How could anyone doubt this team, even when they were behind 14-0?  This team never flinched.  This is undoubtedly the best team I have ever seen at LSU.  Now the only thing remaining is to make sure the best team I've ever seen has the best season I've seen to go along with it.

I do want to dispel one thing I've seen talked about with regards to this game.  LSU did not sleepwalk through the first 20 minutes of the game.  Arkansas built their lead through very good play on the field, and got a few bounces to go their way early to help them build the lead.  We may not have been at our best, but sometimes you have to credit the other team, and this is one of those times.  The key plays of the first quarter were Dylan Breeding's 70 yard punt that pinned us inside the 10 and his subsequent punt that was downed at the 3.  Those two punts kept our offense hemmed in, and the situation was not corrected until Arkansas was able to take advantage of field position with a touchdown.

Then, once our offense got out of the hole, we started moving the ball, down 7-0.  The LSU offense drove across midfield after starting at the 20.  I am convinced this possession was going to result in a score, except that Tramain Thomas made a textbook helmet-on-ball hit to force a fumble that was returned for a touchdown.  There are bad fumbles that are the result of offensive mistakes, and there are forced fumbles that result from good defensive plays.  That was a forced fumble, to the credit of the Arkansas defender.  That the ball popped up straight into the hands of the streaking defender was an unfortunate bounce, but you can't credit Tyrann Mathieu with creating turnovers and turn around and blame Michael Ford for that fumble.  I think that's why Ford wasn't benched this time.

But that fumble masked the fact that our offense was ready to take over the game.

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Hi guys.  It's time for my not-particularly-frequent contribution to this blog.  I still don't have home internet service (the sticks would call my neighborhood "the sticks").  Obviously, since I live and work in Alabama and I'm somewhat of a high profile LSU fan in the local area, I am getting constantly bombarded with questions, comments, taunts, trash-talk, good-natured discussion, etc., about the upcoming game against the Alabama Crimson Tide. 

I tell everyone the same thing:  I don't know which team is better, and anyone who says they know is fooling themselves.  You simply cannot look at how these two teams have played and reliably judge which is better.  It is plain that both teams are much better than everyone they've faced.  Each has essentially named its score against many of its opponents.

This is not to say there aren't differences, but even the differences are subtle.  This isn't an air raid offense versus the wishbone.  Both of these teams rely on power running, play-action passes, and killer defenses.  Both play conservatively on offense, take care of the football, and try to crush you on defense. 

Today, I was talking to a friend of mine, and I broke it down for him as best I could. 

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I suppose my last post on this topic revealed me to be in the minority on the issue of oversigning.  Also, my creative solution of giving everyone a scholarship for six years as a solution was not altogether popular.  I want to get down, however, exactly what it is that bothers me about oversigning and what there is to do about it.

Let me be very clear that I do not think our own oversigning points to any sort of moral failing on our part, or on the part of our coaches.  The rules not only allow for oversigning, but actively encourage it.  To see how, we need to break down the overarching "oversigning" issue into its component problems.  By which I mean, there are actually two different types of oversigning, each tied to one half of the 85/25 recruiting rule.  The issues, both moral and humanitarian, are different for each type, and any solution will have to recognize the difference.

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Poseur did a terrific job of highlighting the partially hidden agenda of some advocates of oversigning reform.  But as Poseur states, just because some of the criticisms against the practice are self-serving or ignorant, does not mean that the current system can't be improved.

I most definitely have misgivings about the current system, and have thought for years that the way major college football works can be detrimental to the athletes, in particular as it regards the scholarships, which can be canceled at any time if the player's performance is not what someone in charge thinks it should be.  To that end, I propose a solution.  It is a solution that addresses all of the problems with oversigning, which I identify as follows:

1. The problem of initial oversigning, which is signing more players than you can possibly enroll (i.e. more than 25), banking on one or more of them failing to qualify academically and/or some agreeing to "greyshirt;"
2. The problem of signing more players than you have room on your 85-man scholarship lineup, expecting some players to go to the NFL or to transfer or otherwise leave the program; and
3. The problem of players coming to school expecting to get an education only to find that their scholarship is no longer available to them.

I don't know if my solution is "radical" or not, but it would certainly change things.  In particular, I think it would allow coaches to adjust their roster as they see fit, empower players who are under-performing on the field to continue their education or their football careers or both, and do away once and for all with the little-discussed but troubling practice of dubiously putting players on "medical scholarships."  After the jump...

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It's pretty obvious we're all thinking the same thing the morning after a triumphant and yet terribly frustrating night of watching our Tigers play dominant football in 2 of the 3 phases of the game only to almost have the 3rd phase (and the decisions of what to have that 3rd phase try to do) blow the game for us.

I thought the color announcer last night (who was generally colorless and whose name I never caught) had an accidently profound statement towards the end of the game when the crowd was getting, shall we say, restless.  He said, "These fans know ball."  Meaning, the LSU fans know when things aren't right.  Meaning, redux, the LSU fans are right to think this offense is being terribly managed by the coaches, and we know that while it hasn't cost us a game yet, it will if it doesn't get better.

I am not a reactionary fan.  I never have been.  I have never led the chorus of fans calling for a coach's head or for major changes to be made.  I am always more cautious than that, and I usually propose more subtle tweaks to strategy.  At this point, however, there are several things that are clear to me and these things lead me to believe major changes need to be made.

First, it is obvious that we do not run the option well with Jordan Jefferson at quarterback.  He is too hesitant in his running style and not comfortable with the decision-making involved.  West Virginia's strategy in stopping our option was the opposite of what you usually see.  Most teams try to force the QB to pitch the ball, preferably as early as possible.  WVU seemed to try to prioritize taking away the pitch man, forcing Jefferson to keep it.  They saw what we all have seen for the past year-plus, which is that Jefferson is not good at running the ball from the option. 

While I wish we ran the option better, we simply don't do that, which brings up the second thing that is clear to me: someone responsible for game-planning and play-calling on offense is so stubbornly devoted to these plays that it is hurting the team.  I do not like that whole, "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results," line.  That's not true.  Insanity is something else entirely.  What that describes is not insanity but mere stubbornness.  It's like someone says, "the option is a fine play and we should run it," nevermind that we don't have the personnel to run it.  At least, we don't have the personnel to run it the way we run it.

While that is a game-planning problem, we have a separate problem with simple playcalling.  With just over 10 minutes to go, we got possession of the ball with a 6 point lead.  We had just before gone on a 7 minute drive running the football down the throat of the West Virginia defense, resulting in a disappointing yet helpful 3 points. On that drive, we ran the ball 9 times and passed it 4 times (and the drive stalled when we tried 2 straight passes). Another drive like that, and we would go up by 9 or 13 points and run the clock down to 3 minutes in the process.  After running the ball 3 straight times and getting a 1st down, we abandoned the run in favor of passing with Jefferson, who promptly threw 3 straight incompletions, stopping the clock and forcing a punt.  Everyone, including the announcers for the game, questioned why we stopped running the ball there, and they were right.  Thankfully the defense held and got the ball back for the offense (who again promptly returned it back to WVU by punt, failing to kill the game).  At this point, Jordan Jefferson was 4 of his last 15, looked completely uncomfortable both running and passing, and was generally having a terrible game, but Stevan Ridley was playing well and had been underused.

I agree with Poseur that it is time for Jordan Jefferson to watch for a bit.  He is less effective now than he was at this time last year.  I'll say this also, if Jarrett Lee isn't going to get his chance now, he probably should have transferred to another school this past spring for his own sake.  If he can't get a chance with our QB situation looking this bad, what chance does he have of ever getting a chance short of injury to Jefferson?  He got in for a series last night, and got to throw one pass, which was completed for a short gain (too short, alas, forcing a punt).  Then he was promptly removed from the game and Jefferson returned to it for our last possession. 

He has that same look that Jarrett Lee had towards the end of 2008.  That look that says, "I have no confidence in myself."  We did nothing to help Lee then, and we're doing nothing to help Jefferson now.  In fact, the parallels are striking to me.  In both cases, our QB lost confidence, actually got worse as the season progressed, and the playcalling steadfastly refused to help him out by abandoning the things he did the least effectively.

Les Miles stuck his neck out to keep Gary Crowton this offseason when the majority of the fan base said he should go.  It makes sense right?  If you're the offensive coordinator and the offense is one of the worst in the country despite having NFL calibre talent at a number of positions, you should probably be fired, right?  Well, he wasn't, and the gamble to keep him has not paid off at all.

In fairness though, this offense is better than last year's offense, which couldn't do anything at all.  At least now we have a power running game, and we aren't burning timeouts due to failure to get lined up properly.  I suppose our playcaller/gameplanner (and I am being deliberate unspecific on who that is, because it is very unclear exactly how the power over offensive gameplanning is divided between Miles, Crowton, and Billy Gonzales) deserves credit at least for that, but now that we're doing something well, why does our playcalling abandon that something at the times it would be the most useful, i.e. late in the game when we have the lead and the ball?

I am not a fan of running the ball 40 times per game because good offenses are built on balance, but it's clear that this is our best chance to have a solid offensive output.  We may not be a "good" offense, but anything better than "disaster waiting to happen" would be an improvement at this point.  To do that, we would have to figure out how to give Ridley some help.  No running back in this league can carry the ball that frequently and not break down.  I actually thought of a way to give Ridley some help and keep the option in the playbook while at the same time minimize Jefferson's role in running it.

We should install an option package with different personnel.  It's this newfangled and incredibly innovative offense I call the "wildcat."  You have a specialized personnel package that comes on the field, perhaps taking the traditional quarterback off the field entirely, or perhaps leaving him in but lining him up somewhere else so that the defense can't bring in its own specialized package.  You then snap the ball directly to a runner who has a number of choices of what to do with it.  He can hand the ball perhaps to a wide receiver coming across the formation.  He can keep the ball and run it himself.  He can also run a traditional option.  You may even be able to change it up by having him pass occasionally.  The defense would pretty much know what's coming, but if you execute it well and keep options on the field, it can be effective.  Ideally, you would want a runner who has experience taking the snap and running the option, perhaps from high school or something like that.  You would also want a wide receiver with speed who is comfortable with the ball in his hands and has the ability to break big runs and make people miss.  I'm open to suggestions on how to fill these roles with the personnel we have.

(I realize that some blog readers have their satire-o-meter permanently set to the 'off' posiiton.  If you're confused by that previous paragraph, go turn it back on and re-read it.)

The good news is that we get Tennessee next, and they are probably the third worst team we play this season, ahead of only McNeese St. and ULM, and I'm not completely confident about them being the best of those three either.  We can beat Tennessee by 2 touchdowns without throwing a pass or running the option, but I'm afraid we'll try those things anyway.

I was pretty critical of Jordan Jefferson after the Vandy game, and for good reason.  He stunk it up in that game.  In this game, he did everything that was asked of him.  Granted, not much was asked of him, but he did everything well.  Even his incompletions were usually not due to poorly thrown passes (one drop, one tough but catchable pass, a couple where he was hit as he threw, and a tipped pass come to mind).  There were even a couple really nice throws in there (the 3rd down strike to Rueben Randle comes to mind).  The staff cut down Jefferson's responsibilities in the passing game, and he responded by meeting those responsibilities admirably.

Which brings me to my thesis statement:  this team can still be either very good, or only so-so.  I think as currently constituted, this is a team that can be in the top half of the SEC and perhaps be one of the best without further improvement.  We can ride a fast and opportunistic defense, good special teams, and a pedestrian offense to victories over Tennessee, Ole Miss, McNeese, and ULM fairly easily as long as we don't have a flat game in there.  I would say at this point, without improvement, that our tilts against Arkansas, West Virginia, Florida, and Auburn are more-or-less even-money games, and if we played Bama next week we would be big underdogs.

So, without improvement, figure we get wins in our 4 games where we'll be big favorites and wins in 2 of the 4 in which the teams are roughly equal, and a loss to Bama.  That makes for 9 wins and a very solid bowl game, but not enough to truly compete for the SEC Championship.

However, I think this team is very close to being special, and maybe they will get there.  Jefferson's decent game is encouraging, but he has still not exactly put up the kinds of passing numbers that will make opposing defenses respect our passing game.  In his 17 career starts, he has thrown for 200 yards or more exactly 4 times, and now we seem to have settled in on being a run-first, pass-infrequently team.  The problem here is that our offensive personnel (outside of the QB position) does not seem to be geared towards being a run-first team.  We have outstanding receivers in Toliver and Randle, and a huge run-after-catch option in Shepard, but our running backs (I am sorry to say) are only so-so. 

Stevan Ridley is a fine player who gives his all, but outside of one really nice run against Vandy, he has been a 4-yard-per-carry back.  While 4 yards per carry is pretty good in the NFL, it's only OK in college.  To illustrate, in our much-maligned rushing attack of 2009, Charles Scott averaged 4.7 yards per carry, and Keiland Williams averaged 5.8 yards per carry.  In 2008, Scott averaged 5.4 yards per carry and Keiland Williams averaged about 5.0.  In 2007, Jacob Hester averaged 4.9 yards per carry, and Scott/Williams averaged almost 7.0 yards per carry. 

This team is really built to be an explosive passing team with a good enough running game to keep the defense honest.  Instead, because the coaches have little faith in Jefferson, we are forced to feature our running game, which is really nothing special, and use our passing game sparingly despite having stellar talent on the outside.  It's a situation that is far from optimized, but if Jefferson can continue improving like he did from week 3 to week 4, just to the point where we can have a roughly 50-50 run-pass split where we can make maximum use our most talented players, we will be a much improved team.

And if we improve, we could end up steamrolling teams like Arkansas, Auburn, West Virginia, and Florida (all of whom look very beatable if we play well), and really challenging Bama for the top spot in the conference.  We are on the cusp, but have to go over that cusp in order to meet our goals. 

I am here in Dallas for Poseur's impending nuptials.  I am at a hotel with WiFi.  The family is asleep.  I know it's been a long time.  I swear that we were supposed to have high speed internet at our house months ago, and again weeks ago, but we still don't have it available.  Anyway, here are some bullet points for those of you wondering what's been up:

• For those of you wondering how I've been filling my time, I am actually running for office.  I am running for a spot on the Board of Education for Bibb County, Alabama, my new home.  The election is in November.
• I haven't had much access to the internet since I moved, and I spend a lot less time on the internet and a lot more time reading printed materials.  I've read a lot in this time.
• With my attention away from football and other sports (thankfully, the stuff I've missed has been a horrid basketball season and a very disappointing baseball season) I have had a lot of time to think and reflect on matters football, and I haven't liked what I've seen.  Probably the story that has most troubled me in this time is the sad and sobering news that the late Chris Henry suffered from chronic traumatic encephalitis at the time of his death.  To me, this is news that should rock the world of football.  We've known for a while that old linemen are crippled in their knees and joints.  We've thought it was sad, but we've taken comfort in knowing that these were generally long-careered people who traded their knees for lots of money.  We could live with it.  We've known for some time that a number of former professional football players suffered the lingering effects of concussions, and this definitely worried us.  Knees are fine and all, but everyone lives in their brains, and it's a lot harder to live a normal life if your brain isn't working.  Then we found out that high-impact positions like linebacker or running back, with lots of high-speed collisions and helmet-hits led to slow-developing but permanent brain injury (chronic traumatic encephalitis) that could lead to depression, drug addiction, suicide, and all sorts of bad things that we definitely need to avoid as a society.  This was hard to ignore or rationalize as a football fan.  Now, we find out that this condition is not limited to the high-impact positions, and it's not limited to long-time veterans.  Chris Henry played wide receiver, a position that is relatively low-impact (at least on the head) compared to some others on the football field, and he was still in the early stages of his career.  Nevertheless, autopsy revealed that he was already showing signs of chronic brain injury, the kind that leads to antisocial and self-destructive behavior or depression later in life.  Or is it even limited to later in life?  Who knows at this point.  I know this.  If a guy like Chris Henry was suffering permanent damage from the hits he was taking, I can't watch a typical football game without wondering if I am witnessing player shave significant time off of their lives.  It's made me re-evaluate what I think about football, and it should lead (very quickly) to rules changes and/or equipment changes to make the sport safer.  If this doesn't happen, I am not sure decent, moral people can justify watching a sport we are slowly coming to find out is truly a bloodsport.
• Onto a slightly happier topic:  conference re-alignment.  Hooray for Texas A&M!  Congratulations Aggies, you forestalled the end of college football conferences as we know them.  It was a terrific power play to make noise about going to the SEC, which is the only thing that preserved the Big XII, a rump Vichy-Big XII it might be, but at least it still exists.  All thanks to TAMU.  I am not naive enough to believe that money doesn't drive college football, but I appreciate that college football at least sometimes likes to pretend it's about competition, rivalry, competitive spirit, and the like.  The re-alignment talk really laid it all out bare.  Schools were perfectly willing to jettison traditional rivalries for the promise of a few more bucks.  They were perfectly willing to align themselves in ways that made no geographic sense in order to secure better TV deals.  Number of TV sets was a much more attractive variable than quality of program, and basketball was revealed to be meaningless.  Well-done, conference vampires.
• And now we have Miami-party-agent-gate, in which the very same entities that were chasing filthy lucre just a month or so ago are condemning the young student-athletes who are doing the same thing, even just a little bit.  If chasing money is against the rules, why isn't the University of Texas kicked out of the NCAA?
• OK, let's get off of the subject of what a cynical old curmudgeon I've become lately.  Let's talk about LSU football.  LSU fans seem to be split between those who have given up on Les Miles (some of whom never liked him in the first place) and those who think he will get this thing turned around.  I am firmly in the middle.  I like Les Miles.  I think he is, as far as character goes, probably in the upper percentiles among head coaches at big-time athletic programs, a job which seems to have a high correlation with controlling, angry, vindictive personality types.  Les Miles seems like a genuinely alright guy in a profession in which it is hard to prosper if you're nice.  I would love to see him turn in a great year and get himself off the hotseat for a bit.  I applaud him for the job he did in 2005 (which he never gets due credit for) and in the next two years.   I am forced to conclude, however, that 2008 and 2009 were unsatisfactory and that they were unsatisfactory in part because of decisions he made that did not work out well.  Last year's record was OK, but I think it's fair to say we never looked good at all, and there were games we won in which we were outplayed.  Mississippi State and Louisiana Tech come to mind.  We ended up with a nice record, but we could have and perhaps should have been a 6-6 or 7-5 type team.  We were saved by the fact that the SEC was weak outside of the top 2, so we ended up playing a Georgia team that was not as good as it had been in previous seasons, and we got a couple wins we really didn't earn.  However, all is not lost for Les Miles.  We have a young team this year, and a tough schedule, but we seem to have the nucleus of a terrific team.  The O-line couldn't possibly be worse than it was last year, and if we discover a playmaker or two on the defensive line we could be better on defense than we were last year (and we were pretty solid in that department anyway).  Then if Jordan Jefferson simply develops along a normal learning curve, we are in business.  Or Jefferson could flounder, the offensive line could collapse, and we could have a second straight year with insufficient pass rushing and tank to a miserable 5-7 record, with the obvious result of a house-cleaning in the coaches' offices.
• Tomorrow, I go see Poseur get married.  I am 36 years old, and I've known that guy since I was 19.  In that time, I have only lived in the same geographic region of the country as he has for about 4 years, but he's still one of my very best friends in the world.  I'm glad to be here for this.

Just a few quick notes here that touch on a lot of issues involving recruiting.  As most of you probably know, Joe McKnight has declared himself eligible for the 2010 NFL Draft, after a 3-year college career that he himself admits was only "OK". 

A little retrospective is in order.  The 2007 signing class was considered a recruiting bonanza for LSU, headlined by 5-stars Chad Jones and Terrance Toliver and backed up by over a dozen other players who were considered to be future stars or solid players.  It was supposed to be a class that was destined to win championships.  Players like Drake Nevis, T-Bob Hebert, Jarrett Lee, and others formed the heart of this class and the future was very bright.  Well, the class won a national championship, but in 2007 very few of those players were significant contributors.  Since then, ho-hum. 

The wet blanket thrown on the class was the defection of All-American, consensus top 5 player in the country, Joe McKnight from John Curtis High School.  He was long considered a lean to LSU.  He was going to be the crown jewel of the Class of 2007, a dynamic, highly athletic player who could potentially be an All-American and even a Heisman candidate at any of 3 different positions: running back, wide receiver, or cornerback.  (I still, to this day, believe his best position would have been cornerback, but that's a whole other column).  He was also going to be a game-changing return man.  Books were written focusing (in part) on his recruitment and what it could mean.

For whatever reason, he ended up spurning LSU's advances and went to the University of Southern California, in an apparent bid to replace Reggie Bush, whose college career is the stuff of legend.

What happened with McKnight and the entire class of 2007 illustrate virtually every point about recruiting that can be made.

1.  Recruiting rankings can be very deceptive and should not be taken as gospel truth.  McKnight's career at USC was solid.  He was a legitimate starting running back when he was healthy.  He made a number of big plays, was relied upon heavily, and if not for his lofty expectations entering school, his career at USC would probably be considered successful.  But it wasn't what people hoped.  He was not even close to the game-changing player that a Reggie Bush was and he was never seriously discussed as a Heisman Trophy candidate at any time in his career past the midway point of any given season.  The same can be said of the rest of LSU's Class of 2007.  Terrance Toliver was not the instant impact player that some fans expected, though he became highly productive this year.  Chad Jones has been kind of up-and-down, making a few spectacular plays (including game-changing plays against Mississippi State in 2009 and against Alabama in 2007), but has struggled to be the consistently dominant presence that was promised early. 

As for the rest of the vaunted class of 2007, have any of those players really fairly exceeded expectations?  Maybe Drake Nevis.  OK, Josh Jasper has.  Anyone else?  Joe Barksdale was a blue-chip recruit as a defensive lineman, but was quickly moved to offensive line and has been, like Joe McKnight, OK.  Others, like Jarvis Jones, Ernest McCoy, Kentravis Aubrey, Phelon Jones, Sidell Corley, and others, have left the program for one reason or another.  Some of those were supposed to be big-time recruits.  Granted, it's still somewhat early in the careers of these players, at least of those who remain, but it is fair to say that most of these players, from what was considered a fantastic signing class, are not destined for All-SEC honors, with Nevis, Jones, and Toliver possibly excepted.  One or two others may surprise us as well, but the point remains: don't believe the hype.  Poseur calls it "New Toy Syndrome". 

There are inherent uncertainties in projecting the future careers of young players.  Personally, I think these recruiting services are becoming less accurate year by year.  Each year, it seems that the established powers are getting high recruiting rankings almost by default.  After all if Texas (or USC, or Ohio State, or Alabama, or Florida, or any other big school) wants a player, that player must be something special, right?  Right?  I think the Class of 2007 got a ratings boost because it was LSU, at a time when LSU was perceived to be a powerhouse who wouldn't recruit anyone besides the best.

2.  It is VERY important to pick the low-hanging fruit.  For all of Joe McKnight's disappointment, he sure would have been a useful player for us.  If nothing else, he would have been a better return man than anyone we had on our roster.  For all of Trindon Holliday's press and novelty appeal, his career as a return man was ho-hum, and he was not a big threat to make a huge return.  He made a couple, but McKnight as a return man would have improved LSU in each of the three years he would have been there.  He arguably would have been our best running back as well, or at least would have split those honors with Charles Scott.  While McKnight would have failed to meet expectations at LSU, he would have improved the team.  Losing a guy from our backyard who would have improved the team is a big loss.

And who knows, if someone at LSU could have convinced him to switch to cornerback, it could have improved that phase of the game in 2008 and 2009 and made a huge difference in the fortunes of the team.

It is rare you get an opportunity to showcase both the importance of recruiting and the dangers of overemphasizing the importance of recruiting at the same time. 

Say goodbye to the 2009 season for LSU.  It is over, and I feel like it never really began. 

It just seems like this team never rounded into mid-season form.  It looked like we were playing the college equivalent of NFL preseason exhibition games all season.  By this I mean we seemed to be forever trying to figure out how to get lined up properly, how to get playcalls in, how to get the snap off, how to get our personnel to mesh, etc.

I hate to use this term pejoratively, but the 2009 LSU football team looked amateurish.  I don't mean this as a knock against the players, and in particular I do not mean it as a knock against the seniors.  If there is one man who looked nothing like an amateur all season, it was Brandon Lafell.  Yesterday he again did not look like an amateur, and he will make a fine pro.

Yesterday's game was a microcosm of the season.  The offense spent long stretches being completely ineffective.  At one point I commented that the LSU offensive yardage when Brandon Lafell made a great play was 54 yards, and when he did not make a great play, it was 15 yards.  That was 15 yards in about 15 plays.  The offensive line reverted back to its mid-season form of completely failing to open up holes for the running backs.  Jordan Jefferson's throws were not bad, but were just off-target enough to be difficult for receivers to handle on slick turf with a wet ball.  And when Jefferson delivered a long strike to Terrance Toliver and a second to Rueben Randle, they dropped sure touchdown passes.

An offense I was hoping would be able to show competence in something (anything) did nothing right in the first half.  Meanwhile the defense was doing pretty much the same thing it did all season:  allow several long drives that consume time but only end up with field goals, keeping the team in the game.  It was the Florida game all over again.

The second half was a different story.  After a couple of wasted possessions, including a nearly disastrous turnover that would have clinched the game for Penn State had they been able to convert it to a touchdown from the LSU 22 yard line (but were fortunately held to a field goal), the LSU offense suddenly came alive.  On two straight possessions, we scored touchdowns on impressive looking drives and took the lead 17-16.

Again, the defense gave up a long, time-consuming drive towards the end of the game, allowing Penn State to convert two 3rd downs of 3 and 4 yards and eating up about 6 minutes of the play clock, but again holding Penn State to a field goal.  But this time it was a field goal to take the lead, giving us less than a minute to get into field goal territory to try a game-winner.

Like I said, it became the Ole Miss game.  Our final possession started out promisingly, with Trindon Holliday giving us a nice return to the 41 yard line with 48 seconds remaining. Having used two timeouts to save time on Penn State's final possession, and having wasted a timeout to challenge Stevan Ridley's fumble that was obviously called correctly, we were left with no timeouts. Had we been able to use all 3 of our timeouts on Penn State's last possession, we would have had about 1:25 or so.  Still, 48 seconds is time enough for about 7 plays if you hurry.  With the extremely sloppy field conditions, I estimate we would have needed to get to about the 20 yard line to have a real shot at a field goal, meaning we needed to get about 40 yards. 

On the first play, Jefferson scrambled out of pressure and got 10 yards and out of bounds, taking off 9 seconds.  It took more time than we would have liked, but it was a positive result. 

Then the time-management issues reared their heads again as Jefferson was called upon to throw an inside slip-screen to Brandon Lafell.  This play had worked well twice earlier in the game, each time netting a nice gain.  This time, Lafell found the middle of the field very crowded and was tackled in-bounds after a 4 yard gain, not close to a 1st down needed to stop the clock, and he never had a prayer of getting out of bounds. Enough electrons have given their lives on the internet to describe the sheer folly of this play call, and there is no need to rehash it here.

From that point, the disaster continued as offensive guard Lyle Hitt was called for a personal foul while trying to get a Penn State player off the pile so the refs could get the ball reset and we could continue the game.  The clock was running, and the Penn State player had wisely decided to take his time clearing the pile so the refs could re-set.  After the penalty was stepped off, putting us right back where the drive started, the clock started running again and our players were not in position to run the next play.  Several more seconds ran off the clock while our players got into proper formation and Jefferson waited several more after that to call for the snap.  The slip-screen started with 39 seconds on the clock, and we did not get the next snap off until the clock read :08.  Thirty-one seconds had run.  Jefferson threw an incomplete pass and we were left with 2 seconds on the clock and time to run one more play, needing 60 yards to get to the end zone.  A desperation hook and ladder to Rueben Randle did not succeed and the game ended.  48 seconds, 4 plays.

And Russell Shepard does not appear in the box score.

So, that game had it all:  incompetent offense, incomprehensible play calling, problems getting a play into the game at a crucial time, formation issues, long drives by the opposing team, dynamic players resting on the bench, and no blocking.  There's your 2009 LSU football team in a nutshell.

The only things different were the shamefully bad field and the Big 10 opponent.

To be precise, the end of the game was actually fundamentally different from the Ole Miss game in the details.  Against Ole Miss, the end of the game was marred by a combination of abysmal execution by the execution (poor blocking on the screen to Ridley leading to a 10 yard loss and a poor decision by Jefferson to scramble rather than throw the ball away, leading to another 10 yard loss) combined with an inexplicable passage of time before calling our final timeout ended the game without us running all the plays we could have.  This time, it was purely bad coaching decisions that robbed us of opportunities at the end of the game.  Whoever decided to call an inside screen simply set our team up for disaster.  If the play had worked, it would have been fine, but unlike a play to the sidelines or a play down the field (which would result in a stopped clock if they are unsuccessful), an inside screen in that situation is a catastophe if it fails. 

But in the sense that both games were marred by coaches and players being unable to get out of each other's way and the game ending with us having wasted precious time on poor coaching decisions, it was similar to the Ole Miss game.

via assets.nydailynews.com

Today, LSU plays Penn State, a rare occurrence in the college football universe.  Darn it, I am looking forward to it.  Joe Paterno is one of those names that will forever be associated with college football.  I don't mean, "when you think of Joe Paterno, you think of college football."  I mean it the other way around.  "When you think of college football, you think of Joe Paterno."  OK, that's not ALL you think about.  You think about Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson, Bear Bryant, Bobby Bowden, Bobby Dodd, and about 500 other names that are part of the pantheon of college football.  Paterno is part of that pantheon.  Maybe not Zeus, the head of the Pantheon, but perhaps as important a part of his pantheon as, say, Athena was to her pantheon.

I have a lot of respect for Paterno, and while like most non-Penn State fans, I always hated Penn State, especially when they were winning a lot in my youth, I cannot help but respect their program now that I am past the rash emotional judgments of my youth.  (Woo!  Chad Jones!). 

Anyway, while I am excited about the matchup, I don't know jack about Penn State's football team.  I just know I like that we're playing them.  And I really want to beat them, but I won't be devastated if we don't. 

If I'm looking for anything in particular, I am looking for the offense to do something, anything, well.  I don't mean a nice play or two.  I mean I want our offense to be consistently successful at something.  I almost don't care what it is.

OK, so I have been WAY out of the loop here lately.  Living without home internet makes it very hard to 1) post my thoughts, and 2) do the research necessary to actually have thoughts.  While I have internet at work, it is generally frowned upon to spend large amounts of time surfing the web.  Now, I am on vacation, in Louisiana visiting family, and there are things that must be discussed.  Here are my thoughts on recent goings-on.

1.  Urban Meyers resigns announces he is taking a leave of absence from Florida.  I have always frowned upon the idea of giving advice to or taking advice from fans of rivals.  After all, why should Florida listen to the advice of those who would want to see harm befall them?  It's like when James Carville says something like, "The Republicans would be better off if they would..."  You have to assume the ellipses represent what your enemies would like to see you do.  With that in mind, my advice to the Florida higher-ups is to tell Urban Meyer, "Thanks but no thanks.  We are going to replace you rather than let you sit out a year." 

I just can't see how this leave-of-absence thing is possibly going to work out.  It's like the worst of all worlds.  First, you throw the program into upheaval for one year, but in that year you have built-in uncertainty regarding whether or not Meyer will return.  It will be a distraction for the entire 2010 season.  It will disrupt not one or even two but several recruiting classes, as the class of 2010 will have to deal with a coaching change.  And then the program will have to recruit most of the 2011 class with a cloud hanging over it of whether Meyer returns.  If he does return, each subsequent class will have to ask itself how long Meyer will stick with them.  It's a situation that will only get better when Florida makes a break with Meyer. 

I'm not saying bad-mouth him.  I'm not saying they should disrespect him.  I'm saying they should wish him well but tell him they're going to seek permanence for their program.

2.  Pre-mature post-mortem on LSU's 2009 season.  On one level, and it's a very important level, winning is everything.  However, on a secondary level, how you win says a lot about your prospects for future success.  If you win 7 of your games by 30 points, it suggests you overwhelmed your opponents and will likely do so in the future.  If you pull out some wins in games you were outplayed, well that's great for you, but it's probably not repeatable in future years.  This year, according to the play on the field, I would say that Washington, Mississippi State, Louisiana Tech, and probably Arkansas outplayed us on the field but came up short on the scoreboard.  It is a worrying thought for future seasons.

So, we had a pretty good 2009 season, but my early thoughts on the 2010 season are worried thoughts indeed.  If we play like we played in 2009, we will be fortunate to go bowling at all.  Frankly, it was only through the application of some very timely plays that we aren't staring a Papajohns.com bowl game in the face this season.  Heck, we could very well have ended up outside of the bowl picture entirely.  It's great that we got the W's, but we would be very short-sighted indeed if we did not look at the progression of this team from 2007 to now and not be very concerned about 2010 and 2011.

3.  The Cap One Bowl.  There has been a lot of cynicism about bowl games, and it is not limited to LSU fans.  The fact is that LSU is among the vast majority of Division 1A college football teams that are not satisfied with their bowl destination.  It is a simple fact of life in college football that most bowl games have at least one (and quite possibly two) teams that are disappointed in how their season went and would much rather be somewhere else, like Pasadena. 

Add to this that the BCS seems to have cheapened the other bowl games, and the proliferation of minor bowl games has inundated us with games, leading to bowl game fatigue.

Count me in the minority.  I like the bowl games.  As a fan (and only in my capacity as a fan), I find bowl games exciting and important no matter what game you are playing.  If you're in Shreveport playing a 6-6 team from another conference, I still think you watch it as if it is another regular season game.  I also like seeing other bowl games, but I will admit that the enjoyment is dampened if one or both teams thinks they should be somewhere else.  When you see a game between two teams, even two low-profile teams, that both are excited to be where they are, that is usually a very exciting game.

4.  I still haven't seen much of the basketball team.  I am looking forward to the conference season.  I live with a die-hard Kentucky basketball fan, and she is currently on Cloud 9 as, to my estimation, Kentucky has looked like just about the best team in the country thanks to the play of freshman phenom point guard John Wall, veteran big man Patrick Patterson, and a solid supporting cast including star-in-waiting-if-he-can-stop-fouling Demarcus Cousins. 

I suspect, however, that if this year's Kentucky team falls short, Kentucky fans are going to join a growing chorus of college basketball fans who are disenchanted with one-and-done players.  John Wall is almost certainly among that class of player, and Demarcus Cousins may be as well.  The one-and-done player is like an energy drink.  It feels really good for a while, then it's over.  Once it's over, you realize your long-term interests would probably have been better served if you had not drank the energy drink.  If you haven't gotten it done in that year, then you have lost a year you could have spent developing a player who would stick around for the next year. 

If you win the national championship or make an uncharacteristic run with your one-and-done player, I suppose that is the equivalent of, "I drank the energy drink and was able to stay up all night and finish my paper."  You got the result you needed, but you can't help but think something wasn't right about the whole affair.

As you may imagine, the experience LSU had with Anthony Randolph has left a very bitter taste in my mouth.  We brought in a one-and-done forward, but missed the tournament while enduring story after story of Randolph pouting and sulking.  Despite having a team that was just a year away from winning the SEC and a couple years removed from a Final Four run (so you can't say the supporting cast was awful), a Randolph-full LSU team went nowhere, and then he unceremoniously left.  I can't help but think that Anthony Randolph was a waste of time for us all.

Anyway, I don't have high expectations for this team, but I am cautiously optimistic about this team having a good showing in the conference schedule.  Unless the SEC starts getting a lot more respect nationwide, I just can't see how we can be in the top 2 or 3 in the conference, which would be necessary to get an at-large NCAA bid.  We'll revisit this issue when the conference play gets going.

We're all assuming right now that Gary Crowton is on his way out.  It's one of those situations that has a lot of smoke, with 1) a whole lot of suckitude coming out of our offense this year, and 2) rumors of a genuine rift between Crowton and Miles.

A lot of names have been bounced around as replacements, from Charlie Weis to Steve Kragthorpe to Norm Chow and others.  I don't see a whole lot of point in saying, "I want us to get [insert rising young superstar coach or former unsuccessful head coach who may be looking to get back to what made him so popular in the first place]."  It's just too uncertain at this point, and we don't actually know if there will be an opening.  Assuming there is one, I would have nothing against hiring a Steve Kragthorpe, but I just want to remind everyone that sometimes the big name isn't a very successful hire and sometimes it's better to go with someone who is lesser-known.

In thinking about the OC position, I keep going back to what Alabama did before the 2008 season.  Nick Saban had previously hired rising superstar coach Major Applewhite to be his offensive coordinator.  Applewhite had as much name recognition as any offensive coordinator in the country, but was mainly traveling on his success as a player rather than his accomplishments as a coach.  In 2007, under Major Applewhite, the Bama team had serious offensive deficiencies and limped to a 6-6 regular season.

With Applewhite out of the picture following that season, Saban hired a relatively young, but not super-young, offensive coordinator whose previous experience was at Fresno State.  Jim McIlwain wasn't on anyone's list of hot young coaches looking to move up in the world, but a funny thing happened.  Bama's offense improved.  Part of that was due to an influx of young talent: Mark Ingram, Julio Jones; but quite a lot of it was just due to him figuring out what his veterans like Glen Coffee and John Parker Wilson could do well and having them do it, while playing within their comfort zones, and emphasizing competence over flashiness.

It wasn't a splashy hire, but Bama's offense went from suspect to solid.  Saban went out and hired someone he could work well with and whose offense complemented his attacking style of defense.  It wouldn't surprise me in the least if we tried, consciously or not, to emulate that decision process.

I'm not advocating anyone in particular, and it wouldn't surprise or disappoint me if the person Miles ultimately hires is someone I have not yet heard of.  Personally, the idea I like the best of the ones I've heard is to go get Todd Monken if the Jacksonville Jaguars decide to clean house.  Monken is a former WR coach at LSU and is a very good coach who would probably return to college to take an offensive coordinator position.  I won't be disappointed if it doesn't happen, but I suppose it may.

A win's a win.  I guess we've said that a few times this year.  For a team that was predicted before the season to be 9-3 at the end, this has been a very tumultuous 9-3 team.  It's a team that could well have been 6-6 (near losses to Washington, MSU, and Arkansas).  It could have beaten Ole Miss, and wasn't THAT far away from beating Alabama.  This is a team that, based on its play on the field, could have gone anywhere from 6-6 to 11-1.  9-3 is, I suppose, not that bad under those circumstances.  There will be some thoughts on that later; probably a lot of thoughts from a lot of different writers.  Anyway, a few snap judgments:

• First, the final drive of regular time.  After taking a terrible sack, Jefferson came back and made some nice plays, but the final drive belonged to Stevan Ridley, Josh Jasper, and Derek Helton.  Derek Helton?  The snap on the field goal was terrible, but Helton snagged the high-and-outside pitch and got it down for Jasper to get a clean hit on it.  Tie game.
• Jefferson was maddeningly inconsistent throughout the game, vacillating from stretches of brilliance (our touchdown drives) and strange decision-making/inaccuracy (most of the rest of the game).  This is a kid with the potential to be an excellent quarterback.  He just needs to accentuate the positive while eliminating the negative.  There's a lot of positive to work with there.
• The overtime was a snoozer.  We went 3-and-out kind of pitifully, but got a medium-range field goal.  Arkansas nearly had to try a 45-yarder until they got a nice 8 yard gain on 3rd and 12 to set up a medium-range field goal, but missed it.  Drake Nevis and Lavar Edwards made great plays to set up the 3rd and long that ultimately decided the game.
• Trindon Holliday was the MVP of the first half until he muffed that punt, scoring a special teams touchdown, putting us in good field position multiple times, and running effectively from scrimmage.  Then, after the muff, he completely disappeared.
• Russell Shepard also disappeared after a little early activity.  This is one of the lesser-discussed but most maddening aspects of our suspect offense.  In the second half, we tend to tighten up and not put in the homerun hitters.
• I did not like the helmet-to-helmet call on Chad Jones.  I'm not saying it was technically wrong, but it's been called so infrequently this year that it is surprising to me that it was called on a play where it appeared that Jones at least attempted to lead with his shoulder, and appeared to hit head-to-head only with a glancing blow.  We've seen much worse head-to-head hits go uncalled this year.
• The defensive line got after it in the first half, then disappeared for long stretches in the second.  I don't think it's a coincidence that we did not get a single stop in the second half.  When we stopped getting pressure, Ryan Mallett started hitting receivers.  The decision to constantly go with a 3-man rush in the second half contributed to the problems, even though the 3-man rush had success in the first half.
• The coverage teams were great tonight.  I can't wait to see more of Ryan Baker next year.
• It was good to see Brandon Lafell walk off.  It would have been awful to see such a great Tiger blow a knee in overtime of Game 12 of his senior season.
• The offensive line played pretty well this week.  Losing Ciron Black will hurt, but I think this could be a good unit next year.
• Except for the helmet-to-helmet, I thought the officiating was pretty good tonight. 
  
• The corner opposite Peterson continues to get picked on in every game.  I sure hope that Jai Eugene makes a big leap in his play next year, or that Morris Claiborne is ready to take over.
• With Ole Miss losing, I think we are going to the Cap One, but nothing is official.  Who else would they take at this point?  Ole Miss?  South Carolina?  Tennessee?  Georgia?  We're not exactly a thrilling choice, but those others aren't either.  Actually, it will be really interesting to see how the bowls shake out.  As of press time, Georgia was still playing Georgia Tech.  If they win that one, there will be six, SIX!, teams with 7 wins in the SEC.  Ole Miss, at 8 wins, is the clear choice for Cotton, but the Outback and every bowl on down could go in literally any direction after that.

The defense will be in for a challenge today, as Arkansas's offense (when it works) has a lot of firepower.  When it doesn't, it's kind of inept, but it's worked a lot lately.

Please post remembrances of Matt Jones, houses you've painted, and Thanksgiving dinners past here.

I apologize for disappearing.  I have been busy painting and otherwise preparing a new house to move into.  I've been away from the computer all weekend, for the most part.  Anyway, some quick bullets:

• We were thoroughly outplayed, especially in the second half, and we were darn lucky to be in that game.  If not for some very questionable officiating in the first half, Ole Miss would have scored a touchdown on the interception that led to the blocked field goal returned for a touchdown for LSU.  A 14-point swing would have made that game not very close.
• Jordan Jefferson reverted to his old ways of completely disappearing for a quarter plus.  The third quarter and early part of the 4th quarter for Jefferson were horrid, and our offense ground to a half.  Fortunately, the defense stepped up and managed to keep Ole Miss from scoring for much of that time.
• We've now lost our 3 best running backs to season-ending injury.
• With a 2-point conversion try from the 1 1/2 yard line, I really don't think a fade to Toliver was the best play there.  I'm not saying we necessarily should have run the ball, but the fade did nothing to exploit the advantage we were given by virtue of the penalty taking us 1 1/2 yards closer to the end zone.
• It was the right move to not shut down the offense when we got to the 31 yard line.  College kickers aren't that good, and with an offense that was (at that time) moving the ball and about a minute left to play with 2 timeouts, it was the right move to keep trying to go forward.  
• The big sack was mostly on Jefferson, but partly on the coaches.  He does not have a good feel for the rush, and did exactly what he should not have done.  Instead of stepping up, he stepped right, and Ciron Black had successfully maneuvered his man around where Jefferson should have been, but Jefferson moved right into the path of danger.
• The horrible decision to wait 15 seconds to call our last timeout was indefensible.  The decision to try to spike the ball instead of rushing the field goal unit out was less so.  The field goal unit probably would not have been able to get the snap off.  Unfortunately, the proper thing to do in that situation was probably to try to run a play to the end zone.  There just wasn't time to do anything else, and that's because of that last timeout.  Heck, had we called it immediately, we probably could have run a spike, then a play to the end zone, and THEN kicked the field goal after the big catch by Toliver.

It's been a while since we've had a State of the Blog post, and I know that during the middle of the football season is a poor time to do it, but some things have come up that make it necessary.  The big announcement is that I am taking a step back from the blog, starting in the very near future.

I'm not leaving for good, but I will not be the person making sure that the readers get new content all the time.  After almost 3 years of running a blog as a hobby, I am a little burned out on the day-to-day.  I love following football, but running a blog is kind of like dating a nymphomaniac.  It's really fun... for a while.  Then it's just work.

Some life changes are also contributing to this decision.  Little Miss ATVS is getting a little bit older, and it's getting harder and harder to run this blog without it taking time away from her.  Also, as some of you know, my wife and I are buying a house and are moving.  The place we are moving to, as I learned earlier this week, will not have high speed internet access, so the decision I had been considering for a while became more urgent.

Poseur, Billy, Jrlz, and I will still be posting until further notice.  The other three will probably be posting at the same frequency they're posting now.  I have taken some steps to make sure that someone of skill and ability will take over the day-to-day duties of running the blog, and he will add a fresh new direction as well.  We aren't quite ready to make an announcement as to what that's all about because some loose ends are remaining to be tied.  Hopefully we'll have something for you very soon.

I'll still be occupying this space for the time being, however.  And thanks to everyone who has helped make this a successful blog and has helped make this a lot of fun, which includes but is not limited to you the reader.

There were a few nice games in Week 11 around the SEC.  Mark Ingram rushed for 149 yards and 2 touchdowns in an easy win over Mississippi State.  Tim Tebow had 8.0 yards per pass attempt to complement a solid running game and Riley Cooper went over 100 yards receiving as Florida beat South Carolina.  Likewise Joe Cox complimented a solid running effort with over 10 yards per pass attempt without an interception and with one touchdown as Georgia won a tight one over Auburn.  Derek Locke had 150 total yards as Kentucky beat Vandy.

But clearly, obviously, the player of the week in the SEC last Saturday was Ole Miss do-everything guy Dexter McCluster.  He scored 4 touchdowns, and ran for 282 yards, and even found time to catch 4 passes for 42 yards.  He scored Ole Miss's first 3 touchdowns of the game on runs of 15, 23, and 32 yards, the last of which gave Ole Miss the lead for good.  His last touchdown put the game out of reach, 35-17, on a spectacular 71 yard run.  YouTube to follow:

Continue reading this post »

Last year, I was not a big fan of Dexter McCluster.  I thought he was only so-so; that he fumbled in key situations; that he was predictable.  I thought that Ole Miss's offense ran better when they let Jevan Snead do his thing.  Not this year.  If you were making up a list of offensive players of the year in the SEC, this list would not have to be very long to get to McCluster.  Let's see.  Ingram, McCluster, Green, Tate.  Am I missing anyone?  See, you don't have to go very far at all, and Jevan Snead is not on that list.

McCluster's last 3 games in which he played any appreciable time (he mostly sat out two weeks ago against Northern Arizona), he has rushed for 123, 186, 282.  He has received for 137, 17, and 42.  He's scored 6 touchdowns in that time.

Meanwhile, Jevan Snead, who was one of the Big 3 quarterbacks in the conference before the season started, is not in the top 10 in the conference in passer rating.

To be honest, we don't really match up very well against this Ole Miss team.  We struggled last week to catch and tackle small, shifty running backs, and McCluster is the smallest, shiftiest around.  Jevan Snead can be taken off his game with a strong pass rush, but we don't really bring a strong pass rush very often.  I wish I could say more, but that's about it.  

Jevan Snead's favorite target is Shay Hodge, who I think is a terrific player.  He's had three 100-yard receiving games this year.  He's not a speedster, but he gets open and catches everything.  I don't know if he's the kind of receiver who will get the dreaded Peterson Shadow, but maybe he should.

Defensively, Ole Miss is a surprisingly good team, 4th in scoring defense, 5th in total defense, 3rd in passing efficiency defense, 3rd in sacks, 3rd in 1st downs against, 1st in 3rd down defense.  They do it with a defensive line that gets after it, though they are now missing Greg Hardy who is their best defensive player, though he's been limited for weeks before he was finally finished for the year.  They've mostly done it without Greg Hardy all year.  Jerrell Powe and Kentrell Lockett headline this group, and they can both play.

The key is that our defense will have to step up and defend against McCluster.  If we can keep Dexter McCluster from running all over the place, we will have a very good chance of winning.  If we can get a pass rush on Snead, we can take him out of his rhythm.  Expect to see a lot of blitzing on passing downs, but blitzing is dangerous with McCluster back there.  They could very well give him the ball on 3rd and 8, and if there is a blitz, he could be gone upon getting through the first level.  

On offense, we will have to stay out of 3rd and long situations.  Ole Miss is a very good 3rd down team, and their defensive line can bring a lot of pressure.  I would mix a lot of run and pass on 1st and 2nd downs, trying to be unpredictable but at the same time having a logic to the plan that is often lacking in our offense.  Our offensive line has been a lot better of late, and we will need that to continue, so we can avoid negative plays.

I will really be looking to see if we can ramp up the intensity level, or if the La Tech game was a sign of things to come.  Really, I expect us to come out a lot stronger this game than we did last week.

This is an abbreviated preview today, because time is an issue for me this morning.  I'll be back with more later.

Let me get some things out of the way here.  I think Les Miles, who I thought was on the warm seat earlier this year, I think that barring an absolutely catastrophic collapse where we are not competitive against either Ole Miss or Arkansas, he has clearly earned next year.  

However, given our performance in our win against Louisiana Tech, a catastrophic collapse is not exactly impossible.  I'm not talking about merely losing.  Losing happens.  These teams are pretty good, and we are only pretty good ourselves.  Losing both games is entirely possible, but merely losing would only crank up the heat a little bit and make 2010 do-or-die.  It wouldn't get the water boiling.  I'm talking about 35-10 losses where we don't play close to the level of competition and look flat and uninspired (like we did on Saturday).  That would maybe, possibly lead to a change at the top, but even then I am not so sure.

I certainly don't want it, and I really don't expect it.  I think we are going to be a much better team this Saturday than we were last Saturday.

I do, however, believe that it is time for a change of offensive philosophy.  I watch college football games and I see other teams run a play where everyone is perfectly positioned to block someone and open a lane for someone with the ball.  I see passing routes run with perfect timing and precision.  I see elaborate plays (a couple of them) run beautifully.  I hear announcers say, "That was a beautifully designed play, and well-executed by the [mascots]."  I never hear that said about LSU.

The last time I remember a "beautifully designed play" that was well-executed was when Matt Flynn hit Richard Dickson on a "tackle-eligible" or unbalanced line pass play in the BCSNCG two years ago.  That was a heck of a play, and Gary Crowton deserves not-a-little-bit of credit for our 2007 national championship, but it's clear that things have been regressing offensively since then.

In 2007, we never adjusted to Jarrett Lee's problems throwing the ball, and to make matters worse it seemed like whenever something bad would happen on the field, Lee would go sit on the bench by himself and get no instruction or no encouragement from any coach.  He would just sit and wallow in misery.  

And this year, the numbers tell the tale.  We have future NFL players at WR#1, WR#2, WR#3, running back, tight end, and offensive tackle, and we have what I think is a reasonably solid college quarterback, yet we are 11th in the SEC in total offense.  9th in scoring offense.  10th in rushing offense.  9th in passing offense.  We have one of the worst offenses in the conference despite having among the best skill-position talent and an offensive line that Miles says is his most talented ever.

I think the root cause of this is our desire to run anything and everything at any time.  I feel like a broken record for saying this so much lately, but I think that we run so many different and disparate things that we can't possibly run all of it well.  Not only can we not possibly run all of it well, we're not running any of it well.

I am tempted to say, "Well, let's let Miles just rein in Crowton," but that would be like buying a Miata and asking it to haul lumber for you.  Gary Crowton cannot be Joe Paterno, because that's not Crowton's game.  Crowton is wide open, throw everything at you all the time.  If you want something different from that, you want someone besides Crowton.  Personally, I think his type of game would play better in the NFL, where offenses have enough practice time to get good at everything.  Meanwhile, his multi-set offense becomes a hindrance in college.

Escape.  Sweet, sweet, escape.  What an absolute dud of a football game.  here are teh snap judgments:

• The team as a whole was flat.  The defense would play well for a couple of plays at a time, but could never sustain it.  They'd lose focus for a play and give up 10 or 15 yards on a screen or a misdirection.  Other plays, we would dominate their line and make a tackle for a loss or no gain.  It was quite frustrating how we would beat them badly two plays in a row only to see them get a first down to keep a drive going on the third.  Hat tip to uberschuck in the comment thread for pointing that out.
• Derek Dooley brought a good game plan to Baton Rouge.  He didn't have much in the way of players, as much of his lineup was out due to injury, but he made the most of what he had, getting his little backs out into space and taking advantage of our aggressiveness with draws, misdirection, screens, etc. 
  
• Defensively, Louisiana Tech just let us beat ourselves.  Jarrett Lee got the start and did not play well.  He was 7 of 22 for 104 yards and a touchdown.  There were no interceptions, but Louisiana Tech was close on about 3.  This Lee was not the same as the Jarrett Lee of last year.  The 2008 version of Jarrett Lee struggled with interceptions, but also made plays.  He tried hard to get the ball to the receivers and ran into trouble when he'd try too hard or would lock in too much.  This version of Jarrett Lee seemed scared to put the ball anywhere near a defender and shied away from taking hits.  It wasn't the same quarterback, and it wasn't a quarterback showing growth.  It was a quarterback who, much like our entire offense earlier in the season, seemed so scared of making a catastrophic error that he wouldn't try to make a play.  He wouldn't try to squeeze a ball through a hole to a receiver.  He wouldn't try to wait for a play.  While we've complained about Jefferson not throwing the ball away, Lee would give up on a play too quickly.  It was frustrating and painful to watch.
• While Gary Crowton was busy trying to get an ineffective Jarrett Lee into the game, he was overlooking Keiland Williams, who finished the game with 116 yards on 15 carries, and he scored both of our touchdowns on short runs.  He had a great game, and needed to get probaby 6 or 7 more touches than he got.
• At one point, with LSU holding onto a lead, Crowton called 6 consecutive passing plays, resulting in two consecutive 3-and-out possessions.
• This was probably as good of a game as our defensive line has played this season.  They made play after play, both in the passing game and in the running game.  A large percentage of La Tech plays went for 0 or negative yards.  And a large percentage went for big yardage.  C'est la vie.
• Brandon Lafell continues to be a great player.
• This is a team that really needs Jordan Jefferson back.  I am surprised to find myself saying that, as I was seriously wondering earlier this year if we wouldn't be better off with Lee under center.
• Russell Shepard continues to look like a star in the making.
• We did not get an interception (there were no turnovers in the game for either team as a matter of fact), ending our streak of games with an interception, going back to last season.
• La Tech's running backs were similar to what we're going to see with Dexter McCluster next week.  We will have to figure out how to catch and tackle a small, shifty back.
• Let's not forget, the game was a win.  Our 8th of the season, in fact, beating our regular season total for last year, with two more winnable games remaining.  Now we just have to win them.

Stevan Ridley.  Jarrett Lee.  Derek Dooley.  Phillip Livas.  Any other storylines today? 

Please post your remembrances of some really good women's basketball teams from the 1980s here.

All the talk of cheatin' refs and thuggin' Vols has, in the words of commenter The Bengal, done the following:

The result, though, is that between Interceptiongate and the new Knoxville Crime Syndicate, we’ve not really talked about the fact that Jarrett Lee is going to get his first start in a year, Russell Shepard may throw his first pass, and Stevan Ridley could have a big breakout game tomorrow night. The La Tech game has quietly developed some interesting aspects while all the rest of this stuff has been happening.

So, um... yeah.  All that stuff is happening, and I have completely failed to pay attention.  In between episodes of the college football soap opera, some actual college football will be played.  It's like the new style of professional wrestling, where very little grappling in the squared circle happens, and a whole lot of jawin' into the microphone happens.

Anyway, Jarrett Lee.  He's probably going to be starting at quarterback for us tomorrow.  I think Jarrett Lee gets a bad rap for what happened last year.  I think this for a number of reasons:

• Despite the very high profile interceptions that get all the attention, lost in the shuffle of all of that was the fact that Jarrett Lee was actually pretty productive most of the time.  He threw interceptions, but he also threw touchdown passes and got a lot of yards.  In terms of passer ratings and ATVSQBPIs, he was a mid-pack SEC quarterback last year, in a year where there was a lot of garbage in the conference.
• Despite all of the interceptions, you can really only point to one game in 2008 in which poor quarterback play clearly was the deciding factor: the Bama game.  By this time, his psyche was in the toilet.  On the other hand, solid play by him probably made the difference against Auburn and South Carolina.
• Like Gary Danielson, I believe Lee's problem was more that he was relied upon too early in his career rather than a talent deficiency.  If Jarrett Lee had spent another year holding a clipboard, I think he would have ended up being a very good player.
• I think Lee suffered a lot when Andrew Hatch got hurt.  Lee seemed to benefit from a two-quarterback system, and getting a chance to watch from the sidelines every so often.  I think the combination of Lee and Hatch was better than the sum of its parts, and when Hatch got hurt, Lee lost a lot of confidence.

Anyway, we're probably going to see a lot of him tomorrow.  Good luck young Mr. Lee.

I am, as many of you know, a criminal defense attorney (and a divorce attorney, and a juvenile attorney, etc., etc.; general practitioners do a lot of things).  The vast majority of criminals and other people who need defense attorneys are not malicious thugs.  Most of them are just stupid, or temporarily stupid, and mean no actual harm to anyone.  You don't necessarily want to be good buddies with most of them, unless you like having lots of drama in your life, but for the most part the people who occupy our jails and prisons are better described a "ignorant" than "mean".  

This is not to say that there aren't exceptions.  There are plenty of genuinely malevolent people in this world, but even in the world of criminal defense, these people are fairly rare.

Which brings us to the case of the State of Tennessee vs. Mike Edwards, Nu'Keese Richardson, and Janzen Jackson.  It appears that new details have emerged in the alleged armed robbery, and these new details seem to paint the whole affair as more "childish prank" of the unfathomably stupid variety rather than "gangland robbery" of the dangerous variety.  

This does not excuse this type of behavior.  Indeed, people will sometimes get gravely hurt in situations in which no one was ever meant to get hurt.  It puts the whole situation in context.  In reading this account, one wonders if the football player who held the gun even intended it to be an actual robbery, or if he was just playing a late-teenage version of Cops And Robbers without realizing that if you do that at night at a convenience store, not everyone will realize you're playing a game.

Indeed the individuals who were probably in the most actual danger were the players themselves.

Then there is the story of Janzen Jackson, who witnesses say was actually in the store while the pellet gun was being waved around outside, and may not have even known what the other player was up to.  That would make him possibly only "guilty by association" which in legal terms is another way of saying "not guilty."

You would be amazed how many people do something that ends up with them sitting in jail, without ever realizing or intending for their actions to be so serious.