Draw your own conclusions:

Exactly, that's what makes losing so frustrating now. All the what-ifs floating around in your mind. Just imagine how the players and coaches must feel.

 

The general discontent doesn't lie in the two losses. Its that the coaches brought the team to the AU and UF games on the short busses, while bringing them in on the million dollar RVs for the home games. I don't think anyone will disagree that we were supposed to trounce every team that walked into Tiger Stadium. The problem is the short bus offense that was installed when we went on the road. :angry:

The general theory in college football is to open the season with cupcakes, get the kinks worked out, and get ready to roll out your offense for your conference games. We got the kinks worked out, proceeded to roll up our offense, and played so conservative, we made Jim Mora smile.:dis:

In summary, if we ran the same offense all year, and lost the two road games, the general fan base wouldn't be nearly as disgruntled as we are since we rolled up the offense on the road (And I'm not saying we wouldn't be disgruntled, just not nearly as disgruntled).:wink:

 

Overall I agree with Reds post.
You don't get the calls on the road and I don't like blaming a loss on that
kind of thing.
We played well during the AU game and I have no problem with that loss
for many reasons, one being its so early in the season.
Although I disagree with the last part, good teams do get beat but we played badly in the Florida game which isn't that big a deal a few weeks after the
fact, we seem to lay an egg one game during the year.
Tenn last year, Georgia year before, Florida at home before that for example.

Its all ones preference, I would rather lose a game like we did at AU versus
Florida.
If it all ends here we will be fine but my biggest concern lies ahead at this point.
We've had no consistancy in our offense against equal competition this year
whether its be ground or by air.
I consider Florida and AU equal and everyone else below that.
We will know something the next 2 weeks, stay tuned for details....

 

You're right it doesn't always mean they played badly, but it did in our case.
You can candy coat it if you want but We DO have the team that can beat other teams in their house. If we play up to our potential and get beat FINE and freakin dandy we left it all on the table. It's not If you lose it's HOW you lose. You got to give it your best shot. THAt is what I been trying to tell you and half a dozen other folks. We can half way blame one game on refs but in reality we had oppurtunity and we knew it.

I do see your point though, if you are going to not play up to your potential, it's better to do it on a tough SEc road game. Looks better for sure. I'd love to give UF and AU some credit but to be honest WE lost our game, they didn't win it. We had several oppurtunitys to take it. Our defense kept us in both games. Let me ask you this? do you think we can EVER beat a top 5 team in their house? I mean should we just stop scheduling these teams? or just play them at home? or just conceed every other year? I have heard so many people say" in reality we only have a chance every other year due to scheduling? Tell the players that.

WOW it's going to really mess allot of posters here up if we actually DO win a championship on one of the off years. Maybe we should just not field a team every other year. Why waste a bunch of talent on those years? I mean we cant win right? :dis: ON ANY GIVEN DAY ANY TEAM...... you know the drill. It's one thing for sure, I hope the coahces and players dont have this attitude or we surely won't have much every other year. How defeatist is it to "know" and accept " I know I can't do it so... WTF am I doing here? "

I said it once and I'll say it here. Go back and analyze each game on it's own merit. As time goes by it's easy to say " we expected to lose" Its called hedging your bets, favoring the odds, but deep down even though the odds played out, ( so far ) you know they could have BEAT the ODDS. That is how champions are made, by beating the odds.

You and SF look at it like "thank God we aren't as bad as we used to be"
True, I agree but still a glass half empty attitude.
oh ye of little faith.

I look at it like, " THIS is an oppurtunity!, with all the talent we have, we may not be this close again in a long time. Let's win a championship!"
glass full falling over the side, unrelaistic? IS it? no it is possible.

If you say no then you just don't think they are as talented as I do, or apparently the preseason polls did. We were in position to move up, maybe get in a slot for the BCS NC if you recall.
I remember Grad posting something about how this season resembles the 03 season even AFTER the Au lose.

I'd race and swear I'd win if I was broke down and KNEW it. You never know the other guy might be in worse shape than you. The game is MENTAL. sure we're just fans, we can sit back and have the luxury of lower expectations. But WHY? what fun is that? Mr Blank says fans with high expectations have a double standard, because they don't live their personal lives with high standards. Mr. Blank, while eloquent he may be, will never be a motivational speaker, IMHO. ( just opinion ) Did he ever stop to think that maybe just maybe these people are glad we aren't where we were and that where we are now is an OPPURTUNITY? I guess not.


Regardless of your position in life you should have high standards in everything you do and everything you are involved with. See the guy in the winner's circle? He had high standards. That is why he is there. You may have high standards too and not get there, but you dahm sure ARENT going there unless you do. and I do realize our attitude doesnt effect the team. It's just an attitude with me.



No, I'm not bummed out and the season isn't a bad one, it's just a missed oppurtunity. I'm proud of the Tigers. I wear my purple and gold everywhere. :geauxtige anybody that has been to games with me knows that.

If you are watching LSu play just to verify your preseason prediction, you're almost there. You're right on track..... but wait? Are there more road games ahead??? :shock: Now what happens if ...IF..... well let's just hope your prediction was a good one. what was it 10-2? I commend you on your football savvy. maybe next year you can predict a 12-0 so it will come true? I mean it is one of those favorable years right? on any given day........ :yelwink2:

I just hope we annilate UT. if and I say IF they get cranked up, like they can do and we know they can, Fulmer will be tearing off his shirt and talking like coach O. and I dont want to even consider what it will be like if they play with the same intensity and skill that they brought to UF. :geauxtige

So yeah let's put it behind us, can't undo the past. BUT we can, they can, LEARN from it. that's the reason for discussion. No hard feelings or there shouldn't be. We're all Tiger fans here. ( well most are )

Besides, If we win out we may catch someone and steal their bowl berth from them. :hihi:

 

I am generally happy with the season, although it has its frustrating aspects. I predicted the Tigers to go 10-2, with the most likely losses at Auburn and Fla., but we could have won those 2 and lost to Tenn. and Bama. I said I would not be shocked by 11-1 or 9-3, but I'd consider 8-4 a disappointment. That's still how I feel.

I was concerned with the o-line, running back because of the injuries, and the maturity of JR at QB. The o-line has not gelled in the run game unless last week was an omen, RB has underperformed our norm, and JR has improved over last season, but has not improved enough to be a Heisman contender as he has not been mentally tough enough in the big games. Our special teams have not lived up to expectations built on last season.

But, that's kind of the way it goes in college football. You just can't tell from year to year what's going to happen, because you just lost your best players in Seniors and Juniors good enough to go pro. You have to rebuild some every year, and other guys have to develop and step up. Sometimes they step up, but not up to the level of the guy departed. To me, this is what makes college football so interesting, and frustrating.

Look at Mac Brown's tenure at UT. They wanted to hang him, he couldn't win the big game, till he got the right set of kids, developmental levels, leadership, coaching adjustments (he backed way off in handling Vince Young). Les Miles could do the same thing in 3 or 4 years. Ya just never know. Les has not done anything to turn me off permanently. Last year he had great success against top 25 teams. He can do it. His recruiting looks very good, IMO.

Could we lose to Tenn, Bama and Arky? Yes, we could. Will we? I don't think we will lose all of them. Give me 9-3 right now, and I'd take it, and consider it a good season.

We played well enough to beat Auburn, the refs messed that game up. But its in the record books. But it was a defensive gem in my book. We were just plain sloppy against Fla., we had a bad week. I hope we put it all together and clean Tenn. clock in 12 days.

 

Good post, I agree.

 

I have an idea. Let's fight with each other about what kind of season we had after the season is over. Let's fight with opposing team fans UNTIL the season is over.

 

Post of the year. Hands down.

 

Speaking for myself, it comes from two sources:

1-Oustanding play versus everybody not named Auburn or Florida--We've all seen dozens and dozens of talented, overly-hyped LSU teams in the past lay a dud or two against clearly inferior teams--Miami (Ohio), UAB...the list is a long one.

LSU has totally avoided this so far this season, laying the wood as a good (great-?) team should. In all honesty, this is a rarity as even the best of teams have "close calls" against inferior teams...but not LSU.

2-The Florida game. Sure, you can point to the refs at Auburn, but the fact remains that was a vicious game well played and hard fought between two talented teams.

The Florida game was another story. Take away the asinine unforced errors and LSU very, very easily could have won in the Swamp (should have won, even).

This leaves a very bitter taste in the mouth, especially when coupled with #1. In fact, I believe that this LSU team has come closer to playing to its full athletic potential than any team (save the 2003 group) in recent memory---well, except for the running game, of course.

If it's understandable to get overly excited when a team full of questions exceeds expectations (Saints), it's equally understandable to get excessively bummed out when a demonstrably superior team falls short of them (LSU), at least in terms of the sick speed and ability they've shown consistenly so far this year.

That said, here's to hoping LSU closes out the rest of the schedule (hard to do, I believe) and finishes 10-2. A top 3 start in 2007 awaits...