Look at these comments off Dandydon.com from a DFW tiger fan at the tiger tour recently: "He [Skip] also responded to a question about leadership of the Tiger baseball program by explaining the difficulties of staying on top year in and year out, especially with the injuries (he mentioned losing 2 pitchers this season) LSU has suffered this year. He pointed out that Tennessee played in last year's CWS in Omaha but didn't make the 8-team SEC tournament this year. He pointed out that Florida and Mississippi State were rated very high earlier in this season and were playoff teams a year ago and neither made the SEC tournament this year. He added that the standard is so high at LSU that we "only were 8th best" this year, but made the SEC tournament. He further said that Smoke Laval's overall and SEC won-loss record is best in the SEC for the past 5 years and remarked to the questioning Tiger fan "Give him a break will you, please!"
Reguardless of what Skip says, I still believe Smoke will resign at the end of the season. ...just a hunch...
Why? The attendance at the PMAC didn't bother him over the last few years. Smoke is here as long as Skip is here. It's Skip's hire in Skip's sport.
Attendance has never been great at the PMAC though Considering that LSU has led the Nation in Baseball attendance since the Civil War, small crowds at the Box is a big deal.
He needs to show some cojones in some other sport before I will believe he will ever fire his handpicked baseball coach.
The Smoke Laval Teams don't compete like the Bertman Teams. I realize the game has changed, bats are softer, competition is tougher in the conference and the days of pure domination and Gorilla Ball are gone. Laval's teams don't have the same feel, they don't carry themselves the same way and you just see second best in everything they do. Skip is a tough act to follow and maybe psychologically Smoke is fighting that. I don't have the stats for it but I would venture to say that most coaches that have had to follow a legend never measured up. Apathy has started to set in the for the fans of the Baseball team and the seats are empty. They're not bitching any more they just aren't showing up. Even Skip cannot ignore that. If Smoke hangs on one more year he'll have to turn in a Brady like season in 07. Anything short will be a clear signal of the end of the line. Sorry but I think the Smoke has cleared and it's time for a change.
skip has huevos but he could turn a piece of coal into a diamond if you stuck it up his ass he's so tight. plus he'd have to swallow his ego/pride which could be a slight problem for ole stanley. those two factors are making it tough on the skipper but i think he knows his hand is likely forced due to lack of butts in the seats and the new stadium on the horizon.
To those that seem to think a red mark matter, I personally don't give a flip. The fact of the matter is we have been picked off a ton this year. Quinn in fact leads the team in times getting picked off so simply stating that it was a good thing he hit a homerun so he wouldn't be picked off again does have solid support especially after he was picked off twice by Bama. It is ridiculous to continue to have poor baserunning this late in the season.
