Personnel problems. What did you want us to do? Prude would get burned all night long if we played bump and run with him so we just gave ASU 10 yards every time they wanted it. Combine that with the fact that we couldn't get any pressure on Keller then we're lucky that we won this game. I expect Stevenson or Joseph to beat out Prude soon.
Agree, Joseph will be staring soon enough. Jackson & Prude in a backup or nickel role like last year. TENNESSEE WILL GO AFTER PRUDE IF HE STARTS.
Actually, I was waiting for LSU to at least start stacking a LB right over their TE who was typically in a two point stance, with a wing back on his shoulder. Letting their TE off the line with little or no resistance made no sense to me as the short zones were not being covered tight anyway. Keller came back to his second and third receivers on a relatively high percentage of the passes he threw. LSU's linebackers are not fast enough to recover on short secondary routes? When Burgess, #3, was thrown to underneath on the side screens, the linebackers were typically dropping too deep anyway. If a linebacker would have been moved up, those types of plays would have been very risky for ASU. Looking at the whole picture, Keller simply had too many options open to him that LSU was not effectively trying to take away. In any event, the LSU coaches need to burn some midnight oil on this issue.
No. They don't appear to be experienced enough. Highsmith was beaten several times because he didn't get out into coverage quick enough and Keller put the ball right over the top. Remember that Spadoni hasn't played a game at will and Highsmith was only out there in mop-up duty last season. And this is disregarding any potential height mismatches between a 6-5 TE and a 6-2 Spadoni/Highsmith. Coaching could also be to blame in this. We'll see if any adjustments are made.
