More photos » by Mel Evans - AP

25 days ago: FILE - In this Dec. 4, 2008, file photo, Louisville football coach Steve Kragthorpe watches his team before an NCAA college football game against Rutgers, in Piscataway, N.J. Louisville fired Kragthorpe after finishing the year at 4-8, the school's worst season in more than a decade. (AP Photo/Mel Evans,file)

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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.

More photos » by Bill Haber - AP

25 days ago: LSU running back Trindon Holliday (8) runs past Arkansas cornerback Ramon Broadway (26) in the first half of an NCAA college football game in Baton Rouge, La., Saturday, Nov. 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)

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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.