The always important opinion of Dandy Don - hard to argue with most of his thoughts: LSU has played six of the 11 games on its schedule and has a 4-2 record. The first half of the season has been very interesting, to say the least. Each year around this time I grade the team, as do several other writers. Below is my score card for the first half of the season. Quarterbacks: C- When this season started I thought that one of the redshirt freshmen quarterbacks would be a solid starting quarterback by mid season but that has not happened. Marcus Randall had performed about the way I expected until the Florida game when he played much better than I thought that he could. JaMarcus Russell has not performed as well as I expected and I have not seen enough of Matt Flynn to make any judgement. Running Backs: C Joseph Addai has been outstanding, Alley Broussard has been steady, Justin Vincent has been a major disappointment. Shyrone Carey has seen very little playing time, but he did look good against Florida. Fullbacks: B Jacob Hester has been a pleasant surprise as a blocker, runner and pass receiver. Kevin Steltz has done a good job as a lead blocker. TE's: C David Jones has been a disappointment not because he has not played well, but because he has not had a lot of passes thrown his way. Keith Zinger has shown signs in the last two games as being a solid tight end. Offensive line: C+ Ben Wilkerson and Andrew Whitworth have performed very well as has Rudy Niswanger. Will Arnold and Brian Johnson played well against Florida. Nate Livings and Terrell McGill have not played as well as they can, in my opinion. Wide Receivers: B Dwayne Bowe and Craig Davis have played well most of the season. Early Doucet is showing signs of coming around. Skyler Green has been hurt much of the season and has not played as well as he played in 2003. Amp Hill is still recovering from knee surgery. Special teams kicking game: F LSU has made six of 10 field goal attempts for 60 percent, 17 of 22 PATS for 77 percent, and the team punting average is 37.9 yards. LSU's kickoff return average is 17.5 yards. These stats put the Tigers near the bottom of the SEC in these categories. Defensive line: B Marcus Spears and Kyle Williams deserve an A. The rest of the defensive line has not played very well. Claude Wroten is starting to come on, but Melvin OLiver and Kirston Pittman have not played as well as I had expected. Brian West and Ryan Willis have played well at times and freshman Glen Dorsey is showing signs of being a good defensive tackle the next three seasons. Linebackers: D In my opinion, and my opinion only, LSU linebackers have not played as well as expected this season. Cameron Vaughn and Ali Highsmith have been the best of the linebackers. Defensive backs: C LaRon Landry has been the most consistent of the defensive backs. Jessie Daniels and Ronnie Prude played well against Florida. Chevis Jackson made a few mistakes, but made a few great plays in the Florida game. Corey Webster and Travis Daniel have played well at times, but have not played as well as they played in 2003. Special teams defense: A LSU special teams has not allowed a long kick or punt return this season.
with all due respect to dandy don and his comittment to the tigers and their fans, this is the same dandy don that predicted LSU would have a tough game against MSU.
These grades seem fair. What grades would you folks that diagree give out. Just wondering for conversation.
I thought our running backs were graded too low, and our OL way too high. And I do NOT think Whitworth has played nearly as well as he did last year.
