I found Demetrius Byrd to be a bit of an attitude problem as the season wore on. I don't think he gave his all, like he had the year before--often making clutch receptions (even with less-than-perfectly thrown balls). He sort of mailed it in as the year progressed. The Troy game seemed a perfect example of a whole team mailing it in. In the end, miraculously, they had enough raw talent to overcome a huge lead by the Trojans. But it should've never come to that in the first place. In the Ole Miss game, I don't feel like we even showed up to play. Now, Ole Miss was obviously improved over previous years, but we weren't even in that game. From about the 2nd quarter on, I didn't feel that we could possibly win that contest. The Arkansas game was the one where the defense totally went stupid in the 2nd half--dumb, inexcusable penalties and allowing that final score (I knew they were going to when Arkansas began that possession.) Where was our defensive line? Did we even have linebackers? The defense was abysmal--and I'm hoping changing coordinators will be the fix we needed. It was a bad season, all around, and some of the biggest problems, I felt, were a lack of team chemisty, a lack of fighting spirit (which the '07 team had loads of), and a general lack of all-out effort (save the Alabama game, which I feel JL did, in fact, single-handedly win for the Tide--that finally broke the team's back.) I feel that many of the guys quit. However, I see some good signs for '09. It began when guys like Ciron Black, Brandon Lafell, and Charles Scott bypassed the draft. They want to prove that '08 was an aberration.
Ouch. I hope not. Good things do often come to high-profile players that stay for their senior year...except for Tebow. That dude's worn out his welcome...a la Matt Leinart.
Talking about their "swagger" on GameDay and talking smack about a QB that proceeded to beat their a$$. That unit being completely ineffective (with the notable exception of Rahim Alem) was absolutely shocking. I think most of us knew we had some LB/DB issues, but there was no excuse for returning that many experienced players and getting absolutely no movement off the line, even against inexperienced and makeshift O-lines. I still see LB being a problem position unless Chavis can whip them into shape. But our linemen and skill players should be in good hands.
I remember that GameDay segment. What an embarrassment. Isn't Chavis supposed to be a LB guru of some sort? If so, hopefully, we'll see a renewed sense of purpose from those guys.
I dunno. I'm feelin' better about LB this year - both coaching and personnel. I've always thought Cutrera was better (and has played better) than he typically gets credit for. And Riley and Sheppard I think are in for very good senior seasons. And there's some quality young depth there, especially if Clemmons can stay healthy. The DL is actually the position I'm most interested in. There's a lot of talented experience there, but that was true last year as well. Woods SHOULD be a monster there. Nevis, IMO, was really good last year. Alem SHOULD have another stand out year. Alexander SHOULD be dominant. But he has durability issues. I dunno. LSU SHOULD be great on the DL. But after last year's underachievement, I'm wondering if we've been a victim of inflated press after the dominance of Mr. Dorsey.
The talent is there, but losing Dorsey exposed their limitations since the O-line didn't have to worry about double-teaming a nose tackle anymore. The biggest thing that group needs is an attitude adjustment, and based on what Brick Haley has said about bringing a blue-collar mentality to the unit, he sounds like exactly what those guys need to be successful again. We will need a very good D-line to cause problems in the backfield against teams with a good QB and/or backs (Ole Miss, Florida, Bama). If there's a weak link on D, I don't think this will be it.
