Welcome, and invite some of your buddies over. We like to talk football, and this board is not a smack board (not usually). We have some real fans. LSU has had sound recruiting classes for at least 6 years, starting with Saban's arrival. We lost 3 down linemen on defense, plus 2 LB out of the starters, so we were a bit concerned on D. But, there is talent to step up, its just young. The coaches did a good job last year getting those young guys some playing time, so watch out for Glenn Dorsey on the D-line, he's real good, but the nation does not know about him yet. Our LB are young and not too experienced, but they all had good high school pedigrees. Our team is 80% from La., something the fans are proud of. La. is not that populous, but with only one big state university, if we keep our stars at home, we can compete with anyone. On offense, we have great receivers, and a very good young QB in JaMarcus Russell. JR is a jr., he started every game last year. He's big, 6' 5", 250 lbs. and has the strongest arm I've ever seen. I saw him chuck one 70 yards in the air last season, and as they say, he hadn't even started to grunt yet. Our o-line lost a lot, but again, our young players got some game experience last year. This is the concern of the team, o-line. At RB, our two upper classmen both had torn ACL's last season and are coming back, and they are both question marks. They played well against ULL last week, but I'm not sure what that really says. We have 2 outstanding true freshmen, Charles Scott and Keiland Williams at RB, plus Hester who is like a Jr. The running game was not effective early, but they rounded into shape late in the game. If you're lucky, it won't be humid for the game. I know you guys know about heat, but not our humidity, it saps you. Depth is a good thing playing in the SEC, to spell players. LSU has good depth this year.
Right now, depth isn't an issue with Arizona. Just most of our players are young. It sounds like we have the same concerns. I am not worried about our D. I am worried about our OL and RB. The main thing I can hope for is no injuries on either side. You guys have Auburn a week later and we have USC at home two weeks after. Ask any questions you like. I will let some other people know, so they will post over here as well.
Thanx JW for coming on over!! Looks like your concerns are the same as our concerns. Should be a good defensive game. If JR and our WR's play like they did Sat., they will be hard to stop. The one thing we have been given credit for by the media yahoo's are our WR's. Good luck and stick around!!
Not yet. If you commit to stopping the run, you'll get killed through the air. On one play USL had eleven in the box. I think we picked up a rushing first down on the play. If a team is going to stack up to stop the run, they'd better have All-American defensive backs.
I'd be afraid of Holmes rushing on the edge against our green tackles if we try and do the same stuff that we did against USL. JR isn't going to have all year to throw.
Another Arizona fan here.. Don't know if this has been said yet, but here are some notes on us, and a few questions about you guys: Our tackles are definately the strength of the O-Line, which is VERY young. 3 Redshirt freshman beat out Juniors/seniors for their spots. The entire right side is freshman, so that is definately a concern. However, our LT, Graniello is very good, and should be all-pac, while the RT Britton is just an absolute stud and I would be suprised if he isn't AA by the time he leaves here. Pass blocking is definately the strength, as we don't have all that much beef to push the lines, and it takes time for lineman to get as comfortable as they need to be for zone blocking to truly be effective. Our WR's are in the upper half of the pac-10, led by Mike Thomas, who was pac-10 FOY. He was taken out of the game vs. BYU in the 2nd quarter, and it showed. Another small reciever (MT is 5'9) is Steptoe who is a senior and one of the better return men in the country. Our possesion reciever is Anthony Johnson who is 6'2 and has great hands. (Especially the tougher catches, he seems to lose focus sometimes on easy ones) We have a 6'4 WR in Terrel Reese who has a 7'1 high jump, but for some reason he didn't play against BYU. He would be unstoppable in the redzone, so hopefully he sees some action against you. We have a very good TE (probably top 15) in Brad Wood, but he is coming off of surgery, so we are easing him back in. Tuitama is nothing like what he played against BYU. He was very nervous before the game, and was missing his recievers then too. He had a lot of expectations (pretty much the whole city on his shoulders) and I think he will settle down, as evidenced by the game winning drive. On the defensive side: Holmes is a beast, simply nothing else you can say. He is just going off of raw talent, and when he develops some go-to moves, he will be unstoppable, simple as that. Our other two ends are Marcus Smith (Big, good against the run, 6th year senior) and Jonathan Turner (small, but very quick and fast, good passrusher, weak against the run). Our DT's are Yaniv Barnett and Lionel Dotson, both have improved tremendously, and got a very good push on a huge and relatively experienced BYU line. They are backed up by Paul Phillip among others. Our linebackers were never healthy last year, which is why we always said throw our run-d numbers out the window. Larsen Is just an absolute stud, and was everywhere against BYU. Krogstad and Palmer are bother very solid. Our secondary is our supposed strength of our D, however last week our Line made a case for #1. The secondary is lead by Antoine Cason, who is one of the best corners in the country; and Michael Johnson, who is one of the best safety’s in the country. Johnson just always seems to be in the right place. The one weakness of our secondary is Wilrey Fontenot. Not because he isn’t good, because he is very good and has started from day 1, but because he is only 5’9, he is a liability against taller receivers and in the redzone. Dominic Patric is the other safety, and let’s just say he can put down the wood on anyone in his area. Nick Folk has probably the best leg in America, however he is not always the most accurate. He can consistenty make 70 yard Fieldgoals in warm-ups/practice. He will be punting this year, and should also be top 5 in that. He averaged 60 per punt against BYU.
I think UA would be very, very mad at you if you call them Auburn again. Also, I'm mad at you for disrespecting them like that. :hihi:
