I grew up mostly in Ohio and though I never considered myself a fan, I followed Ohio State football in the 80s and 90s. They had a coach, John Cooper, who recruited some of the most amazing talent the Buckeyes had ever seen while he was there. Just off the top of my head: Eddie George, Terry Glenn, Joey Galloway, Orlando Pace, Dan Wilkinson, Andy Katzenmoyer, Robert Smith, David Boston...... Those teams would STOMP anyone ranked outside of the Top 15 but something strange would happen if a game entered the 4th quarter and the Bucks were either losing, tied or up by less than a touchdown. The coach looked confused, less sure of himself and the players. They almost always did something stupid and blew the game, ESPECIALLY against Michigan which is inexcusable in Ohio. He would have been fired five or six years into his tenure but for the fact that they alway posted records like 9-2, 8-3 and kept bringing in blue chip talent. Basically, when a big game came up, you never knew which Buckeye team would show up. The good, dominant one, or the timid, mistake-prone one. That kind of smells like what we have brewing in Baton Rouge right now.
We'll know much more about how Miles will fare at LSU next year. All the big SEC games are at home. We'll be transitioning from Saban's recruits to his recruits. We expect to be playing in the SECCG. IMO, next year is a critical year for Miles...
you're exactly right. while people may be able to draw conclusions upon similarities between this that and the other, the fact is that only us and auburn have this ridiculous odd/even year schedule. like i've been saying to people, everyone expected us to lose 2-3 games this year so i don't see what the big deal is with thinking the program is slipping. what even numbered year did saban only lose 1-2 games in? exactly.
Also, Mack Brown was continously harrassed for "not winning the big ones" until last year. But, gosh darn, they kept him around because he was winning 10 games a season, just not the big one. If we could win 9-10 games year in and year out, I'm happy. I want us to be competitive, but we have to be realistic in our expectations. NC are few and far between.
