Assistant coaches: Good job/bad job?

With 3/4 of the season in the books, I thought about the assistant coaches and the job each has done this season and I wanted to put down my thoughts about the assistant coaching staff and get info from others.

OC: Gary Crowton

Pros: Can put together offensive schemes to pretty much fit any situation. Very versatile. spread, west coast, power--he has pretty much shown very capable of making our offense all of those things when needed. I like a balanced rush/pass offense, and Crowton's offense since coming to LSU pretty much always gives you close to 180 ypg rushing and around 200 ypg passing.

Cons: For whatever reason, his offense tends to stall at times and he's prone to make some questionable calls at times and sometimes gets "too cute" with the bubble screens and relies on them a little too often.

Future?: Looks to be at LSU for the foreseeable future. Outside of Lee's poor play this year, I've pretty much been happy with his ability the past 2 seasons.

Co-DC's: Doug Mallory and Bradley Peveto

Pros: Mallory appears to be a sound positional coach. He's done really well coaching up some of our DB's.

Peveto has been a pretty good recruiter for us and appears to be liked by a lot of players. As a position coach, his units appear to be average in terms of production.

Cons: Mallory was given credit for coaching up players like Steltz, Chevis Jackson, and Chad Jones. He's also credited on lsusports.net as helping LSU's pass defense to a #3 ranking each of the past 2 seasons before this one. But Pelini was also a DB in college and like Saban, had already a ton of experience coaching the secondary. Now Pelini's gone and the secondary isn't anywhere near top 3--let alone top 30.

The production of Peveto's units have steadily declined the past few seasons. We're not getting the production from a LB group that we have been in years past. I know Highsmith was a huge loss and no current LB on the roster is close to his ability, but Beckwith is back, and he's just not as much of an impact player as he has been the past few seasons.

They say, "If you have 2 QB's, you don't have 1". I think the same can be said for Co-coordinators.

Future: One or both could be gone after this season.

Recruiting coordinator/TE's: Drew Henson

Pros: LSU has consistantly been in the top 10 in recruiting (save for the one year where we only had 15 schollies to work with) and the TE's have been solid--especially Richard Dickson.

Cons: Outside of Dickson, we really haven't developed a lot of noticible depth at a position that Crowton and Miles have stated that they like using in the offense. We need another TE to step up and show some of Dickson's ability.

Future: Doing a great job and should be expected to be here as long as Miles will have him.

DL: Earl Lane

Pros: Tons of quality depth; backups could start at most other schools.

Cons: Where's the dominant production? I know Dorsey is NOT a player you can replace, but with all that depth, Aleim has pretty much been the only D-lineman to consistantly get pressure on the QB.

Future?: The depth that he inherited when he came her might have helped him more than he has helped the depth. Probably going to return, but if the D-line play next season is just as sporatic as this one, then Lane's time here could be numbered.

RB's: Larry Porter

Pros: Phenominal job developing RB's. You can't say enough about the depth we have.

Cons: If I put one here, I'd probably have to make it up.

Future?: Welcome to stay as long as he wants!

WR's: DJ McCarthy

Pros/cons: I give him an "incomplete". Given the poor QB play, it's hard to say what he's done well and what he hasn't. There have been far more poorly thrown balls than drops--but there HAVE been a number of dropped passes by WR's.

Future?: He definately has 2 more seasons, IMO.

OL: Greg Studrawa:

Pros: Developed some solid OL play and has gotten the young guys (Barksdale) ready to contribute and to play well.

Cons: Not many to be overly critical of, but we did return a VERY experienced OL this season and at times, they haven't played to their potential

Future: given his ability to insert young guys into the rotation without much visible drop-off, he has proven to be a worthy coach and should stick around

ST coordinator: Joe Robinson

Pros: Colt David is a consistant kicker. LSU alum.

Cons: Special teams play hasn't been all that great. Kick coverage units have been sloppy and the lone standouts have been Trindon, who is actually not having a great season in terms of returns but teams still elect to kick away from him and reserve LB Ryan Baker is a coverage BEAST!

Future?: Hate to say that one of our own could get the boot, but I would not be surprised if he did. Likely that he'll be given one more shot next season.

 

... since Peveto got his hands off of it. The last few seasons with Peveto, I'd never seen so many illegal blocks in the back, holding, etc. We did nothing on ST... until he left that to someone else.

Hmm....