Joe Schad just did a special on his preseason top 10 football teams (ESPN), and he had LSU at 8. I like this guy! (today, anyway). He has not done his top 5, just 10 through 6 so far.
Here is Joe Schad's complete list. 1. Florida 2. Texas 3. Oklahoma 4. Alabama 5. USC 6. Ohio St. 7. Ole Miss 8. LSU 9. Virginia Tech 10. Oklahoma St. http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncf/index
Good starter ranking for the season. But what was it with the still photos of JJ in the story? ESPN carried the C-f-A Bowl....could they not find 15 seconds of JJ highlight video?
When I was watching the story at the gym yesterday morning, I noticed a heavy dose of Jarrett Lee throwing ints as their footage of the '08 season from hell. I was listening to my iPod, so I'm not sure what Schad was actually saying about us.
I don't have any problem with teams we play being ranked ahead of us. At least, we control that part of our destiny. But I think that Bama, who had far from an explosive offense last season, will struggle at the QB position this year, much as we did last.
Ole Miss I can buy. But unless Nick has some secret weapon QB we don't know about, Bama may become the new Auburn, where they're ranked preseason Top 5 every year until reality sets in early-to-midseason.
Bama is more like LSU 2008, being ranked on last year's record instead of this years prospects. Bama has a shot at the top 10 for sure, but they have a lot of issues this year, including a rookie quarterback, and we all know what that can mean. The emergence of Jefferson and the hiring of Chavis is the only reason LSU is projected into the top 10. I think we belong there, but there is still much to prove. Ole Miss is so much better than they once were, with the best QB in the league, that its easy to forget that they play in a tough division in a rough league with a lot less overall talent that their competitors. They will take some losses this season, maybe more than people are expecting. All-in-all, I think every preseason Top-10 SEC team except Florida has issues that will only be resolved by playing some football.
I keep reading peoples opinions that Bama will be like last years LSU team because they'll have a rookie QB behind center. Well I kind of hope so but I don't really think so. For Bama to be like us last year, their defense would have to let 2 teams score more than 50 points on them and then basically just quit for the last 1/3 of the season. It'll have to be a fluke for that to happen, just like it was for us. I hate to say it, but our problems last year were more than what's being blamed on Lee. There was a real poisonous attitude in the locker room. Thank God CLM hired Chavis and his new assistants. I know that what happened last year is gone and forgotten. I'm really looking forward to the LSU defenses of old as well as of the more recent past. We'll pick up where we left off. I just hope Bama (and Saban) doesn't.
