Not very many would count Russell Shepard as a highly valued asset at wide receiver. Another example of Les Miles' constant efforts to fit a square peg into a round hole.
athlete: somebody with athletic ability: somebody with the abilities to participate in physical exercise, especially in competitive games and races RS had many chances to run & catch. It is his fualt and hist fault alone he can't catch... An athlete should be able to do what was asked of RS.
It amazes me that our running backs still succeed when everyone knows the exact play they will run. If you added in a bit of variability in the play calling the running game would only improve.
Right on! Many high school coaches could come in and better utilize our talent. That may not be taking it far enough. It's likely that several of the more knowledgable forum members could more appropriately utilize LSU's offensive talent. Les MileS absolutely refuses to give up any offensive control. He apparently has a huge hand in deciding who gets implemented and at what spot on offense. He needs to immediately detach himself from ALL offensive decision making. Laugh all you want. But, be assured that our opponents will always have the last laugh!
I think our WRs are better than what theyre showing. I dont think they are an elite group by any stretch. Its probably one of our weakest groups of WRs in quite a while. Still in all, they arent being used properly. Almost every route is a short route. I think their drops are due to a lack of focus through the entire team, especially the O. Just look at how LSU looked against Washington. Washington beat Stanford. Yet, LSU struggles against Idaho and Towson? I can see struggling against UF, they have a great D. LSU still underperformed. We looked good early in the first drive. I think the lack of creativity in the play calling is a cause of the problem. There is no focus, that must be restored. Dont get me wrong, the players have to pull their load. They have to get out of this funk. The OL needs to hold their blocks, Mett has to not hold the ball and put the passes on the money like he was earlier in the season. The WRs must catch more. If the players dont perform go to the next man. Thats another issue with Miles he will ride you into the ground. He refuses to bench a player. If you create competition then kids will step up. Sit some asses when they drop some easy passes. We need to call a better game in order to keep the D more off balance. We have to go down the field more in the passing attack to stretch the D.
There were lots of good responses to my question a few pages back, but in my mind, it all boils down to this. We'd be a much stronger group if Rueben Randle had decided to stay for his senior season. I'm sure he had numerous reasons to go ahead and get paid, and I understand that. But it did leave us without a true, elite #1 go-to guy. With that said, since he elected not to return, I wish that he didn't feel the need to pontificate all over Twitter about how much he disagrees with the coaches' handling of the passing game. If we executed, it wouldn't be so bad. It wouldn't be dazzling, but it wouldn't be bad. But I'm old-school about being loyal to your school, and he is giving me a disloyal feeling.
We would be stronger with RR and definitely have more of a passing game. But even then I don't think we would be much better with the same offensive play calls. Very few deep passes, short routes that were becoming predicable. If the corner has a feel for the play they can cover the WR better especially the longer the game goes on with no deep threats. Really we could have won the game on a few key plays that didn't go our way and we were unlucky in that perspective. I know we are a great team we just haven't been putting in together like RR said. On that note I believe RR is right to say how he feels about the football team he played for and to voice his opinion. He would be doing a disloyalty to not say anything, it at the least shows his passion for LSU.
