Alleva signed at Duke (Football): Carl Franks: 7-45 (5 seasons) Ted Roof: 6-45 (5 seasons) David Cutcliffe: 9-15 (Signed before he left)
Ouch. Of course it's Duke football and not LSU football though. Alleva was hired for basketball. Let's face it, basketball is the 3rd sport in the top 3 here (football and baseball being ahead of it). LSU hopes to make more money with his basketball knowledge.
to be fair, Duke isn't a football school, never was, and probably never will be. aleva knows that LSU's priorities (admittedly or not) are football first, baseball second and basketball third. i think he'll be content keeping it that way, and be further pleased by shortening the gap b/w baseball and basketball. he hired a solid coach in trent johnson (or was that bertman's hire?) anyway, if he can keep DUKE at the top of college basketball with all of the parity, i think that he can and will do all that he can to keep LSU priorities in check. only question is if that will be enough.
No doubt the suckass offense has screwed the D over game after game this year, that's a point which cannot be debated. I will say, however, the defense played well at times yesterday, but it's woefully apparent there is no player leadership on either side of the ball. It just seems like there are too many instances where players think they have to be the one to make the big play, instead of relying on the guys around them. Patrick Peterson, as talented of a CB as there is in the country, got burned too many times yesterday. He and quite a few other players on this team need to learn some humility and put "team" back into their program.
Hard to defend doing nothing most of the game and then once again doing just enough to make it close - Bama, Ole Miss, PSU!!! sad! OP can't rain on your dark skies forecast!
The gist of the original post was that LSU does not have a championship caliber defense. The prudent thing for this team to do is to give Chavis more than a single season to turn the defense around and to allow him time to recruit the type of players for his scheme. Compared to last year, this defense was an improvement. Is the smart thing to do to shoot that progress in the head and start from scratch or allow another 2 years before pulling that trigger?
I think another problem the defense has is that they are on the field way too long and often. Again thanks to the 3 and out offense. I think the problem was magnified yesterday because trying to run in that slop they called a field is really tiring with your feet slipping trying to get going and again slipping when you try to stop. It's like trying to run in soft sand. I think a lot of the players being out of position is because they are trying to make a play and making things worse by getting out of the designed scheme. They are trying to score because they don't have confidence that the offense can do it. One problem seems to lead to another.
I was thinking of the same thing. I was not upset with the defense; just hope they keep on getting better. I felt bad the defense was kept on the field too long yesterday. It must have taken some toll in the final PSU drive. It was unfortunate many times, instead of the skill players like Trindon, or even JJ being able to make a key cut, all you see is an impressive "continent" or "Mt. Everet" sized sod (depending on which way you look at it:grinbeing dug up. I think the offense was messed up mentally by the bad conditions in the first half, and couldn't adjust; the drops were bad, and so were the throws. I am not as down on the future of the team. Every team can have their ups and downs; look at USuCk and Oklahoma.
Most of our older guys on D are 3 and 4 star recruits, not 4 and 5 star recruits. Per Rivals: 2004 Class DT Alexander -- 4-star LB Coleman -- 3-star 2005 Class DE Alem -- 4-star CB Hawkins -- 4-star LB Beckwith -- 4-star 2006 Class DE Levingston -- 3-star LB Cutrera -- 3-star LB Riley -- 3-star LB Sheppard -- 3-star DB McCray -- 3-star CB Eugene -- 4-star DT Woods -- 5-star 2007 Class DE Nevis -- 4-star S Jones -- 5-star 2008 Class DE Edwards -- 3-star DT Aghayere -- 4-star S Taylor -- 4-star CB Peterson -- 5-star
