Not to be contrarian, but exactly how could our secondary impress you by shutting down "Beavis & Butthead"?

Simply put, you cannot -- CANNOT -- possibly display impressive secondary defense without going against quality passing. If I'm playing QB and my little sisters are playing WR, there can be no performance by the secondary that would be impressive. It's like playing Northwestern State.

So think about this; every single quality play our secondary made (unless you're talking strictly about run support) was a good pass-catch performance in the making by our QB and WRs that was simply undone by an even better DB performance. So for every play that had you thinking, "great play!" by a DB, you have to throw in another "good job" for the QB that threw a ball that required a "great play!"

If you are convinced that the QBs did nothing impressive, then there's nothing impressive about the secondary "making plays" that were handed to them by bad QBing.

ldskule::geaux:ldskule:

Well, if that coach is winning 78% of his games and going 11-2 and winning 5 bowl games and a National Championship in 6 years while playing his son, then maybe -- just maybe -- it would occur to me that he might know a little more about what gives us the best chance to win than I do, and that maybe I'm wrong in assuming for no reason that playing his son doesn't give us the best chance to win.

Lots of people thought Wilt Chamberlain would give a team the best chance to win at the Center spot. But Red Auerbach never wanted him on his team and won a bazillion Championships with Bill Russell. At what point would you have stopped questioning Auerbach for wanting Russell instead of Chamberlain? At what point would you stop insisting that you "know" which QB (or RB, or DE, or whatever) gives us the best chance to win and decide that the guy with the ring, the records, and the hat actually knows that better than you do?

ldskule::geaux:ldskule:

You make some very good points. I dub you the new voice of reason. Welcome to the den!

But the fact that YOU, with your vast experience and expertise, choose to disagree with that 2% of his decisions, must make those 2% incorrect?

I still just cannot wrap my head around the notion of someone with no experience, expertise, exposure to the team on an extensive daily basis, or support of experts actually believing that their particular opinion on any particular aspect of the team has even a remote chance of being more correct than the opinion of the coach with all those resources and as much success as Miles has achieved. I mean, does it seem at all rational or even remotely sane to believe that a guy who is outcoached in the area of QB selection by YOU is able to successfully outcoach other major college football coaches about 4 out of 5 times? Even assuming that 2% of his decisions are wrong, what on earth would lead you to suspect that you have the savvy to arrive at the correct answer? What possible insight, knowledge, or identification do you feel you are capable of that Miles is not? What is it that you think you know about selecting QBs, or the QBs we have, that Miles does not know?

It just boggles my mind. I guess I'm just not the type who needs to convince myself (or others) that I'm some kind of expert in something just to enjoy being a fan. I can be happy having no clue why it's working, and just enjoy the 11-2 seasons, National Championships, and great memories.

ldskule::geaux:ldskule:

And a worthy successor you are. :thumb:

And thus, the ultimate crux of an intra-squad scrimmage. Is it good offense, or bad defense, or vise-versa? One will never know.

However, good coverage really has little to do with QB play, if you assume that the WRs are running good routes. Our DBs had a lot of receivers smothered for much of the day. There were several, very well-thrown deep balls (one by JJ and one by ZM, and I think another) that were defended impeccably. Tharold Simon is a complete freak of nature. Seems like he can swat away any ball that is within 5 yards of him. I like to call him the human fly-swatter. He's like what Tyrus Thomas would have been if he played football.

You bring up a good point. My opinion may be more or less the correct one. I have no way of knowing which. However, this is a discussion forum, and I do give reasons for my opinions. I find that many of the people that frequent this forum are offended by opinions that are different than theirs, but they don't have a clue why they are offended. I think that your statement sheds some light on this. They assume that because I have an opinion, that opinion cannot change based on some enlightenment. Well, people are reluctant to share what they might know about an issue, so instead it's lot easier to call me a "Miles hater" rather than say, "I know something about CLM decisions that you don't know, but I can't share it in a public forum. Just take my word on it." So, I do know that my opinions lack information that CLM might know, and thus they are only opinions.

"It just boggles my mind. I guess I'm just not the type who needs to convince myself (or others) that I'm some kind of expert in something just to enjoy being a fan. I can be happy having no clue why it's working, and just enjoy the 11-2 seasons, National Championships, and great memories."

I am not an expert. I have been a fan of LSU football for nearly 40 years now. Believe me, coaches do make poor decisions at times. However, I am not a fanatic, which means I do not blindly accept things. And, I am very happy.

Thanks again for your comments!

I'm not talking about whether coaches make poor decisions (they do, even the great ones) or whether they should be blindly accepted (though personally, I don't see how any other option is productive). What I fail to get is why it is I would think that the decision I would make in a given situation is likely to be better than the one he would make.

I guess I can illustrate it like this: hypothetically speaking, let's say that out of 1,000 things to know about the best way to coach college football, there are 10 that Les doesn't know. And let's say that there are 5 that I (as a complete non-expert) do know. How miniscule are the chances that one of the 10 things he doesn't know would just happen to be one of the 5 things that I do know?

So it's not about thinking Miles has made the wrong decision; it's about thinking that whatever answer you have for the situation is the right one.

I'm glad to hear it, and sorry for suggesting that you weren't or shouldn't be. That last post of mine got a bit more snide upon second look than I intended it to be.

ldskule::geaux:ldskule:

Welcome to the forums by the way, we need some new blood around here to liven things up.

Thank you for the welcome. I've been away for so long that I'd forgotten I was ever here until I tried to register my screen name and found out it was already taken . . . by me!:lol:

I've been on another board lately, but it has gotten annoyingly childish and tiresome again. So I figured I'd mosey on along and am so glad I found this place again. So far, it has been SOOOO much better!

So thank you for the welcome, and thank you all for being here!:thumb:

ldskule::geaux:ldskule: