupings and fresh coaching, the situation in the secondary will right itself. Taking Danny McCray off of the slot receiver almost can't help but improve the defense.

Offseason reports have Patrick Peterson and Chad Jones reportedly ready to blow up into the All-America calibre players they were recruited to be. I am always skeptical of offseason hype machines, but we will have to see. We should be finding out a lot more about this in the coming weeks. If those two are really that good at their respective positions, a huge negative could become a huge positive.

5 Players LSU Can't Afford to Lose to Injury

Richard Pittman — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:34:54 -0000

Back in August of 2008, I wrote a post entitled "5 Players We Can Ill-Afford to Lose to Injury". The title was self-explanatory. I attempted to name off five players who were too important to the 2008 season for us to lose without significant costs. Those players were, in order, Ciron Black, Colt David, Darry Beckwith, Ricky Jean-Francois, and Richard Dickson.

Alas, Darry Beckwith got hurt and missed time, seeming to not return to full strength for the rest of the season. Ricky Jean-Francois ended up not being all that important despite being healthy. Many of us overrated him. Otherwise, it was a good list.

This year, I found the list of 5 essential players to be harder to compile.

1. Ciron Black, LT. Last year, we were mainly concerned about the fact that there was no backup plan to Ciron Black. backup left tackle Jarvis Jones had been expelled from the team and it appeared that if Black went down we would have to go with an out-of-position guard or a true freshman. Now we at least have a backup plan, as Greg Shaw did some nice things as a true freshman backup tackle last year, and we have a nice true freshman class of linemen as well. The depth is there, but Ciron Black is the most experienced player on the team, having been a full-time starter and every-down player for the past 3 seasons. He actually has a chance, if he stays healthy, to tie a record for most games started by a college player. If LSU goes to the SEC Championship Game and then to a bowl, Black will share that record. It will be a big luxury to have such an experienced player at left tackle.

2. Brandon Lafell, WR. I defended LSU's depth at wide receiver last night, but the fact is that Brandon Lafell is the only proven high-level player at that position. People seem to forget how productive Lafell was last year, and how productive the passing game in general was. In a league where Julio Jones and A.J. Green got most of the press, Brandon Lafell led the league in receptions, was second (to Green) in receiving yards, and tied for the lead in touchdown catches. He was a deserving 1st Team All-SEC player, and he is returning for a 5th season. The most productive wideout other than Lafell returning is Terrance Toliver, whose 22 catches last season for 257 yards was probably a disappointment, but it's not at all too late for Toliver to reach that vast potential. It would be nice to let him do it while Lafell is getting double-covered though.

3. Rahim Alem, DE. Alem is an outstanding player, but here is where the picking gets tougher. I really think the depth is there on defensive line that we will have good players there no matter what. Alem is just such a good pass rusher and such an athletic guy that he adds a dimension to the defensive line that would be very difficult to replace, even if we could easily plug a competent guy in there after him. I just don't think we could plug in a dynamic penetrator and pass rusher like Alem. If Alem were to get hurt, we would have to turn to unproven freshman Chancey Aghayere and Sam Montgomery in an attempt to find that spark.

4. Richard Dickson, TE. I picked him last year, saying:

The big passing target is going to be an important outlet for our young quarterbacks all season long. If they struggle to get the ball to the outside, Dickson will be there finding holes in the zone and giving them a big target to throw to. There is no receiving tight end to speak of behind him, and no receiver quite like him on the team, so he is going to be an essential part of the offense.

You could just cut and past the first two sentences of that entry here and it would still true. We still have young quarterbacks. We can still expect them to struggle at times. Dickson was our #3 receiver in both catches and yards last season, and I would expect the same this season. One difference is that I think we have better depth there now than we did last season, but like Ciron Black, Dickson has been a 3-year starter and it would be impossible to replace that experience.

5. Chad Jones, S. It gets harder and harder here. Chad Jones looks like a star at this position, but we are really getting into areas where the depth is also outstanding. If we were to lose Chad Jones, we could plug Danny McCray in there, and he would do very well as a regular safety, as opposed to nickel back where he has been used and where he struggles. Or we could insert Karnell Hatcher, who I thought was outstanding as a freshman backup last year. Or we could move Harry Coleman back to safety again. Jones is great but there are options, and losing him would not be the end of the world. The same could be said in varying degrees of Patrick Peterson, Drake Nevis, Charles Scott, Lyle Hitt, Joseph Barksdale, Perry Riley, and others who are sure to be important players on this team. You have to choose someone, so you might as well choose the best left-handed pitcher on the football roster.

Of course, this list could change between now and September 5, 2009, as it is always possible for us to lose more players to injury and/or attrition, screwing up the depth at various positions.

Who are your five?

Spring Preview: The Secondary, Part 2: Who Else Wants to Play?

Richard Pittman — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 11:30:06 -0000

Yesterday, we talked about Chad Jones and Patrick Peterson, who we at ATVS (the royal "we") expect to make up the nucleus of the Tigers' starting secondary. Now, we talk about the other players who want to be in that starting group.

First, the veterans:

From left to right we have junior cornerback Jai Eugene, senior cornerback Chris Hawkins, senior strong safety Harry Coleman, and senior safety Danny McCray. Hawkins and Coleman started all year last year and appear to be the odds-on favorites to start this year as well, though that is far from certain.

Chris Hawkins led the team in interceptions last year with three. On a defense that recorded a paltry 8 interceptions the entire year, Hawkins did his legitimate share of turning the ball over. He even scored what I think was our only defensive touchdown of the season: a fumble return for a touchdown against Tulane. Of all our corners, he was the one who was left one-on-one with opposing receivers the most often, and he occasionally got beat, most famously on the last-minute 4th down touchdown pass by Casey Dick that gave Arkansas the winning points against us. Hawkins played alright, but on a defense that seemed hopelessly lost quite a lot, he did not stand out as a bright spot. While he got his interceptions, he also gave up his share of plays. At the end of last season, he was starting opposite Patrick Peterson, but he will face a challenge from other corners to keep that spot.

I thought that Jai Eugene played pretty solidly, if unspectacularly. He did not get an interception, but he was a willing tackler in run support, and he broke up 3 passes (as many as Patrick Peterson, but with more playing time to get them). Eugene was a bit more physical of a corner than Chris Hawkins was. He lost his starting job as Peterson emerged, and he is fighting to get it back, but he might have to move to a nickel- or dime-back position to get it.

Harry Coleman, surprisingly, led the team in tackles last year with 71, but he was also one of the mainstays in the safety group that struggled all season in pass coverage. Coleman looked slow and out of position a lot. Once again, some of my commenters are of the opinion that this is entirely a result of coaching and scheming, and I will keep an open mind on that subject, at least for now. He will try to win back the strong safety job that is up for grabs, after he apparently lost it to Danny McCray during preparation for the bowl game. He may end up moving to linebacker to make room for a young player to move up.

Danny McCray catches a lot of flak for his struggles in pass coverage, having spent the last two years as our nickel back, where he was asked to cover speedy wideouts one-on-one a lot, and got beat a lot. One can hope that the new coaching staff will learn from the mistakes of the previous staff and not put him in that kind of position this year.

When McCray was used differently in the bowl game last year, when he moved to strong safety opposite Chad Jones who was getting the start at free safety, McCray played much better. He just seemed to be in his element, and his size and strength was a benefit rather than the liability his size became when he was trying to chase Percy Harvin and A.J. Green around the field. Put him at safety and ask him to give over the top help and run support, and he'll be fine. Ask him to play like a corner and he'll struggle. He could end up being our strong safety, or he could move to a linebacker position, or he could have trouble getting on the field. It's hard to know. The numbers at safety will make it difficult to win a job no matter who you are.

Those are the juniors and seniors who are trying to win starting jobs in this secondary. the young players will not make it easy on them:

From left to right and then down and left to right again, we have cornerback Brandon Taylor, corner/safety combo Phelon Jones, cornerback Ryan St. Julien, corner/safety combo Derrick Bryant, corner (?) Ron Brooks, and safety Karnell Hatcher. All of those guys will be sophomores except for Ryan St. Julien who will be a redshirt freshman.

Coaches and commenters have been very high on Brandon Taylor (younger brother of last year's starting free safety Curtis Taylor) since his high school days. He got some playing time as a true freshman last year, playing some dime back, recording 4 tackles and a pass breakup. Starting cornerback Chris Hawkins missed a couple of practices earlier this Spring, and Taylor moved up into the starter role in his absence. He appears to be the heir apparent at the position once Hawkins graduates, if he doesn't win the job outright this year.

Phelon Jones played some last year as the nickel-back, and sometimes as the dime. He got his most playing time against North Texas and against Troy, recording 6 tackles and getting a pass breakup against UNT and 6 tackles and 2 pass breakups against Troy. In the Troy game, he was getting playing time because of an injury to McCray. Jones showed promise, but also struggled at times.

Derrick Bryant played mostly on special teams, finding a role as the forward return man in front of Trindon Holliday on punt returns, to either block for Trindon or to discourage directional or pooch kicks away from him. Other than that, he didn't really play all that much and it's hard to know what's expected of him.

Ron Brooks is a sophomore who is probably getting the most press of anyone in this group right now. Apparently the new coaches are very high on him, and so is Les Miles. According to Les, "I think the secondary is coming along pretty nicely. Ron Brooks is getting an opportunity. I don’t know whether he’ll be at corner or at safety, but he’s really earned the opportunity to get a great look." Brooks is a very athletic guy who also reportedly has a very high football IQ. He can be trusted in a lot of situations and could adjust to a number of different roles. He will probably be actively involved in the return game as well.

The thought of Brooks being moved to safety from cornerback brings to mind something I said in the infamous article on linebackers. I said at the time, "If you need an outside linebacker who can cover receivers, how about converting a cornerback? Or your combo corner/safety nickel back? That's the theory behind the idea of converting Phelon Jones into your line-nickel-back player."

I was thinking about converting a big corner to linebacker, if the linebacker is going to have increased coverage responsibilities. The other, perhaps more logical thing to do is to move a corner into a free safety role, then move your regular free safety to "strong safety", and consider moving your regular strong safety to linebacker. When you go into a "nickel" alignment, you don't change personnel, but let your free safety (who is a natural corner) line up with the slot receiver, give your "strong" safety responsibilities that mirror a free safety's, and let your linebacker play more of a strong safety role, playing a nickel-like package without changing personnel or creating any major mismatches.

It appears that if a change is to be made, it will likely be moving Ron Brooks to safety. I'm not sure how much I like the idea, as Brooks is a pretty small guy. He's listed on LSUSports.net at 5'11" and 175#. While he would be a valuable asset in coverage, he could create problems when trying to tackle some of the more powerful runners in the conference. Chavis seems set on not having a true "nickel" personnel group, instead using his base grouping as a modified nickel package. If you're going to do it that way, this seems to be the logical move.

Moving along, I really wanted to highlight Karnell Hatcher. In the post on linebackers, I mentioned that the safety position looked slow last year and appeared to be in need of an overhaul. A number of people disagreed with me, and that's fine. I don't claim to have a monopoly on insight into the football program. Some said it was all about coaching and scheming.

In response to the "it was the coaching" argument, I present Karnell Hatcher as Exhibit A. He was the primary backup to Curtis Taylor at the free safety position last year, and I thought he was excellent whenever he got into the game. In particular, I remember watching him against Georgia when the game had gotten kind of out of hand. He made a hard, sure, confident open-field tackle on Knowshon Moreno to stop what could have been a big play, which is no easy feat for a true freshman to do. He closed on Moreno, who had broken through the line, and put him on the ground without difficulty. When I saw that, I said to myself, "I haven't seen Curtis Taylor or Harry Coleman do that in two years." The kid can play, which surprised me a lot, as I had said of him before the season, "I wouldn't expect Hatcher to play as a freshman, unless he really makes himself invaluable as a special teams player. I think one way or another Hatcher is going to be an excellent special teams player one day, and he has a real shot at being the heir apparent at strong safety when Harry Coleman leaves."

It wouldn't surprise me at all if Hatcher is our starting strong safety this year, even though he played free last year.

Also reporting for duty this Spring is incoming freshman Rockey Duplessis, a speedy athletic head-knocker who signed with LSU with the 2008 class but sat out the Fall Semester to get academically eligible. I don't know what his future is, but I'd expect him to contribute pretty quickly on special teams.

And let's not forget 5-star recruit Craig Loston, who will be hard to keep off the field.

Spring Football: The Linebackers

Richard Pittman — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:30:08 -0000

One of the more interesting stories to come out so far this offseason for LSU is this Q&A with new LSU defensive coordinator/linebacker coach John Chavis. Surprisingly, this gem of an article was brought to us by none other than Glenn Guilbeau, who everyone generally finds to be irritating. See this article too.

There are a lot of good quotes in that piece on Chavis, but for right now, let's stick with this one:

Q: HEAD COACH LES MILES WAS TALKING ABOUT NOT WANTING TO SUBSTITUTE AS MUCH THIS SEASON BECAUSE MAYBE HIS DEFENSIVE COACHES DID THAT TOO MUCH LAST YEAR. DID YOU SUB A LOT AT TENNESSEE?

CHAVIS: "We basically had two packages that we worked a lot — our base package and our dime package, where we put six defensive backs in."

Q: YOU HAD NO SEPARATE NICKEL (FIVE DEFENSIVE BACKS FOR PASS SITUATIONS)?

CHAVIS: "No. Our base package was basically our nickel package. We just moved that outside linebacker up and back, inside and outside. You look for a guy that's got skills enough to do some or really all the things that we want to do in our base package. And you like to play with that guy because he's going to get the reps, he's going to get all the looks. You're not working an extra package in practice. And to me, if you're going to go nickel, why not go ddime, where you're going to get the match-ups all over? And you're going to do some things to help yourself in the run game."

...

Q: SO, WOULD YOU SAY YOUR OUTSIDE BACKERS HAVE TENDED TO BE MORE COMPLETE LINEBACKERS?

CHAVIS: "You look at guys that are getting drafted today by the folks in the NFL. They want guys that can play three downs. They don't want a first-down linebacker. It's hard for that guy to go on. Well, it makes sense because we're playing the same style as the NFL. We're playing offenses that are very, very similar, so we need guys out there who are going to be every-down guys also. And that's what we're looking for. It doesn't have to be a safety. There's been plenty of guys we recruited as linebackers and played for us as linebackers, and they went on. The focus — and not that there hadn't been one here — in terms of those guys will be speed."

So, Chavis's base defense is essentially a 5-defensive back alignment with a converted safety moved to linebacker, with that safety/linebacker hybrid expected to play a key role in coverage against 3-wide sets. And the whole thing emphasizes speed. Interesting.

There's a couple problems with this at LSU. First, the set of linebackers that are the apparent favorites to be the starting 3 can't do that particular job.

Right now, it looks like seniors Jacob Cutrera and Perry Riley, along with junior Kelvin Sheppard are tops on the depth chart at middle, strong, and weakside linebacker respectively. None of those guys are particularly speedy, even for linebackers. The idea that one of them might be asked to cover, say, AJ Green in single coverage is absolutely frightening.

This means that Chavis could be looking to move a safety into a linebacker spot. That brings up the other problem. Our safeties were pitiful in coverage too last year. Seriously, we've tried using Danny McCray as our nickel back. We've tried it for two years, and it was a heavy contributor to getting our defensive coaching staff fired. The guy is just out of his depth trying to cover wide receivers by himself. Why would he do any better as a "linebacker" asked to cover receivers?

As a group, our safeties were insufficiently athletic last year with the exception of Chad Jones. Putting Chad Jones on the field every play in a free safety position is a big improvement in scheme, and I'm certainly open to having Harry Coleman or Danny McCray move to linebacker and get a little more speed into that position, but not if it means that linebacker is our de facto nickel back, covering slot receivers one on one at times. Harry Coleman would be a disaster in that role.

Which brings up a couple other possibilities. Personally, I do not like our linebacker corps as constituted up above. It is a little slow and not sufficiently athletic. Enter Ryan Baker, who I thought was awesome when we were recruiting him, and who was awesome on special teams as a freshman last year. He's a heat-seeking missile as a linebacker, and at 6'0" 213# he does not have the bulk to slow him down. He might, then, have the kind of speed and athleticism to actually keep up with slot receivers some of the time.

Personally, the guy looks like a playmaker in waiting, and seems like the kind of guy we need to find ways to get on the field more anyway. Jacob Cutrera's a good character guy, but has he done anything on the field to make anyone think he's an All-SEC calibre defender? Ryan Baker has done things to make me think he is. Move Cutrera out and back to his role as a depth player (which he performs admirably, by the way). Move Sheppard or Riley into the middle, and put Baker into your OLB/nickel combo position. Voila! Your defense is faster, more athletic, and more apt to make big plays instantly.

Another possibility, and this idea is a pure ATVS original, is to forget about moving a safety into the linebacker position and think even more outside the box.

If you need an outside linebacker who can cover receivers, how about converting a cornerback? Or your combo corner/safety nickel back? That's the theory behind the idea of converting Phelon Jones into your line-nickel-back player. He was the backup nickel as a redshirt freshman last year, and showed promise at the position. He's the safety/corner combo that is sometimes just perfect for nickel, because he can cover receiver and is physical enough to provide run support when needed. Why not let him do the job full time?

Alright, this probably won't happen, though I hope they've at least thought about it. The idea of moving a safety to linebacker is generally a sound one for many teams as a plan to get more speed on the field, but frankly our safeties were slow last year and the position was in desperate need of an overhaul. Moving the slow safeties down to linebacker and asking them to cover wide receivers is not the answer.

OK, back to the position preview. We know that Cutrera, Riley, and Sheppard start the Spring as starters, but how will it end, and who will the backups be? We've talked about Ryan Baker, but there are other linebackers out there.

Two to watch for are Shomari Clemons and Kyle Prater. Clemons saw limited action as a redshirt freshman last year, and there were some off-field issues as well, but the converted safety (there's that term again!) could see his stock rise with a coaching staff that puts renewed emphasis on speed. Kyle Prater redshirted his true freshman year last year and hopes to get into the mix as a middle or strong-side linebacker this year.

Senior walk-on Ace Foyil returns to provide depth at the linebacker position. Redshirt freshman Kellen Theriot has an injured shoulder and won't see action in the Spring, and may see a position change when he returns anyway.

This is also another position where a true freshman is on campus early to get a head start. Kevin Minter out of Suwanee, Georgia is a very promising player. I think he was greatly underrated as a 3-star during the recruiting season and I think it's entirely possible he'll be a factor this year, especially if the coaching staff decides not to shuffle Riley or Sheppard into the middle, as that is where Minter is most natural. He's got a great future, I think, and it might come sooner rather than later.