SB Nation - Chris Mitchell

If College Football Had a Playoff: #13 LSU Tigers @ #4 TCU Horned Frogs

Jeremy Mauss — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:07:10 -0000

Before we get to game four the previous matchup of #12 Penn State @ #5 Florida came down to the very end with Penn State completing the first upset, and becomes the second lower seed, but first true upset in the "If College Football had a playoff." The vote was very close 93-87.

This matchup features TCU who is the top non-BCS seed and has dominated nearly every game and has played three teams that are currently ranked or were ranked in the top 25 during the season. This TCU team is top 10 in offense and defense, so LSU will have a difficult time trying to stop them or to moving the ball.

The LSU running game is balanced but nothing dynamic and unless LSU can have moderate success they will eventually become one-dimensional throwing the ball. However, LSU is 13th in total defense which would be the best defense to date that the Horned Frogs would face, and the fastest defense as well surpassing the Utes in that category.

To give some help to those who are not sure who would win I turned to What if Sports to simulate this game. The winner would be TCU in a minor blowout 2 6-3; LSU did have the game tied at 3-3 but then TCU ran off 23 straight points. The Horned Frogs rolled up 320 yards and had the edge in time of possession 38 minutes to 21 minutes.

What if Sports is not the decider in this game, you yes you! The readers of this site decide who moves onto the next round.

So gather your friends to stuff the ballot and check back daily at 12 PM eastern time to vote for the next matchup, and voting is only open for 24 hours. As they say in Chicago vote early and vote often.

TCU Stats

Passing

		Passing									Rushing					Sacks
	G	Rating	Comp	Att	Pct	Yds	Y/G	Y/A	TD	INT	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD	Sack	YdsL
Andy Dalton	12	93.0	174	279	62.4	2484	207	8.9	22	5	107	522	43.5	4.9	3	-	-
Marcus Jackson	7	265.0	2	2	100	23	3.3	11.5	1	0	17	48	6.9	2.8	0	-	-

Rushing

		Rushing					Receiving
	G	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD	Rec	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD
Ryan Christian	11	14	66	6	4.7	0	19	244	22.2	12.8	3
Andy Dalton	12	107	522	43.5	4.9	3	0	0	0	0	0
Skye Dawson	7	13	111	15.9	8.5	0	0	0	0	0	0
Yogi Gallegos	1	1	4	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0
Antoine Hicks	12	9	20	1.7	2.2	4	14	309	25.8	22.1	4
Marcus Jackson	7	17	48	6.9	2.8	0	0	0	0	0	0
Jeremy Kerley	12	14	50	4.2	3.6	3	37	457	38.1	12.4	2
Ed Wesley	11	93	605	55	6.5	4	7	142	12.9	20.3	2

Receiving

		Receiving
	G	Rec	Yds	Y/G	AVG	TD
Logan Brock	5	5	67	13.4	13.4	0
Ryan Christian	11	19	244	22.2	12.8	3
Curtis Clay	11	14	188	17.1	13.4	2
Evan Frosch	3	3	33	11	11	0
Antoine Hicks	12	14	309	25.8	22.1	4
Bart Johnson	12	26	350	29.2	13.5	0
Jonathan Jones	3	3	30	10	10	0
Jeremy Kerley	12	37	457	38.1	12.4	2
Billy Pizor	1	1	10	10	10	1
Ed Wesley	11	7	142	12.9	20.3	2
Jimmy Young	11	27	430	39.1	15.9	3

Kicking

		Field Goals								PAT
	G	0-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50+	FGM	FGA	PCT	XPM	XPA	PCT	pts
Ross Evans	12	-	-	-	-	-	14	17	80.0%	60	62	100.0%	102

LSU Stats

Passing

		Passing									Rushing					Sacks
	G	Rating	Comp	Att	Pct	Yds	Y/G	Y/A	TD	INT	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD	Sack	YdsL
Jordan Jefferson	11	93.0	169	272	62.1	1964	178.5	7.2	16	6	104	160	14.5	1.5	1	-	-
Jarrett Lee	6	73.0	16	40	40	197	32.8	4.9	2	1	3	-23	-3.8	-7.7	0	-	-
Russell Shepard	10	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	45	277	27.7	6.2	2	-	-

Rushing

		Rushing					Receiving
	G	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD	Rec	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD
Trindon Holliday	12	23	116	9.7	5	1	3	36	3	12	0
Jordan Jefferson	11	104	160	14.5	1.5	1	0	0	0	0	0
Brandon LaFell	12	4	6	.500	1.5	0	52	705	58.8	13.6	10
Jarrett Lee	6	3	-23	-3.8	-7.7	0	0	0	0	0	0
Richard Murphy	2	2	10	5	5	0	1	4	2	4	0
Charles Scott	9	116	542	60.2	4.7	4	8	54	6	6.8	1
Russell Shepard	10	45	277	27.7	6.2	2	5	34	3.4	6.8	0
Keiland Williams	10	70	368	36.8	5.3	4	4	22	2.2	5.5	0

Receiving

		Receiving
	G	Rec	Yds	Y/G	AVG	TD
Richard Dickson	9	20	150	16.7	7.5	0
Trindon Holliday	12	3	36	3	12	0
R.J. Jackson	4	11	141	35.3	12.8	0
Mitch Joseph	2	2	18	9	9	0
Brandon LaFell	12	52	705	58.8	13.6	10
Chris Mitchell	7	10	65	9.3	6.5	0
Richard Murphy	2	1	4	2	4	0
Deangelo Peterson	4	5	82	20.5	16.4	2
Reuben Randle	7	10	146	20.9	14.6	2
Charles Scott	9	8	54	6	6.8	1
Terrance Toliver	10	47	654	65.4	13.9	3
John Williams	1	1	17	17	17	0
Keiland Williams	10	4	22	2.2	5.5	0

Kicking

		Field Goals								PAT
	G	0-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50+	FGM	FGA	PCT	XPM	XPA	PCT	pts
Josh Jasper	12	-	-	-	-	-	16	19	80.0%	34	34	100.0%	82

Poll

Who wins?

TCU

475 votes

LSU

335 votes

810 votes | Poll has closed

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 23 - Vandy 9: Second Viewing

Richard Pittman — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:58:03 -0000

More photos » by Bill Haber - AP

Keiland Williams ices the game. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)

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Because of weekend traveling, I am a little behind the regular posting schedule this week. I would have liked to have had this post up yesterday in the late morning or early afternoon, but I couldn't because I did not re-watch the game until late last evening.

I continue to believe that LSU simply dominated that game. Sure, the offense stalled for two long stretches, one in the first quarter and the other in the third and spilling over into the 4th. Vandy could get nothing going on our defense, however, and while we are always "one play away from being in trouble" until Keiland scored his second touchdown there in the 4th quarter, Vandy never came anywhere near making that one play.

Because I am by nature a cautiously optimistic, and because "cautiously" is the first word of that phrase, let's start the detailed analysis with what went wrong: the offense. We continue to have problems on the offensive line, both in pass protection and when we try a power running game. I was keeping a close eye on the center-left guard combination of T-Bob Hebert and Josh Dworaczyk and I think I can diagnose the problem in pass protection. The pass rush seems to have the most success when coming from Dworaczyk's zone. He sometimes has trouble finding a man to block, has trouble keeping his man's arms down (Jefferson's arm was hit while throwing twice, and I think both came from Dworaczyk's man), and gets beat by inside rushers at times.

The coaches think Josh Dworaczyk is a very talented offensive lineman, but he is still inexperienced. I think the problems coming from his direction should slow down as the season progresses.

I still can't figure out why we can't get a consistent push when we run with Charles Scott. I do think that perhaps the problem has been overstated a bit, because Scott had more success running the ball than his statistics suggest. While he only averaged 3.8 yards per carry, he converted a number of important 3rd-and-short situations that probably did not help his average, but helped his team a lot. I don't want to gloss over the fact that we aren't getting the same kind of production from that area that we got last year, but I also don't want to condemn it without qualification, because qualification is needed.

The offensive line does a lot better when we run other schemes. When Keiland Williams is in the game, we tend to go with a zone blocking scheme that works a lot better than a power-them-off-the-ball scheme. It doesn't hurt that this is the best Keiland has run since he's gotten here. He's running with authority and without being tentative. He's getting the most out of plays. He hasn't yet tried to reverse field and get us a huge loss. I hate it for Charles Scott, who was clearly our best back last year, but I'm just afraid that Keiland is the runner who is best able to take advantage of what our offensive line is able to do well, and he should be getting the touches. I just think that as of right now our offense is going to do better with a cut-back runner in the game. It's too bad that we lost Richard Murphy, who really could have thrived with what we're doing.

In the passing game, people have rightly asked why we threw so many screen passes and short throws. I will agree that we went screen entirely too often, to the point where the screens resulted in way too many unsuccessful plays. Part of the problem on the screens was a lack of blocking by the wide receivers. This group of receivers is not as good at blocking on those screens as previous generations of wide receivers were, and the best blocker of the group is Brandon Lafell, who is also the best receiver and seems to get the ball the most on these types of plays.

That's why the screens weren't as successful as they could have been, but they were also overused. I think that is a result of Jordan Jefferson not being a particularly accurate thrower right now. He missed on a couple throws to wide open receivers on Saturday, including a sure touchdown to Chris Mitchell that he sailed over the receiver's head. Another example was the first snap of the game for us where it looked like Brandon Lafell made a great catch that was ultimately ruled incomplete. Lafell was wide open and the throw just wasn't on target, and made Lafell have to try to make a circus grab. I think Gary Crowton is reluctant to call the intermediate routes because he's afraid Jefferson just won't hit them consistently. Still, I think it was poor playcalling to try those screens again and again when they were having such limited results.

Speaking of poor playcalling, I also didn't particularly like seeing us run not one but two options in which Brandon Lafell was the pitch man.

On defense I paid particularly close attention to the left end spot, which in the absence of Pep Levingston was occupied by a rotation of Chancey Aghayere and Lavar Edwards. These two are drawing praise for their performance, but the starting Vandy right tackle handled them one-on-one the entire game until he got hurt. Those two redshirt freshmen have talent, but they were no match for him. After he left the game with a broken ankle, Aghayere and Edwards were able to get into the play a lot more.

I still cannot express enough how well the defense as a whole played. Everyone got into the act of making positive plays. Kelvin Sheppard seems to be the message board whipping boy so far this year, and he dropped what should have been an easy interception, but let's not lose sight of the fact that it was "easy" because he read the play. While he couldn't come up with the ball, he broke up the pass what might otherwise have been a positive play for Vandy. He also gets criticized for missing tackles, and yes he missed a couple, but he also made a couple big stops.

We still aren't getting to the passer enough, but we are at least creating a little pressure. I would like to do a little more of this and really get a good pass rush going. I just don't know if he have a pass-rushing defensive line, though.

I saw Morris Claiborne get into the game and make a tackle. That's a name you're going to hear a lot in coming years.

All in all, the Vandy game was a positive step forward for the team as a whole, but we are not where we want to be yet. We get a couple relatively easy games the next couple weeks, and hopefully we can iron out the wrinkles.

Fall Camp Storylines So Far

Richard Pittman — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:50:54 -0000

They've been going at it for about a week in Baton Rouge, preparing in earnest for the season to start, and already there are a few surprising developments at LSU's Fall Camp. We Highlight some of the bigger ones:

Brandon Taylor jumps into the competition for the strong safety spot. Easily the biggest surprise was when talented but little-used sophomore cornerback Brandon Taylor opened the running with the first team at strong safety. Before camp began, the strong safety position was generally considered to be up for competition, but most expected the competition to be between Spring sensation Ron Brooks and last year's backup Karnell Hatcher. I expected Taylor as a dark horse to maybe challenge for the cornerback slot opposite Patrick Peterson. Instead, as practice opened, Taylor was moved into the strong safety slot running opposite of Chad Jones. Brooks was with the second team, and Hatcher was with the freshman, ostensibly as the third team safety. The running order has not changed yet in the parts of practice that the media sees. It may be simply that the coaches were giving Taylor a look at that position in hopes of developing versatility, but it was simply that, why would he go with the first team and not the second or third? This is a situation that will get the closest attention from here to the beginning of the season.

The surprising introduction of Morris Claiborne. In a class with, by some counts, four 5-star players reporting to camp, and one 5-star still trying to get eligible, the Class of 2009 member who is turning the most heads is a 3-star recruit named Morris Claiborne. That's right; the guy no one had heard of until the middle of his senior year. The guy who did not even have a picture of him up on the recruiting sites well into his senior season. I'm not saying he's an immediate contributor to this team or anything like that. At least not yet. He still has to find a position and master it in order be really useful. He began camp practicing at wide receiver with the rest of the freshman. He was quickly promoted to the morning practice sessions with the veterans and switched to cornerback, where he has run with the second unit. I am thinking he will end up at cornerback, because he lacks ideal size for a wide receiver, but his long arms and quickness will be a huge asset in the defensive backfield. It would surprise me at all to see him back on offense though, and it wouldn't shock me if he ends up playing both ways at some point in his career. If he's second string right now, he will probably play immediately, but I would prefer to give him a chance to redshirt and master whatever position he ends up playing. It would also give him some separation between the veteran corners on the roster and himself, giving him more opportunity to play in the future.
Offensive tackle Chris Faulk starts out on the second team at left tackle. When Fall Camp opened, every member of the Class of 2009 was practicing in the afternoon session, away from most of the veterans who practice in the morning. All, that is, except one. Offensive lineman Chris Faulk started camp practicing in the morning with the veterans, and he was doing it at left tackle, behind Ciron Black. This is a remarkable achievement for a young player. I do not remember a true freshman coming in and immediately practicing with the veterans before. Not even the guys who got here in the spring, like Kevin Minter, Drayton Calhoun, and Russell Shepard, were running with the veterans at the start of camp. Patrick Peterson was in the afternoon sessions at the beginning of last year. Rueben Randle practiced in the afternoon. As time went on, Faulk was joined by a couple other freshman. Barkevious Mingo was promoted for a day. Morris Claiborne was promoted. But Faulk was there from the beginning. He even moved last year's backup left tackle, Greg Shaw, over to right tackle. His future must be incredibly bright.
The development of the wide receivers. Terrance Toliver finally looks like he's going to approach that sky-high potential he has always had. He's put some real muscle mass on his frame, and can finally fight off physical defensive backs. He has always had great length and long arms, but he's been lanky. With a little added muscle it opens up the prospect of him being a receiver in traffic, where before Toliver was always mostly a deep threat. I believe Terrance Toliver is going to have that breakout year this year. I don't think he'll be one of the best in the SEC, but if he can increase his receptions total to about 40 while retaining his big play ability (that we did not see enough of last year after a freshman year that saw him average 25 yards per catch), he will be an outstanding complement to Brandon Lafell. True freshman Rueben Randle also looks like he is for real and will be able to make an immediate contribution. As I said before, don't expect Jones-like or Green-like numbers as a freshman, but if he can pull in 20 or so catches, he will really help this team. Veterans R.J. Jackson and Chris Mitchell make me feel pretty good about the depth at the position, and Chris Tolliver may be able to make a contribution as well. I really think this has the makings of a very good overall wide receiver unit.
Competition at center and at fullback. The most important position battle on the team right now is going on at center between P.J. Lonergan and T-Bob Hebert. It was believed that Hebert had the inside track going into camp, but Lonergan started the season practicing with the first team while Hebert ran with the rookies in the afternoon session. In yesterday's first full-squad practice the two were finally on the field together and Hebert was apparently first-team. This is the most important battle because barring injury you have to imagine that whoever wins this battle will play almost every significant snap and the second teamer will have trouble finding the field, while there could be a rotation at strong safety. A similar competition is ongoing at fullback where we have recently seen tight end Tyler Edwards jump into the fray that previously includedStevan Ridley, Richard Dugas, and Dominique Allen. Ridley is definitely the most capable runner (though Allen appears surprisingly nimble for such a big man and could end up being a surprising playmaker later on). Dugas is the converted offensive lineman. Allen is the freshman. It is anyone's guess how these snaps will be divided up in the season.
Freshman defensive linemen impressing all. The defensive line members of the Class of 2009: Josh Downs, Chris Davenport, Mike Brockers, Bennie Logan, and Sam Montgomery, are getting early raves and bringing back memories of Spears, Hill, Lavalais, etc.

Getting Back Into Football

Richard Pittman — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:47:42 -0000

Sorry for not posting yesterday. The intertubes had a blowout on me and when I wanted to post, there was no posting to be done. Anyway, here's an article for you.

Lately we have given you all things baseball, which is fine. It's been a lot of fun watching and commenting on this team striving for and ultimately achieving a national championship. LSU baseball is a wonderful program with wonderful fans. Here in Tuscaloosa, despite the fact that the local team was reasonably decent (heading into the last weekend of the season, they had a shot to win the SEC West), there was almost no regular coverage of the team. I do not think there was one Crimson Tide baseball game broadcast locally on television all year. The local talk radio, which I listen to at times, never once mentioned the team in my hearing. They just don't care about baseball here, and that's kind of foreign to me.

But now, baseball season is over. We have celebrated our good fortune and discussed the future. Now it is time to move on. Lo and behold, the opening kickoff of the football season is a mere 2 months away. It sounds like ages, which is the impetus for the new blog title, "An LSU sports blog currently experiencing the long dark offseason of the soul," which for those of you in the know, is an obvious reference to a novel by Douglas Adams, may he rest in satirical bliss.

About a month ago, I celebrated the fact that the football team was making almost no news. The thought was that all news was bad news. Any news about the football team that came out now would likely either be an injury, an arrest, or a suspension. Wouldn't you know it, the first bit of news to come out since then was about an injury.

Redshirt freshman wide receiver Tim Molton tore a ligament in his knee and is lost for the season. It's a terrible blow for a young man who had reportedly moved up the depth chart to the point where he was expected to make a significant contribution this season. It's a significant blow to his career and to the depth in the receiver corps. It was expected that Brandon Lafell and Terrance Toliver would be the #1 and #2 receivers on the team, but Molton was generally expected to compete for the #3 spot with veterans Chris Mitchell and R.J. Jackson and incoming freshman sensation Rueben Randle. Now his career is on hold. Good luck to the young man, and please come back to the team ready to go in 2010.

via media.scout.com

The second piece of news to come out recently came from TigerSportsDigest, in an original reporting that is well worth the subscription fee, about incoming freshman safety Craig Loston. While we have previously said that All News Is Bad News, this piece of news was more of a good news/bad news combination. Craig Loston, one of the crown jewels of an outstanding recruiting class, is qualified and will be enrolling in school today. The downside is that he needs wrist surgery that will keep him sidelined until October. A true freshman who can't practice with the team or even workout until October? I can't imagine he will be able to contribute this year, and I suppose a redshirt year is in order.

The kid is going to be a player, and I am thrilled he's made it to school and that he'll be learning the schemes and acclimating himself to college and to the team while he rehabs.

The team is currently going through 7-on-7 drills. Regular practice begins in early August and kickoff is on September 5, 2009, very late at night.

For the next couple months, we will follow the progress of the team, give overviews of the new players added to the roster, and generally fret about football like Arthur Dent.

LSU Preview

John Berkowitz — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:14:39 -0000

As the 2009 season approaches, Washington once again will have one of the toughest schedules in college football, starting the season with a bang as LSU visits to open the season on Sept 5. The Tigers are coming off a disappointing 8-5 season, but there is plenty of talent on the squad to make another serious run for a SEC West title. LSU may not be of the same caliber as a USC, but they are a solid top 15 pick heading into the season.

Sophomore Jordan Jefferson looks to have earned the starting QB spot this past spring. Jefferson is 6'4" and very mobile. He played in seven games last season, starting twice. The obvious highlight of his 2008 campaign was leading the Tigers to a 38-3 upset win over Georgia Tech in the season's finale. Jordan finished the 2009 season by connecting on 36 of 73 passes for 419 yards, four touchdowns and just one interception, He also rushed for 134 yards and one TD on 49 carries. The Tiger defense will be ready for Jake Locker, as they will practice against a similar player every day.

The running back position is loaded with talent, experience, and depth. The Tigers return three seniors who each can break a game open. LSU is led by Charles Scott, who rushed for over 1000 yards in 2008. Keiland Williams and Trindon Holliday provide plenty of experienced, quality depth, keeping defenses on their toes.

The wide receivers are led by Brandon LaFell, who tallied a team-leading 63 receptions last season. LaFell is an NFL-type talent who could have gone early in the 2009 pro football draft. Chris Mitchell, R.J. Jackson, Tim Molton, Chris Tolliver and five star recruit Ruben Randle will all push for playing time when the Tigers line up in three-and-four-wide sets. Randle will come in this fall with the ability to immediately start for the Tigers. Senior TE Richard Dickson returns and is a good bet to earn some post-season honors.

The Tigers' offensive line has the look of a rebuilding unit, as they lost three starters to graduation and the NFL. Bob Hebert, who was limited in 2009 spring drills due to a knee injury suffered during the 2008 season, will be the new starter at center. Josh Dworaczyk steps into the left guard spot, with Lyle Hitt returning for his senior year at right guard, plus Ciron Black and Joseph Barksdale teaming up to be one of the better tackle tandems in the SEC.

The key to the enduring success of the LSU football program under the regimes of both Les Miles and Nick Saban has been its defense. With all the growing that must take place on the offensive side of the ball in 2009, the defense will be counted on to pick up a lot of the early slack. LSU feels they have addressed this need by retooling its defensive staff in the form of three new assistant coaches.

The defensive line is rebuilding after losing their top five players to graduation in 2008. The Tigers return senior DE Rahim Alem , who led the SEC in sacks a year ago, and also got a boost from the NCAA when they granted DT Charles Alexander a sixth year of eligibility. Junior Pep Levingston and has taken hold of the defensive end spot this spring opposite Alem and it looks like he could be a player. He will most likely line up next to DT Drake Nevis. LSU is going to be challenged early up front this year because of the losses but they have a lot of talent in line that is just waiting for their first chances of getting into the rotation.

At linebacker the Tigers return Seniors Jacob Cutrera and Perry Riley, along with Jr. Kelvin Sheppard. All three have have all played a lot of football at LSU. Since LSU is bringing in a new DC expect some early growing pains as the talent adjust to the new schemes which were implemented last spring.

The Tigers are loaded at defensive back. CB Patrick Peterson and safety Chad Jones have All-American type talent. The other starting corner will likely be senior Chris Hawkins, who led the team with three interceptions and nine pass breakups a year ago. Pushing Hawkins and Peterson is junior Jai Eugene and sophomore Brandon Taylor, and they will more than likely battle for the nickel spot. Ron Brooks and Karnell Hatcher are battling it out for the starting spot at the other safety position.

Consensus

LSU is rebuiliding but not in the same sense that Washington is. The difference is that LSU has a solid pipeline of young talent that has been tutored to expect success.

The inexperience at QB is going to hurt them early in the season. On defense rebuilding the front four with a new DC is also going to cause some early growing pains.

Expect the Tigers to finish in the top 25 but they are realistically a year away from contending for a national championship unless their QB grows up in a hurry against the always tough SEC schedule.

How does UW match up?

Realistically Washington should be playing Nevada or Utah State to open the season and not a team like LSU. UW is however going to be catching the Tigers at home at probably the best time all season to play them. UW obviously comes in with an edge at QB and our young receivers should be able to match up well with LSU. The offensive line will have its hands full with the Tigers defensive front even though they are in rebuilding mode. UW's offensive line frankly doesn't cut it at this point and only recruiting, time, and talent will change that.

Defensively the Huskies get a break facing an inexperienced QB starting the season on the road. I expect improvement in every phase of the Husky defense this season which is easy to say because they were argualby the worst unit in the BCS last season.

Early Prediction

Washington should be able to hang with the Tigers early in this one. They should be fired up and playing over their heads in their nationally televised debut under new head coach Steve Sarkisian. Whenever you insert Jake Locker into the lineup it is a great equalizer to make up for a sup par offensive line. An enthusiastic full house to open the season should create quite a bit of excitement in Husky Stadium.

That being said overall talent and depth wins football games and sometime in the third quarter LSU should begin to pull away like so many teams such as Ohio State have done to UW in recent years. This one will be closer than expected but I am thinking pulls away and wins 31 - 21.

Questions Coming Out of Spring Practice

Richard Pittman — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:42:51 -0000

With Spring Practice Officially dead and buried, it is time to look at some of the questions we still have.

1. How will the revamped offensive line perform? Last year, the offensive line was one of the strengths of the team, as we ran well and generally protected the QB as much as it could be expected against SEC defenses. This year, we have to replace 2 of the veteran linemen in Brett Helms and Herman Johnson, both of whom will be in an NFL training camp. Coming out of Spring, it looks like their spots will be taken by sophomores Josh Dworaczyk and T-Bob Hebert. What we do not know and can hardly even speculate about at this point is whether those two are really good, or if they're just "better than the alternative". Offensive line play is always the most important determining factor about how an offense will perform, as poor line play will adversely affect both the running and the passing games, and good line play will open up holes for your running backs and make your QB very comfortable in the pocket. The play of Dworaczyk and Hebert will go a long way to determining how this team will perform offensively this year. We know Ciron Black is as solid as a left tackle gets, and Lyle Hitt is a 3-year starter, so we know what he brings. We will also need Joseph Barksdale to step up his play and go from being "promising" to being "studly". Word is he is on his way to doing just that, but we will have to see.

2. Will we get consistently good quarterback play? LSU fans rightly have high hopes for Jordan Jefferson and Russell Shepard, and we actually have something of a luxury in having Jarrett Lee as an experienced player beginning the season in a backup role. The problem remains however that we have a VERY young quarterback group. We don't have any quarterback who's been around long enough to be a junior, and Jarrett Lee's 9 starts makes him by far the most experienced on the roster. Jordan Jefferson has showed great promise, but we need to remember that he is just a true sophomore, and he has started only 2 games. We enter the 2009 season with the least experience at the QB spot of any team in the conference, though South Carolina has a somewhat comparable situation.

3. Will we have productive complementary players at the skill positions? Brandon Lafell is an outstanding player and a true #1 receiver. Will we have a quality #2, #3, and #4, or will we have to rely on TE Richard Dickson even more? After a couple years of looking really great in his uniform, it is Terrance Toliver's turn to become a reliable producer. Whenever a player transitions from sophomore to junior year, you have to stop talking about his potential and start talking about his production. At 6'5" and with outstanding speed and athleticism, Toliver's potential is through the roof, but it's time to do something with it. He ended last year on a high note, catching 16 passes in his final 5 games, after catching only 6 in the previous 8. If he continues that pace and breaks a few nice gains out of it. We will also need Chris Mitchell, RJ Jackson, Tim Molton, or one of the other receivers to step up play as well. Rueben Randle or even Russell Shepard could figure into this in the Fall.

At running back, we know Charles Scott is a good power running back with the intelligence and durability to be a #1 tailback. But you need more than that. Keiland Williams was inconsistent despite solid line play, though he got more productive as the season wore on. I will speculate that I think he was not in optimum condition at the beginning of the year and he lost a step of speed. He needs to be a speed back, so he needs to get that step back. Junior Richard Murphy had a disastrous sophomore season after having high expectations heading into the season. One of these two guys will have to step up play for LSU to reach its potential. We do not know if Stevan Ridley will be sufficiently recovered from his injury to be a factor in the 2009 season. If Keiland or Murphy or Ridley can't be productive behind Scott, we may see a lot of Michael Ford when he reports for his freshman season.

4. Who will be our backup defensive linemen?

Unlike an offensive line, a defensive line cannot live by its starters alone. It needs depth. It needs a rotation. We believe we have our top 4 offensive linemen in Pep Levingston, Drake Nevis, Al Woods, and Rahim Alem. We think they are going to be very good-to-outstanding players. Levingston would be a big surprise to me. I did not really expect that of him, and I am pleased to hear the good reports. The questions are who will be backing those guys up, and how will they perform when they're needed? Charles Alexander brings experience to the defensive tackle position, as he will be on his 6th year of eligibility and was a full-time starter last year. Other than Cheese, our backups will be very green. Redshirt freshmen Lavar Edwards, Chancey Aghayere, and Chase Clement appear to have the inside track. I loved Aghayere when he was a prospect, but he has had to battle back from high school injuries.

5. Whither the defensive backfield?

We think we're pretty sure that, barring injury, Chad Jones and Patrick Peterson are going to be the starters at corner and at free safety. Other than that, it's all a mystery. Chris Hawkins was the only player to start all 13 games last year in the secondary, but he was on the Purple team for the spring game, which would suggest that he has been passed up on the depth chart. Jai Eugene took his place. Last year's starting strong safety has been moved to linebacker. Ron Brooks has won accolades at the position, but no one has said he's won a job. Karnell Hatcher was a standout last year as a true freshman, and he will have something to say about who plays that spot. At corner, we have Hawkins, Eugene, and Brandon Taylor battling for the last starting spot opposite Patrick Peterson. At strong safety we have Ron Brooks and Karnell Hatcher. Plus we have Derrick Bryant who played a bit as a freshman and who certainly isn't giving up. Even if we can make some educated guesses about who will be starting, we have absolutely no idea who will come into the game in nickel or dime situations. There's been some noise we won't have a true nickel package, but we know we'll have a dime. And let's not forget that super-prospect Craig Loston will be here soon.

Spring Football: The Wide Receivers

Richard Pittman — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:30:06 -0000

For previous position previews, see the following links:

Probably no position on the team has more storylines going into Spring than wide receiver does. Other positions have more uncertainty, but none have more angles. Alright, even that's not necessarily true. The corners and the safeties have tons of stories too, but wide receiver is going to be one of the big spots to watch this Spring.

LSU has the luxury of getting Brandon Lafell back for his senior season. A couple other receivers in the SEC made more headlines than Lafell, but no receiver was more productive last year. Lafell led the SEC in receptions, tied for the lead in touchdown receptions, and was second in the league in yards receiving. He's a true #1 receiver, maybe the best in the conference, plus he also blocks and is a leader and teacher.

The other veterans returning to the wide receiving corps are junior Terrance Toliver and senior Chris Mitchell. The world awaits Terrance Toliver's breakout season, and this could finally be it. After a very promising but expectedly inconsistent freshman season, he was expected to emerge as a big threat last year, but he caught only 22 passes, which was more than double his freshman catch total, but less than was really hoped out of him, and he did not emerge as a big play guy, averaging only 11.7 yards per reception after averaging almost 25 yards per catch in 2007.

He had his most productive games late, however, making several nice catches, and averaging 3 receptions per game from the Bama game forward. I think, perhaps more than anyone other than Demetrius Byrd, Terrance Toliver suffered from the lack of a quality experienced quarterback last year. Toliver's still as talented as he was when he was rated as a 5-star out of high school, and it's hard to teach someone to grow to 6'5" or to run like the wind. Take that 5-star rating with a grain of salt, though. He played at a run-oriented high school program and did not catch a lot of passes. He was very raw coming out of high school and has needed a lot of coaching. It's time for Toliver to put it together, and he gets his opportunity this Spring as the apparent starter at the X receiver position opposite Brandon Lafell.

Chris Mitchell returns to give the team experienced depth. Mitchell has caught 14 passes in his career, including 8 last year.

The big story on the wide receiver corps coming into Spring is the reported emergence of redshirt freshman Tim Molton. This article explains some of the reasons why this young man has emerged, and it's clear that Les Miles and other coaches are not exactly discouraging the media and fans from talking about him:

"I expect him to play a lot of football," coach Les Miles said.

...

"He made plays every day, whether it was a big catch or a big block," wide receivers coach D.J. McCarthy said. "He made a play every day."

...

"I watched him during some scout team and realized he has real skill — good speed, niftiness, makes you miss and excellent ball skills," Miles said.

"If a ball is thrown to him, he’s going to catch it."

...

Said McCarthy, "He has great potential. He has the size we’re looking for, the speed we’re looking for and good football savvy.

"He’s a hard worker."

So there you have it.

Said Miles, "He’s very talented. He’s got great speed and agility, very confident ball skills."

Well, if the kid wanted high expectations, he has them now. He was part of the 2008 class of receivers that included Chris Tolliver (no relation to Terrance), Jhyryn Taylor, and Deangelo Peterson. All of those guys were 4-star players. Molton was the 3-star. The afterthought. The one a lot of fans thought should have been passed over in favor of another receiver. If the reports from the team are to be believed, he is the best of them all.

It sometimes happens that way. Sometimes a kid is physically immature, and I think Molton would have qualified there. He says he's grown half an inch since getting to college (that was only 6 or 7 months ago, by the way), and may not be done yet. Brandon Lafell was also a 3-star coming out of high school, and here he is a 1st Team All-SEC player. See also, Ciron Black, a 4-year starter at left tackle who was a 3-star out of high school, and may end up tying the NCAA record for most games started. Also, Tyson Jackson. The point of this little tangent is to further disabuse people of the notion that recruiting rankings are everything. They mean something, but they're not the end-all, be-all.

Young depth at the position also includes redshirt freshmen Chris Tolliver and Jhyryn Taylor, and sophomores Deangelo Peterson and John Williams.

Of these 4 guys, Deangelo Peterson has the most experience, having played last year on special teams and getting some action at the end of blowouts, but did not catch a pass. He may be seeing a move to tight end, however, to give us another pass catcher there.

John Williams has been around a while, but has had trouble finding a place to contribute. He has not gotten onto the field during a game yet, but contributed last year as a scout team running quarterback. He has bounced from corner to receiver and appears to have settled at the receiver position. He's a relative of former great LSU running back Dominique Davis, and like Davis he hopes to contribute as a returner as well.

Tolliver and Taylor redshirted last year and hope to contribute this year.

Senior Jared Mitchell is not expected to return to football, instead concentrating on his baseball career, where he could be going pro very soon.

And of course you can't forget about 5-star recruit Rueben Randle, who is fully intending on coming in and contributing right away once he arrives in the summer. If he can do it with this group of receivers in front of him, he is definitely a special player. I expect him to come in and displace a few veterans in front of him and be an immediate contributor, but I wouldn't be expecting AJ Green or Julio Jones-like rookie numbers from him. The depth at LSU in the receiving corps is much better than anything those guys had to face, and I don't think Randle is quite at their level anyway, but he should contribute early.