Florida's recent successes is causing them problems. Winning championships can bring in the big time recruits, but it also can ship out your big time assistant coaches. Dan Mullen, UF's offensive coordinator this year, recently took a job as head coach of Miss St.

So?, you ask. Bo Pelini left after our BCSNC to be the head coach of Nebraska.

What's the big deal?

Well, Florida is also losing their offensive line coach John Hevesy, and may be losing their cornerback coach (Vance Bedford) and their safties coach (Chuck Heater). In addtion, Charlie Strong wants to be a head coach somewhere. Probably wont leave this year, but after that chances are he does. 

USC restocks after losing their coordinators year after year. Right? Why can't Florida? They might. Who knows, but this problem is why I really like what Coach Miles has done with his staff and why I'm more worried about Bama than Florida.

Coach Miles has hired a OC and  DC that want to be just that. Cordinators not head coaches. If we win another BCS national championship, Chavis and Crowton may go somewhere, but probably not. Chavis is a lifer at DC and Crowton has tried the head coaching thing twice already. 

If Florida starts hemoriging position coaches and has more turnover at DC and OC, it will hurt them. There is too much parity in the SEC teams and not enough supply of top tier asst coaches to just continue to backfill your lost coaches with guys of equal caliber.  

My prediciton is they will lose many coaches over the next couple years and will regress as a whole. They will become victims of their success, but unlike USC, they will actually have some championships to look back on.

Im not sure if I was seeing things but Im pretty sure that there was a guy in a white collared shirt with a camcorder being held about waist high. Did anyone else notice this? 

Are there legitimate reasons for them having one? Perhaps there are and Im paranoid. After Spygate, Im a little sensitive to the subject.

I didnt tivo the game. So, Im not sure where it was in the game, but I think they were doing a shot of Urban Meyer on the sidelines and the guy with the camcorder was behind him.

I dont think either fan base is too too excited this morning, but uga was the better team yesterday. You'll hear some of our fans complain about the refs, but at the end of the day you guys deserved to win. With a depleted roster due to injuries, you guys still outplayed us. 

Couple thoughts:

This has been a fun rivalry. The teams always put on a good show, and there just isn't the hate and vitriol like most college football rivalries. 

Stafford is dam good. He throws the ball so hard, it doesnt arch. Flies like a frisbee.

Richt is a very classy coach. You can tell that its not about him out there. Just doesnt seem to have the ego like a lot of the big time coaches. I really like that guy. 

Uggaa (however you spell it), I have to admit, is probably the coolest mascot in college football. 

Till next time. 

we talked the talk and you walked the walk. 

Hats off to your off and def lines. They played very well all night. Stopping our run, put lots of pressure on our qb. Gave Tebow time. Opened up some good holes. 

Tebow as always against us was nearly perfect. Great great kid. 

your skill position players are just ridiculous. Demps/Rainey are going to be an all stars for years.

Meyer used his offensive genius to perfection. 

Well done guys. Till next year.. or the sec championship (the only thing worse might be putting demps and co on turf)

Urban Meyer is an offensive guy a spread guy. Miles was an offensive lineman. This seems to shape their strategy’s in recruiting.

I was reading that Urban Meyer wants to have “the fastest team in america”, and was talking up how 12 players on his team can run the 40 in 4.4 or less.

I think that Miles is quietly going after the biggest and deepest lines in america.

Look at this!

2006 
Matt Allen OL 6-3 285
Phil Loadholt OL 6-9 345
Jacob O’Hair OL 6-1 250
Steven Singleton OL 6-3 285
Mark Snyder OL 6-7 270 
Zhamal Thomas OL 6-4 335
Lazarius Levingston DE 6-4 265
Charles Deas DT 6-4 315
Al Woods DT 6-4 329

2007
Josh Dworaczyk OL 6-5 263
T-Bob Hebert OL 6-3 256
Jarvis Jones OL 6-7 250 (kicked off team) 
Ernest McCoy OL 6-5 330
Kentravis Aubrey DE 6-3 285
Sidell Corley DE 6-4 250 
Joseph Barksdale DT 6-6 323 (now an OT) 
Will Blackwell DT 6-4 296
Drake Nevis DT 6-1 281

2008 
Cordian Hagans OL 6-5 300
Alex Hurst OL 6-6 312
P.J. Lonergan OL 6-4 288
Thomas Parsons OL 6-6 270
Greg Shaw OL 6-5 267
Clay Spencer OL 6-5 285
Chase Clement DE 6-5 241
Lavar Edwards DE 6-4 300
Chancey Aghayere DT 6-4 244

2009 (and counting) 
Carneal Ainsworth OL 6-4 296
Chris Faulk OL 6-6 310
Stavion Lowe OL 6-5 294
Josh Williford OL 6-7 345
Michael Brockers DE 6-6 255
Chris Davenport DT 6-4 318
 Josh Downs DT 6-1 275

In the past three years he has taken somewhere from 4 to 6 offensive lineman per class. Granted some of these guys (especially from 2006) never made it to lsu, were a bust, or transferred, 4-6 a year is a lot. Especially considering he got Herman Johnson, Brett Helms, and Ryan Miller in 2004 and Ciron Black and Lyle Hitt (converted from DT) in 2005. The number of dline recruits are high as well considering Dorsey, Favorite, and Wroten were all recruited in 2004. (I concede in hindsight it is easier to say this because, when a Dorsey or Ciron were recruited, the coaches didnt know exactly what they were going to get out them.)

Some of them dont seem that big, but this is their weight coming out of high school. LSU and Moffitt mutate this good sized lineman into monsters in about 18 months of signing.

LSU and Florida will always have plenty of speed at the skill positions and good size on their lines whether it is sought out out or not. If you are being intentional in designing your teams identity I think building big dominating lines is a better bet to go with than building ultra high speed at the skill positions.

Why?

A dominant oline with a strong runner will control the clock and wont allow the speedsters time to do their damage. It will also open things up for your passing game. A dominant dline (most important in my opinion) will stop their running game and will disrupt their passing game.

Obviously, this is a “both and” situation not an “either or”. You’d rather have the biggest lines AND the fastest players. Miles and Meyer are both trying to achieve that. There are the “no crap” recruits, the tall fast recievers, or the big strong lineman that every coach goes after regardless of what they have already, but then there are the “discretionary” recruits. A discretionary recruit is one where you dont have a need per say but would like to build strength in an area. Lets say you have one remaining scholarship and you are pretty good at lets say oline and reciever. There are two good but not great recruits and one is a lineman and one is a fast little reciever. It looks like Miles would use his discretinary recruit for the lineman while Meyer might aim for the reciever.

We’ll see who bet correctly come saturday.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/gene_menez/09/29/heisman.watch/index.html

Who would have guessed this last year?

Nobody.

This is why I love college football. It is so stinking unpredictable.

Scott's averaging over 130 yards a game, and he's not a real home run threat. Don't get me wrong, he's had some long runs, but he's not getting the bulk of his yards off one 70 yard run and then having twenty 2-3 yard runs. Plus he is sharing carries with two sometimes three other backs. The others aren't getting lots of carries, but nevertheless he is sharing.

And I think a nickname a la Marion "the barbarian" Barber might be in order for Scott. He needs some big collisions first, then we can give him one.

Considering who he is up against, I dont think its out of the question for him to win. Chase Daniels will have to have some bad games because he looks like the clear favorite right now. Colt McCoy is coming on strong as well. Had no idea how fast that guy was.

After watching the game again, I saw a couple things of note.

Im not that impressed with Al Woods. He was a big big recruit coming out of high school and he is just not very dominant. Given his body type and the hype about his abilities, he should be of the Albert Haynesworth type of DT that just cant be stopped with one Olineman. Quite the contrary. I dont know if he's lazy, but the guy just doesnt do much and gets pushed back a fair amount.

Drake Nevis is an animal. Non stop motor. That guy is super quick , gets the Olineman all out of position and makes good penetration. Not an overpowering guy, but strong enough. Reminds me of Dorsey just not as strong. (And doesnt have the awesome bushwacker sack dance.)

Charles Alexander is just an immovable rock. He got rolled up on by Al Woods but actually came back in in the second quarter and played a series. Was noticeably not 100% and came out until the goalline plays in the fourth quarter. I think it was his better knee that got rolled up on. Not sure if that is better or worse.

Marlon Favorite is alright in most categories. Not weak not super strong. Not quick not slow. Just a pretty good backup to have in the rotation. Dont expect too much from this guy.

Rahim Alem - seems quick. The thing I noticed is that he losses contain and Miss St succesfully ran off tackle to his side a few times. Doesnt have great strength.

Tyson Jackson is hot or cold with me. He is either throwing someone around or he is not really doing much. Im not really sure why he is considered a 1st rounder. It would probably benefit him to lose 10-15 pounds and gain some quickness because he seems a little on the slow side. reminds me of charles grant a little.

Pittman - see alem

RJF - all out badass. Super strong and fast

A non d line thing of note was this stupid pass to the running back that we couldnt seem to stop. Here is how they set up. (In this play, I think we are in man coverage.)

                                                                                        CT                                                                                       

                                          PR            KS                               JE         CJ           CH

                              HC    KP     MF    AW      TJ                               

                               TE   OT   OG   C   OG   OT                    WR         WR        WR           

                                                  QB

                                                RB

Note: Coleman picks up the tight end here and Perry Riley picks up the running back. (coleman is further off the line of scrimmage than depicted here, but not as far back as PR) What Miss St kept doing was releasing the TE upfield and the RB in the flats to the left. HC and the TE would end up setting a pick on Perry Riley before he could get to the RB who would then get the pass to the left (weak side). They did this or a variation of this over and over. What Im nervous about is that if the rb is harvin and he gets a step on riley. Game over.                     

After watching the 81 yard play against the niners on nfl.com, I have to say congrats to ol devery. He's looked a lot better than I thought he would. He's catching a lot better and his confidence just seems higher.

Was pretty suprised to see he got caught from behind until I looked up who caught him. Then I was suprised that he got as much seperation as he did. The guy was Nate Clememts. Ran a low 4.3 in the 40. Looks like devery lost a lot of speed as he caught the ball and then started looking to the side as Nate dove and caught his heel. 

Nevertheless, with that kind of deep threat not dropping the ball, and Mecheam. These corners are going to have to have saftey help. If a guy that ran a low 4.3 got roasted, no one is going to leave their cbs on a island with DH. 

With the safties playing back, the underneath passes to Colston and Shockey should open up. Not to mention short swing passes to bush and runs for DM and PT.

Its amazing what happens when ol devery starts catching the ball. Payton might have blown two games with not playing deuce, but looks like he may have made the right call with keeping DH.

Granted the guy had some pretty serious surgery to his knee, this guy used to be a Pro Bowler when he played for us out of Ohio State. Apparently he thinks he is worth his pre injurty salary. So, that is probably a problem.. but our offensive line doesnt seem to be overwhelming anyone recently. If anything, we could add some depth at center.

Here are a couple articles.

http://www.dawgsbynature.com/2008/6/14/552206/solid-assessment-of-bentle

http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/2008/06/terrys_talkin_about_bentleys_d.html

<!-- TOKEN_1219870088372_TOKEN -->

<!-- TOKEN_1219869775126_TOKEN -->

Continue reading this post »

For out of state guys like me, will ESPN Gameday help me see LSU games that aren't on CBS? I've tried looking at schedules and what not but cant seem to figure this out. I probably dont want to drop $100 for one game (nor will I be able to have much of an argument when I propose it to the wife) but if I can get 2 hopefully 3 games out of it, I think I'll get it. Any thoughts?

I think we all know who the fastest player on the team is. Although it is interesting that there was a 40 yard race at Florida ,and their 100 m track star, Jeff Demps, lost. Jeff is just as fast as Trindon Holiday. He ran a 10.01 in the olympic trials.. and he just graduated high school. 

Anyway. I think we would obviously put Trindon Holiday at the top of the list and then maybe Demetrius Byrd, Richard Murphy, Chad Jones...?

Found this on: http://texastailwind.wordpress.com/category/lsu-football/

its pretty hilarious

TigerBait! . . . and little known facts about Jacob Hester

January 7, 2008<!-- by Ben --> · 1 Comment

I’ve already written about the big game, but tonight is the night. I’m nervous, but sticking with my prediction of LSU winning . . . 34-24. In honor of my favorite current Tiger, RB Jacob Hester, I’m going to steal a few ideas from timtebowfacts.com and give you some Jacob Hester facts:

• When you open a can of whoop ass . . . Jacob Hester jumps out. 
• Jacob Hester’s house has no doors . . . only the walls he walks through.
• Jacob Hester won the Tour de France on a unicycle.
• Jacob Hester knows the EXACT location of Carmen SanDiego.
• Jacob Hester can touch MC Hammer.
• Jacob Hester grinds his coffee with his own teeth and then boils the water with his rage.
• Jacob Hester has the greatest Poker-Face of all time. He won the 1983 World Series of Poker, despite holding only a Joker, a Get out of Jail Free Monopoly card, a 2 of clubs, 7 of spades and a green #4 card from the game UNO.
• If you Google search ‘Jacob Hester getting his ass kicked’ you will generate zero results. It just doesn’t happen.
• The show Survivor had the original premise of putting people on an island with Jacob Hester. There were no survivors, and nobody is brave enough to go to the island to retrieve the footage.
• Terry Tate looks over his shoulder in offices for Jacob Hester.
• There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Jacob Hester lives in Louisiana.
• Jacob Hester has counted to infinity…. twice.
• It takes Jacob Hester 17 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.
• Jacob Hester ordered a Big Mac at Burger King . . . and got one.
• They say Jacob Hester bleeds “purple and gold”. They are wrong . . . Jacob Hester doesn’t bleed.

GEAUX TIGERS!