Ole Miss... not worried about them. They lost to a very average Texas Tech team and barely beat Vandy... Florida always loses to an average or bad team in the west (Auburn last year and Auburn well.. Look at their last 5 games, although with the Cadillac they are a different team) My concern is Florida. Consider this. Every year Florida loses to at least one West team. Last year Auburn, the year before that I believe Miss St, Bama, and us in 97 on and on. They were full of themselves after beating Tennessee, we needed a gator win to assure us a the "Sleeping Giant" Lets face it, say what you will but Mauck is probably the worse QB (So Far) lsu has had since the 80's. I am not saying we need Randall believe he is worse. Saban is putting our best QB on the field and he is all we got. So we must back him. Yes he had a great 1 qtr. But after that he was the same ole Mauck. Under throws over throws, then him jumping up and down in disgust. Maybe Mauck can have his coming out party. But Florida is now ready for war. Yes Zook is horrible. But they still have talent. We better be ready if we want a chance. Note - Watch Hookfin get torched next week. They watch film to... We have a chance, assuming Mauck turns it around. We have the D, we have the running game. All we need is a QB. If he comes around we will be deadly. But right now we are one dimensional. Geaux Tigers
Hookfin is #2 in the nation in passes defensed.. Florida's offense is another Ole Miss/Miami-O hybrid. We roll UF this week.
For the record I am not questioning Maucks heart. Nor have I forgotten what he did in the SEC title game. On strictly talent he just has not been very good. More QB's have thrown for more yards in a single game then Mauck has this season. I really like Mauck, I respect his fight. But he consistently misses wide open wr's and against ULL his missed countless guys wide open. He either did not see them OR he flat out missed them. Also 3 balls last week would have been intercepted by any SEC DB. So dont think I am wishing Ill against Mauck, nothing would make me more happy then him becoming a fine QB at LSU. Yes it is a matter of a opinion and even Rohan got it by this time in his career. I guess we will see now that the schedule gets hot. Geaux Tigers
Mauck is going to do fine--he just needs to complete 18 of 24 for 175 yards and no INT's every game....I say that half-jokingly because it's easier said than done, obviously, but he needs to play the efficient game like Jay Barker did at 'Bama in the early 90's...Nothing fancy, just a winner. Get the ball to your talent. I also seem to remember another one-dimensional LSU team in '97 that had their way with Florida...Herb Tyler was not a great passer but he led the team and had a gigantic heart. That's what we need Mauck to do and have, IMO. As far as beating Florida, Ole Miss and Miami, and Tennessee before they fell apart, showed that all you have to do is hit Grossman and keep hitting him, every play, and he'll get rattled. He had happy feet and made poor decisions Saturday because he was getting up off of the turf after every single play. You have to hand it to Ole Miss for hitting hard and we have to do the same thing.... LSU 24 UF 21 GEAUX TIGERS!!!
I don't think that Florida losing to Ole Miss is necessarily bad. Hoprfully game tape will show Florida's weak points. I do agree that Mauck is the worst QB since the 1980's but... We had tons of QB talent in the 1990's. So that is not being too tough on Mauck. Next year Mauck will be better & Randall will be better, & hopefully we will be able to sign Lane away from baseball & he will push both of them.
I just hope that Florida doesn't figure it out this week. They are not that far away from being a very good football team. They have had trouble against passing teams, but we are not a dominate passing team. Florida had trouble with Miami and Ken Dorsey, Kentucky and Lorenzen even though they held on for the win, and Ole Miss and Eli Manning even though he was more efficient than stupendous that game. Zook is NOT that bad of a coach if they will give the poor guy a chance (which they probably won't). He was not the reason the Saints tanked last year with the defense. That was a TOTAL meltdown from things off the field as much as on the field. Our Tigers have a difficult task at hand--win on the road in the SEC--but we have the coaches and players to see it happen. Never underestimate the heart of a champion.
Florida Florida appeared to be a disorganized and confused team in the Ole Miss game. The aggressive, winning attitude seemed to have disappeared. I have been a Mauck supporter from the start, however it appears that he is not going to ever complete much over fifty percent of his passes. Hope he proves me wrong in the Florida game. Less than fifty percent, just will not win many SEC games. I wonder how many fans would be calling for Josh Booty if he were still eligible and on the team. LOL
Yeah, Ive been thinking that one of these days Florida is going to click. What better time than after a loss to Ole Miss. However, I think we have them outmatched in the trenches. Their rushing defense ranks 58th in the nation. Thats not good. We have the number 23 ranked rushing offense in the nation. Not stellar, but certainly not bad. We also have the number 1 ranked defense, #1 passing defense, and #8 rushing defense. I know we havent played anyone noteworthy other than VT, but they are included in those stats. Eli Manning was sacked exactly once this past saturday, and Grossman got hit 3 times. Considering Florida didnt do well at all on the line of scrimmage, I think we have the advantage at the line on both sides of the ball. If you hit Grossman, he struggles and throws four interceptions...against a very suspect Ole Miss defense. So we just run, run, and run, controlling the ball.
I think it's about time LSU shows us and themselves some killer instinct. We need to keep the pressure on Florida(i.e. Grossman) and capitolize on thier mistakes. If the defense can prove they are for real, the Tigers will be celebrating in Gainsville. Matt Mauck coming out party! tiger bait!, tiger bait!