Here is my theory about LSU football and the ability of LSU to out-talent other teams. To answer your last question, I think its about 40-50%. LSU typically out-talents about 6 teams each season. This is on player personnel alone. Man-on-man, we are simply better than they are. IMO, the teams on our 2010 schedule that we out-talent are (in no particular order): Vanderbilt - Its Vandy. They out-SAT us, we out-talent them. West Virginia - Key losses at the skill positions put us way ahead. McNeese St - I-AA, and they have taken some beatings already this year. ULM - Perhaps they should be I-AA? Stick to Pharmacy. Mississippi State - They typically get OM's leftovers. They did play well against Auburn. Tennessee - Dooley is rebuilding this program left in shards by the anointed one, Lane Kiffen. I love a strong UT because we share opponents in Bama and UF, year-in and year-out. They aren't back yet. We should beat all 6 of these teams, hands-down, on sheer talent. Our guys are just better than their guys. The other 6 games are up in the air, and are likely to be decided by special teams plays, turnovers, coaching, or dumb luck. UNC - I believe that, at full strength, UNC beats us. Their defense was so much better than our offense, and our defense, despite its impressive statistics, suffered a complete and utter meltdown. This was one of those games that we won by a phenomenal special teams performance that gave our offense short fields to work with, and dumb luck. This was the Shepard and Peterson show. Florida has about the same level of talent as the Tigers. Coaching will be the difference in this game. Auburn is steady improving under Gus Malzahn's offense. Auburn always plays us tough, and generally, has upper tier SEC talent. Alabama is pretty well loaded. Their talent is about equal to the Tigers. They are a better coached, more disciplined football team (This is not a bring back Saban comment, as much as it is a comparison of coaching ability. Most reasonable people will admit that Saban is a better football coach than Miles). Ole Miss is Ole Miss. They typically seem to have the pick of talent from the State of Mississippi, but usually can't do much with it, except beat the Tigers in recent history. The wiley Houston Nutt usually has his teams well-prepared, but given their early season struggles, who knows what they will do. Arkansas. some reason, Arkansas teams have proven to be a spoiler for LSU. The last 3 games have been decided by a total of 6 points. Plenty of talent has come our of Arky in the last few years. I can think of a pair of RBs at a minimum... That's my string theory on how LSU out-talents other teams for half of their wins each season.
