If Carolina's offense improves with Renner and Yates splitting time, UNC could be tough. Playing them 1st could be a blessing but i could say the same thing about playing LSU 1st
Also keep this in mind #8 WR Greg Little is ready to become a superstar this season. So with that said Carolina has a big go to target, and a real homerun threat in #87 Jheranie Boyd. Offense could fall on its face like last year but i think we will see significant strides made this year.
The UNC game worries me. LSU hasn't lost a season opener since 2002 in Blacksburg. LSU needs to come out of the gate swinging.
I think the defense alone will be enough for LSU to win that one. Doesn't matter how much UNC's offense has supposedly progressed, I wouldn't expect them to come out as a juggernaut in game 1. They're not used to being hit in the mouth by a stout defense.
Im not so sure on that one. UNC has a very talented D as well. UNC plays a SEC like style of D. So the passing game will have to show some improvement for LSU to win this game. I like the improvements in the running game though, which is a huge key. I think LSU wins this game, but UNC is no joke. Im far more worried about them than I am W VA. Last year LSU was flat against Washington, if they come out like that this year UNC will in this game. This is an important game that will set the tone. If both teams play well LSU has more overall talent, its just to focus it.
The one great thing I like about our schedule next year is that it starts out with us setting the tempo for the entire season. Wins over UNC and WVU should set the tone for a strong confidence level and set the tempo for a solid season. We start out the season with wins over 2 very solid BCS teams and we could be in for good things. It also starts the team off needing to be at a strong level of performance. No cupcakes to build up to mid season play. It's do it right and do it right now. I like it. I think we will benefit from this in ways that may not be truly appreciated at this point. We should only get stronger from this point on into the season. No time to try and figure things out, or gel together. It is be a "Team" from the get go. Converesely it could spell disaster. I'm banking on the positives. Don't even want to think about the possible negatives.:geaux: :tigereye: :LSU231: On our way to another :helmet: :crystal: :helmet:
I think the Carolina, oops, sorry, the UNC game, is really important, not for its sake, but for the rest of the season. I remain HIGHLY CONFIDENT we will win and am planning to buck 58 years of bad juju and watch this one. Possibly in person, but probably not. We need a big win, a going away win would be awesome, but we really need (and will get) a win.
If the offense does not improve this year, it wouldn't shock me at all to lose five or more games. NC - Good coach, neutral site, first game. They were 8-5, we were 9-4 last year...not a huge difference. We will be relying on totally new players at RB and WR (no Scott, LaFell, etc). This could be very tough. @Vandy - Should win, but Vandy plays tough at home and you never know... Mississippi State - It was a miracle that we beat them last year and they improved tremendously under their new coach. But we do have them at home. West Virginia - Luckily, I believe they'll be breaking in a new QB. Unfortunately, Noel Devine stayed and he's a superstar. We did not handle McCluster well last year and he's like him (probably faster). They'll be fired up for their first visit to Tiger Stadium as well. Tennessee - Always tough...they still don't have much offense and will be breaking in a new coach. So that's to our advantage. However, Dooley almost beat us with no talent at La. Tech last year. Florida - The Swamp - Who cares who the coach or players are... Mcneese - W Auburn - That was the one great game we played last year. However, @ Auburn is always hard for us. And they improved a lot toward the end of last year. They beat Ole Miss and came extremely close to knocking off Alabama in the final game. They'll be fired up for revenge of the blowout loss. Bama - They have Saban, Mark Ingram & Trent Richardson (by far the best backfield in the nation) and a QB that doesn't make mistakes and is much better than people want to give him credit for. They don't need anything else. It doesn't matter if every other player will be new. Oh, and the RBs have made everyone forget about Julio Jones. Saban's D will be good no matter how many people he lost. It just might not be as good. La Monroe - W Ole Miss - McCluster will be gone so that should hurt Ole Miss. It all depends on which Snead plays next year for Ole Miss. We were terrible though against them this year and Nutt has our number. Update: Forget what I said about Snead. I just saw that he's on Mel Kiper's "Best still available list" for the draft. He must have gotten some bad info. to enter the draft - he was awful last year. Well, this gives LSU an even bigger advantage next year. So that's good. Arkansas - It was a miracle we beat them this year in Tiger Stadium. We don't usually play them well over there and their QB will have another year of experience. This will be tough to win. So I see only two easy Ws. I see two others that we should be solid favorites in just based on talent (State and Vandy). UNC, Tennessee, West Virginia and Ole Miss can probably go either way depending on how the ball bounces. We should have more talent than all of them, but definitely not enough to just assume a W. I think @Florida, @Auburn, @Arkansas and home against Bama will be really tough. Basically, I still think it comes down to our running game. If we have a good running game, I think we can get 9-10 or more wins. If our running game is anything like last years, I could see a 5-loss season. Also, our D-line will be a big issue. We need major improvement there after last year. We potentially have an explosive WR team if we can get them the ball. JJ needs to step it up and take some chances. It's very hard to predict what this team will do right now. They have a lot of untapped talent (Shepard, RR, Ford). If the coaches really work these guys in, then we could get explosive and anything is possible. Or we could see more of the same conservative playcalling and mismanagement and go in the opposite direction. We should know very early in the season though. The schedule starts tough and ends tough.
I'd like to call you crazy, but do have valid points. My Point is, on any given saturday, anything is possible.
