I have a question... In basketball when you have young players and lose the team is too young. I've never heard this referred to in a football game but I think our team and coaches are too young to win. LOL, using some logic from some that seem to like to use this excuse. I've never believed that a team could be too young to be good. I actually think this is the excuse used exclusively for college basketball for some reason.
well at least you acknowledged coaching was PART of the problem. Some on here have their head in the sand regarding Miles.
I wasn't shocked at all - I invite it from everyone who wants to make this about coaching errors. This forum used to be the one that stood out because intelligent posters made non-emotional, analytical observations. Now it's the same as all the other boards where folks who love LSU but don't know football come to bitch. And you know better than that too.
Hmmm... Ok, here's one for you: who's to blame when a player doesn't perform: the player or the coach? Is the player capable of playing the position well? If so, then he either hasn't been coached well or has discipline issues. Both are linked to quality of coaching. If the player isn't capable of playing the position well, then isn't it the coach's responsibility for having them out there? The coach made an error in judgement by leaving a better player on the bench. Or maybe the player on the field was the best available, just not up to the job, in which case it's a recruiting issue (which I'll leave out for now, mostly cuz LSU doesn't have many recruting probs). Anyway, I agree that this loss wasn't all on coaching, but to think that Les Miles & Co. shouldn't shoulder most of the blame is irresponsible. Special teams screw ups (muffed punt), bad snaps (on the 1 friggin yard line no less) and penalties are results of poor discipline and preparation, which is entirely the coaching staff's fault. I personally think Russell is a lousy (yet talented) quarterback who today continued to display his inability to throw accurate passes at a near consistent rate (those receivers are outstanding and make Russell look a lot better than he really is). This team is so talented on defense and in receiving, with solid enough talent on the O-line and at in the running game (with Hester), that they don't need a risky playmaker like Russell at QB; they just need a reliably accurate QB like Flynn who won't shoot the team in the foot with bad plays. So the blame for playing Russell over Flynn I also lay at the feet of Les Miles. Finally, what the heck do you say to how the team came out after halftime??? I know they had a string of really bad luck the first half, but a winning coach will get in everyone's face during that 15 minute break and get everyone refocused and remotivated to get back out there and take back the game that should've already been their's. I don't think Miles did a good job of this at all, this game or against Auburn. Tho our most painful mistakes were in the first half, Florida did the most damage in the 2nd half thanks mostly to how downtrodden we were. Our players should've been more worried about what the coach would do to them if they screwed up than how hard a Florida defender would hit them or how loud the crowd was or even what the score was. I guarantee you Saban would've had those guys focused for the 2nd half. You know guys like Charlie Weis, Bill Cowher, Dave Wannstedt, and Jon Gruden would too... Sorry, but I prefer _emotional_ analytical observations...
