It's an advantage Spurrier never had during his golden years at Florida. It's why I hope against hope that Miami and FSU can pull themselves up by the bootstraps and not cede all of Florida to Urban Meyer every year. Having Bama and Auburn both be relatively good also helps us with conference standings at season's end, and makes sure one of them won't run away with the West every year with the Iron Bowl looming.
If this team can learn to finish games they could be great. Just like last year. I hope the outcome is different
Realistically I think LSU should start out somewhere between 15-20, but unranked is ridiculous. What isn't reasonable is the tendency of writers to rank teams based on where they think they will end up at season's end instead of where they are at the beginning, which is what they're supposed to be evaluating. For example I don't see how you can look at Auburn right now and conclude that as of September 1, they're an overall better team than LSU. But sports writers think they're on an upward swing based on how they ended their last season, whereas they look at LSU as a program on the decline. It's nothing worth getting worked up about at all. If LSU takes care of business and comes away with big wins over tough teams, then we'll be where we wanna be at season's end. Simple as that.
I don't get that either. We have a returning QB, they have a QB who has never taken a snap at the major college level. We finished 5-3 in the SEC, they finished 3-5. We absolutely destroyed them on the field. I just don't see it.
I may get hammered for this, but here goes....Jordan Jefferson = Marcus Randall. Marcus was an average QB and I don't know that JJ is any more than that. He has yet to show the ability to stretch a defense deep, stay calm in the pocket, and consistently hit his receivers. Very similar to Randall. Yea our crappy O-line play last year is pretty dang well run into the the ground, but quite a few of those sacks were due to JJ's indecisiveness. "Respect has to be earned"...couldn't have said it any better myself. We need to go out and regain our swagger. We are L-S-U!!!
From a more outside opinion, I'll attempt to point out why. A) Tim Tebow isn't on the team. B) LSU doesn't have the "big name star" like most schools that have "respect" do. Ingram will get a lot of the SEC buzz since he's got the Heisman now. C) LSU doesn't have the "big name rivalry". ESPN doesn't shove LSU vs Ole Miss down our throats like they do Ohio St/Michigan, Texas/Oklahoma, etc. LSU has loads of respect, and more than enough opportunities to prove their worth this season. I will point out, however, that we get the primetime ABC game for week 1 vs. UNC.
Hmm... Well, I won't hammer you for it, but I'd say JJ is better than Marcus Randall was. Randall threw for 2854 yards and 18 TD's (12 Int) in his 4 years at LSU. Granted, he was behind Mauck and shared time with ol' Bama Boy his last year. Jefferson threw for 2166 yards and 17 TD's (7 Int) in 2009 alone. While Jefferson isn't the QB a lot of us would like him to be, he's way better than Randall was IMHO. If he can just improve a little over last season and learn to relax and be comfortable doing it, we're going to be just fine. If he never gets comfortable or can't rely on his O-line or running game to help him out when he needs it, we're going to have another long season of close games. Jefferson, while not the best QB in the world, isn't as bad as our offense made him look last season, I suspect. As far as respect, I don't see where we deserve anymore than we're getting until we get a couple of W's on the schedule. Like Pharpe said, gotta earn it.
Alot of you are misunderstanding the thread, I understand respect has to be earned, I agree......so tell me why Arky and Auburn are ranked higher by many, tell me what EXACTLY they have earned? Our recruiting classes are better, we beat them both last year,etc.
Hell, I'll try..... The media is a fickled, bandwagon-jumping group.... look how they fell in love with Ole Miss the summer before last season.... Both Arky and Auburn won their bowl games... now one might say they both won lesser bowls.... it doesn't matter.... finish with a win and you're in generally good shape when the preseason chatter gets rolling... lose your bowl and there will be a media price to be paid. Plus, Arky has Mallett and he's good enough to warrant some press... From a schedule standpoint, neither Arky or Auburn play Florida... LSU plays both Florida and Bama... and given Florida and Bama are something like 31-1 in conference play in the past two years, having to play them both is a much bigger deal than just getting one of them on your schedule. Add in the sluggish LSU offense and qb worries... well, you get my drift... The good news is the season starts soon and you will get every chance to prove the talking heads wrong....
