Yesterday was college shirt day at the school where I teach. Before the BCSNCG debacle, someone bought me a t-shirt that had all of the 13-0 season scores on the back. I was so devastated by the loss in the big game, that I didn't wear the shirt until yesterday. Several kids stopped me to read the back of my shirt. Comments were generally, "Whoa, LSU beat the crap outta people that year." Yes, we did. Now, there have been other years when the offense was awful, but 2011 wasn't one of them. Hence, not replacing Stud after a 13-1 campaign. Now, there is ample reason for replacement. With even an adequate offense last year, we'd have likely been the national champs.
Most definitely. We had a defense for the ages that year that also scored a lot of points and continually gave the offense good field position. With even an average offense that team would have won the NC and gone down as arguably the best team ever. What a waste and I doubt LSU will ever field a team that has a chance to be considered "best of all time" again in our lifetimes. Such opportunities are as common as unicorns. Unfortunately for two years in a row, LSU's last game of the season has been the one their offense performed the worst in. To me that is a worrying trend.
What would you call the offense's peformance in the first half of the SEC championship game that year? Or the ZERO points scored on the national stage in our own backyard with the millions watching, ? Stellar? Average? Understandable? Acceptable? Ditto for the performance against Clemson's defense, one of the worst defenses in the nation. Cam Cameron ain't being discussed because the LSU offense has been setting the world on fire the last 5 years.
What would you call the offense's peformance in the first half of the SEC championship game that year? A unfocused start enroute to a 42-10 win. Or the ZERO points scored on the national stage in our own backyard with the millions watching? A lot of people are still wondering what exactly happened that day or before that game I should say. We took the first loss of the season to the team that has won the last four BCSNCG. Ditto for the performance against Clemson's defense, one of the worst defenses in the nation. One point loss to the ACC co-champion. Sorry, do not agree Clemson's defense was one of the worst in the nation going into that game. Cam Cameron ain't being discussed because the LSU offense has been setting the world on fire the last 5 years. Look, bottom line is my original post was about somebody who is always posting negativity. If someone points out a bright spot, they have to jump in and put a negative spin on it. I can and will call them out if I have the time. If you want to use the word inept to describe our offense the last five years, that is your right. I do not have to agree with it though and do not. An inept offense would be below .500. LSU's offense is certainly good, but underperforming no doubt. Stud was given another year because we went 13-1, and he did not have the success we wanted. Now we have a NFL caliber OC whose offense won the Super Bowl, on the way. I am going to be optimistic, and say CLM is making the right moves to get us better on offense for the next season. GO TIGERS!
13-0, go back an look at who they beat during the year, how bad was the offense then? How many ranked teams? Why was Krags hired? I could go on, but you still won't get it. We put 40 on Oregon, 47 on WV, 41 on Fla, 41 on Ark and 42 on uga, guess none of those teams had a defense. Clemson game was one, no one wanted to be at, not even the fans, much less the players. Look at the players lost this past season and tell me another team that would have done as well? I'll wait.
Mike Detillier: (we just signed) maybe the best defensive linemen class ever at LSU and that comes a year after landing the most lucrative and talented group of linebackers ever to hit the Baton Rouge campus at one time. ... Les Miles and his recruiting team... feast(ed) on a host of top rated prep defensive linemen locally and more surprisingly from across America ... Not only did the Tigers land the state’s top defensive end prospects in East Feliciana High School standout Kendell Beckwith and Winnfield High School’s Michael Patterson, but they also were able to go across the United State to sign some of the best talent available in the prep pool along the defensive line. The Tigers landed one of the best defensive ends in the northeast in Tashawn Bowers (6-foot-5, 245) from New Jersey, one of the top ranked overall players in the south in defensive end Frank Herron (6-5, 255) from Tennessee, Christian Lacouture the 6-5, 275 pound defensive tackle from Nebraska, who was highly coveted by his home-state school of Nebraska and Texas A&M, Maquedius Bain, a 6-3, 306-pound defensive tackle from Florida who LSU pried away from the likes of Florida State and Miami (Fla.) and two of the top ranked defensive linemen in the state of North Carolina in defensive end Lewis Neal (6-1, 235) and nationally recruited defensive tackle Greg Gilmore (6-4, 280). And if you throw into the mix the talents of inside linebacker Melvin Jones, a 6-3, 250-pound inside linebacker from Washington Marion High School in Lake Charles, who seems to be growing into more of a defensive end/tackle than a linebacker, the Tigers will be very young, but very talented up front in 2013 and 2014.
And how did that fairy tale end? Humiliation? What happened to J. Lee's minutes at the end of the season????????? What _genius_ made that decision? Give me a two loss season and a NC than a 13-0 season culminating in a flat out debacle in which Les got taken to the wood shed. How many of those points were due to the LSU defense? Why were six of the last 8 quarters played by that LSU offense arguably the worst in LSU history? I'm not saying Les deserves all the criticism he's taken over the years. But he's certainly made some big mistakes and the buck stops with him. Refusing to criticize Les over LSU's last two bowl games or past 5 years of offense does the LSU program no favors.
If Les hires CC or is trying to hire CC (but turned down), then its a good decision. Eventually Les tends to make the right decision with hires. In the college football world, nothing would make me happier than a dominant Tiger squad putting repeated beat downs on the Gumps and Saban.
