I'm not sure I understand. When did Ball State, Rice, East Carolina, Buffalo, etc finish first in the BCS in order to drop thirty one places the next year?

Well this hire fell through but don't go jumping out the window just yet. Things are gonna be just fine.

Imagine what it would be like being an Auburn or a Miss St fan right now... no head coach. Even worse, imagine being a ND fan, knowing that they are letting Weis come back for one more season.

Basically it is a whole series by the Seattle Times on criminal misconduct of Washington football players and how the university and community institutions failed to hold them accountable.

During the 2000 season, at least a dozen players were arrested or charged with a crime that carried possible jail time. At least a dozen others on that team got in trouble with the law in other seasons.

Crimes included: rape, robbery, shooting a drug-dealer, beating up a female (choking, cutting, breaking bones), auto theft, helping a friend beat up another man, another guy beating a man so badly that he need dental surgery, etc.

Nice to see they came to LSU to find somebody to right the ship:

When Mark Emmert became president in 2004, he replace their athletic director with a guy from Vanderbilt "to restore integrity to UW athletics."

Emmert: "It's not a success if you win a championship and have a large portion of the team arrested for poor behavior. That's not a success."


Here at LSU, we all know about RP getting kicked off the team.

Other players we kicked off the team in 2007 include:

junior LB Derrick Odom (arrested for criminal damage to property) -- he was the #7 OLB recruit in the nation by Rivals, as well as a member of the Rivals 100 best overall recruits in the nation.

freshman offensive lineman Zhamal Thomas (arrested for simple burglary and identity theft) -- he was the #12 OG recruit in the nation by Rivals

freshman defensive back Troy Giddens (arrested for simple burglary and identity theft) -- #22 safety recruit in the nation by Scout

sophomore offensive lineman Kyle Anderson (arrested for second-degree battery after getting into a fight at a popular campus hangout) -- he was the #25 TE recruit in the nation by Rivals

junior LB Jeremy Benton -- walk-on

Les Miles: “There is a standard that we insist upon with members of our football team when representing this university, our community and the state of Louisiana,” coach Les Miles said in a statement. “When that standard isn’t met some adjustments must be made.”

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2843258

I read that article last year. Pretty scathing. It certainly makes one not feel the least bit sorry for what's happened to UW. Of course, that was under another athletic administration, but still. Makes you wonder why the hell Rick was hired by UCLA.

Well to be fair Saban never had a defense as bad as we witnessed this year.

I count 25 teams ahead of :lsup: that we would likely beat.

Statistically, both 2000 and 2001 were worse. The 2001 team gave up 400 yards a game. They were BAD.

I doubt the offenses in those years were as bad as the ones we faced this year.
Florida of course has a great offense but otherwise we faced some really bad ones and still could'nt stop anybody.

2008 Opponents Offense (limited to SEC teams for consistency):

Auburn: 302 yds/gm
MSU: 274 yds/gm
Florida: 442 yds/gm
USC: 316 yds/gm
UGA: 433 yds/gm
Alabama: 367 yds/gm
OM: 398 yds/gm
Arkansas: 373 yds/gm

Average: 363 yds/gm

2000 Opponents Offense (limited to SEC teams for consistency):

Auburn: 356 yds/gm
Tennessee: 373 yds/gm
Florida: 418 yds/gm
Kentucky: 445 yds/gm (led the SEC, and we shut them out)
MSU: 386 yds/gm
Alabama: 309 yds/gm
OM: 347 yds/gm
Arkansas: 324 yds/gm

Average: 369 yds/gm

2001 Opponents Offense (limited to SEC teams for consistency):

Tennessee: 402 yds/gm
Florida: 527 yds/gm
Kentucky: 382 yds/gm
MSU: 343 yds/gm
OM: 415 yds/gm
Alabama: 409 yds/gm
Arkansas: 323 yds/gm
Auburn: 358 yds/gm

Average: 394 yds/gm

So you are right, the offenses were better, especially in 2001. Interesting that we won the SEC that year with our worst defense of the decade. Josh Reed is probably still wide open, though.