All the things that make NO SENSE (if you have an hour or want to see what it’s like to die of boredom) 1) Let me start off with our Special Ed teams. How long is it going to take Coach Miles to figure out that the moronic formation we use to punt SUCKS. First of all, it always gives the defenders a better chance at blocking the ball than a normal formation and we’re basically holding our breath every time. And when it’s not blocked, we get called for “illegal formation” because our guys are said to be not lining up right. It’s a worthless formation and I’ve lost track of how many times we’ve been call for not having enough men on the line of scrimmage. TOSS IT! Florida runs a somewhat similar stupid set and guess what, we blocked one of their punts. I think Lou Holtz helped popularize that moronic formation and look where he’s at now. He couldn’t handle the SEC and voted for USC as #1 over us (broken record, I know..) the year we totally killed his team without either of our starting running backs playing. I think Nick Saban even tried it after we played them that year, but then it got blocked and he did a more normal formation. Anyway, they need to change that. We lost 27 yards on a punt inside the 1-yard line because we were penalized for our formation problems. 2) Our special teams started to suck last year after we ran back a punt for a TD. After that, teams started taking their time and angle punting because LSU was not going after the punter. So from then on, everything was a fair catch or a kick out of bounds. We couldn’t figure out to send the house and rush the punter so he didn’t have time to do that. This year, we put Jackson back there. I’m not blaming him because he’s a good defensive player. But he obviously isn’t ready to be a punt returner. We have NO threat back there. Yes, I know they want a sure-handed guy… We will lose the real field position game EVERY TIME with this thinking. And then, he fumbled anyway, so his hands aren’t that great. Not to mention, he was fielding balls inside the 10 which is a big mistake. We need to put somebody back there that is explosive. I don’t care if they fumble once here or there. They have to learn at some point. God knows we can afford it with some of the pathetic opponents we have. I do give credit to the coaches for starting to go after the punter more. I have noticed that. If this play continues, I say we put nobody back there and rush everybody after the punter. Hey, at least we know we won’t lose the ball and we’ll have a great chance at blocking it. 3) Our offense and Jamarcus Russell are OVERRATED and we need some changes. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we have little to no speed on offense. Vincent and Broussard look about as slow as running backs can look in the SEC. Hester has decent speed catching out of the backfield, but is not as fast just running the ball. Bowe and Davis either don’t have the right routes or they just aren’t that fast. Doucet is pretty fast and has shown that, but we don’t throw it to him enough. Other than that, we basically use no one on offense. Lafell maybe gets one pass thrown his way per game, so who knows if he is really fast on the field. We need something to change. The end result is that we have one touchdown against the good teams we’ve played. It’s pathetic. Scott is fast, but he didn’t touch the ball. Unless he’s hurt, it’s moronic not to play him. He has looked far better than the other guys and I don’t care who it came against. It’s the same guys over and over and the good teams barely have any speed threats to worry about. We need to start breaking in new guys because two of our receivers are seniors and we aren’t getting anybody in there for the future. And don’t even mention the tight-end position because that is almost non-existent on this team. We need to start playing the best talent on the team. I don’t care how we get them in there. Now, I don’t give a $hit if Matt Flynn had an interception against pathetic Miss St. (actually, I did at the time). Put him in every once in a while if the offense is sucking and try to run him or do a little play action. The guy doesn’t just run good, he is flat-out fast. He’s also tough as hell. Or hell, try RP and see if he can do something when we get by the end zone. Hell, I heard the guy was Black Jesus and I want to see him in action! It’s not against the law to UTILIZE your talent even if it is only for a couple of plays. Then the other team would have to account for something different – SPEED! Hell, we all know Florida did it and it worked like a charm for them. All I know is this, there is something wrong with the chemistry on offense. I don’t know why, but it ain’t happening and it was really like that last year too. Obviously, we have no running game and that is part of it. If they try others, it might actually do something. The passing game sucks as well. Oh yeah, we’re awesome against PATHETIC competition, but what do we do against good teams? We air it out against Nobody State and we throw two-yard passes against good teams. How many times can we throw it to for two yards on 3rd and 9 to the blocking back??? It’s crazy, there’s got to be somebody open down the field. I’m amazed at how many times JR can’t find anyone when he’s given an hour to throw the ball. You can take stats and shove them because they don’t mean anything most of the time. JR was AWFUL today. Almost all of his completions were overthrown or hung up too much. Even the TD pass was not thrown well. Some say that two of the interceptions weren’t his fault and that is fine. But he should have had at least one and possibly two more. One of them the guy just dropped because it was in his hands and he was taking it in for a TD if he held on. The other one was on a severe under throw to a guy that was streaking. Also, the last interception was partly his fault because he threw it bad and twisted his receiver around. Also, when he finally does throw a good pass, it is usually right where a receiver is going to get absolutely crushed. And sometimes, he throws a perfectly good pass and our guys will just drop it. Our receivers are inconsistent and a good number of the routes they’re given suck. Oh, and when JR hands the ball off, he lets teams know it’s coming by sticking his hand out immediately after getting the ball. That doesn’t help either. And I won't mention his lack of a sense of urgency again. I guess I just did. Oh well... I think people are either much too hard on JR or much to ready to give him the Heisman. I think he’s a great QB against some teams and just a pretty good one against equal teams. For whatever reason, something is wrong with the chemistry against any team with pretty good players. They need to change things up here and there. 4) LARON LANDRY and Discipline – Does anyone know if he is related to David Irons because he talks more $hit than just about anyone I’ve seen except for Irons. I dislike a lot of Landry’s choices and it hurt us today. The reason Florida continued that drive before half is because of Landry on third down. He had the guy four yards in front of the marker and he decides he wants to just spear this guy in the back instead of wrap him up easily with his hands (which he could have done with no problem). What happened? The guy bounced right off of him and ran for a first down and Florida went on to score a TD before half and totally change the momentum. That is INEXCUSABLE to me. That guy is a senior and should show more leadership. He’s a talented player but he likes to talk trash and hurt players rather than do his job which is to wrap up. You can hit a QB like that, but not a WR and expect them to go down. He’s a hard hitter, but he isn’t that big. He needs to wake up. Where was he on the long Tebow TD pass?? Yet, he was still talking trash to guys when he had them on the ground in the 4th quarter right in front of the ref and we were getting our azzes handed to us. What the hell was he talking about? Was he talking about how Tebow burned him? This team needs the coach to tell players what they’re doing wrong and chew them out right there so they can learn their lesson and improve. How can a team improve when the coach just pats everyone on the shoulder? I don’t mean he has to make anyone feel small or go Suge Knight on anyone, but let them know that certain actions won’t be tolerated. Otherwise, we’ll keep making the same mistakes. 5) Our Schedule – How FLAT has TIGER STADIUM been this year??? I’ll tell you, flatter than John Mark Karr’s new titts. It has SUCKED! It’s a 12 game schedule now and all I see us doing is adding another crappy team to the mix. I think Fresno St. is pretty good and Arizona is competitive against some teams. Still, I miss the days when LSU would have big OOC teams come in that were ranked high. It makes the atmosphere 100xmore exciting. I don’t care if we lose, at least it’s fun and exciting. Those games are the ones where Tiger Stadium got its reputation. On years like this, we need a big team to come in and bring excitement. If we had played one of these teams earlier before playing AU and Florida, we might have had a better idea about where our team really stood. Instead we play teams that are not competitive and a guaranteed victory like Tulane and ULL. I say give the people something for their money. If Tiger Stadium is as tough as we say it is, then we’ll have no problem beating big teams. That should be what football is all about and too many teams are scheduling easy. I don’t mean scheduling decent teams…I want ones that get everyone excited. It’s better for college football. We could at least put A&M back on the schedule or something. When we put teams like App. State on the schedule it makes me want to PUKE. They are not even in our division and shouldn’t be playing us. We gain absolutely nothing by playing them. It is supposed to be competitive. When only one team really has a chance to win, it’s not competitive. And that my friends, well, that’s what I call BULL$hit. I say do one big one a year. Bring on USC, Texas, Ohio State, Miiiiiiiichigan and the rest. It would really be something to look forward to in years like this when we’re having some early stumbles. Maybe some people can start e-mailing Skip about it. I mean, at least get the Div.II team off of the schedule. That’s the first goal for next year. 6) Finally, as much as I’ve bitched here, know that I still do wish the best for Coach Les Miles and the team. Believe it or not, all is not lost yet. I still don’t think the race for the West is over. Auburn is banged up and not as great as we thought (though still good). They still have to play Florida, Georgia, Ole Missy at that $hithole in Oxford which can actually be a tough place to play and at Bama. They definitely could lose again. Arkansas still has Ole Piss, South Carolina, Tennessee and LSU. They will also likely lose a couple. It’s still possible. The only thing is…we’d have to run the table. If we keep playing this offense, there’s no way. If we change just a few things, it’s possible. Oh yeah, and Hester on offense is surprisingly one of the only things we have going for us right now. People should appreciate his efforts because he’s playing well. Anyway, don’t lost hope just yet. Because…YOU NEVER KNOW… Go Tigers. Peace.
I apologize, I didn't realize quite how long that post was. I guess I got carried away. I'm a much bigger loser than I originally thought. I guess I just believe in saying everything in one post and leaving it at that. Again, apologies to any and all of you poor bastards who might get through it.
Great post! Alot of people are down on Hester, but IMO, he's our best and most consistent player. Chris Jackson is very dependable too...we're gonna miss him next year.
My father gave me my first football in 1949 and told me I had to learn how to punt first before practicing anything else on the field. At first it was awkward but he made me take only ONE STEP before punting the ball - never had a punt blocked in my career. Good luck to Chris in the future which may lie in baseball, not football. :geauxtige :lsup: :thumb:
That was a great post. I also think Landry got schooled yesterday. That particular 3rd down play was a gut buster.
Very good post. Chevis dropped one in the first game or maybe 2. Then Trindon was put back there and he missed one too. Trindon is a freshman and I might not want him back there but he is like Skyler, really fast and shifty and is hard to spot at times. The punt formation needs to go. A couple of defenders are allowed to come across the line unblocked and they get to hit the blockers by the punter at full speed. I don't like this at all. The muffed kick offs are unacceptable, the fumble on the goal line was unacceptable and the JR interceptions were dumb. He stares a WR down and throws it to him anyway when the DB is all over him. JR was inaccrate all day and forced the WR's to turnaround and make great catches on easy 10 yard dumps. He doesn't perform in the hyped up big games. He throws erractically and tries to lobe and guide the balls to the WR's, and the coaches refuse to go deep against a good team.
Thanks and I appreciate anyone who actually got through it... Let me just add that our D does a great job of stopping the run. However, even Florida threw a longer completion than we did on the day. We can't blame everything on our lack of a running game. After all, Hester ran for a good average and he had the most carries. Once again, Alley B. averaged less than two yards a carry. When JR is your second leading rusher, you have problems. But if you look at Florida, their run game really had the same numbers as us. And Auburn's numbers weren't drastically different either. So why the hell do these teams score TDs on us, but we can't against them?? I think it has to do with the scheme and lack of a different threat. Also, JR had two different guys wide open yesterday streaking down the sideline and he threw both of the balls poorly and the receivers had no chance to make a play on the ball. That had nothing to do with the running game. And I read that Les said that he never would've thought that his team would've been behind at half after that 17 play drive. Well, guess what, we were. He also said he never would've believed that we would lose against Auburn if you had read the stats to him about holding Auburn under 200 yards of offense. Well, again, never comes mighty often. Stats don't predict the ending. When is he going to realize this? We will keep winning the stats contest while we continue to lost the REAL CONTEST if nothing changes on offense against good teams. Our great defense is basically being wasted.
Great post. only how come when I gripe everyone disses me? LOL no matter good post, give em hell man I'm with you!
