Great Article from Bowden, saying LSU has the best athletes to line up in the country! Which I agree with for the past 5 seasons. http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news;...rYF?slug=tb-players011408&prov=yhoo&type=lgns "Was it the year of the upset, the system offense, the dual-threat quarterback, or the head coach turned motivational guru? Actually, it was a little bit of all of those things. And, the common denominator was great coaching. Every one of those factors was a bi-product of great coaching. This year was more about great coaching than great athletes. It was about great coaches who got their kids to believe they could beat the unbeatable. It was about great coaches who found new ways to run an offense and more ways to utilize a quarterback. It was about great coaches who weren't afraid to psychologically play the game before the game was ever played. Which brings us back to the national championship game. Great coaching might have defined the season, but when it comes to winning the national championship … it still comes down to athletes. Great coaching can make a bad team good and even a good team great. But if you are going to win it all, you better have the best football players. National championships can't be won with smoke and mirrors or inspirational ploys. With a month to get ready and everything on the line, great coaching – which LSU and Ohio State surely had – becomes nothing more than a push. When all is said and done, LSU and Ohio State had the best athletes in the country. Agreed, USC is right there, and Georgia is not far behind. But nobody lines up with better athletes on the field than LSU. According to Rivals.com, LSU has had top-10 recruiting classes four of the past five seasons and top-five classes in three of the past five. According to one source close to the team, when it comes to NFL quality athletes, LSU will see at least eight players selected in this year's draft. Of LSU's 22 starters in the national championship game, 19 are projected to eventually be drafted. Great coaching might define a football season but it does not define the national champion. Only great athletes can do that. "
And great coaching gets 19 of your 22 starters ready for the NFL. I have contended for the past 2 seasons that only USC has had the same talent level as LSU (arguably even better). Problem with USC is the great Pete Carroll has botched up a game in each of his last 3 seasons. In 05, he decided that he didn't need Reggie Bush on the field and told the Texas defenders that they were gonna run it up the middle with his fat ass running back on 4th and 1. Arrogant sum bitch was dead wrong, and it cost his team a crystal ball. In 06, they overlooked the UCLA Bruins and missed out on their chance to throttle Ohio State for that elusive crystal ball yet again. In 07, he once again got cocky and decided he could beat lowly Stanford with a badly hurt QB, and once again it came back to bite him in the ass. Another promising season, another chance flushed down the toilet. Carroll's legend has been tarnished these past 3 seasons, and he has only 1 crystal ball to show for all of his overly talented teams efforts since 03. Last time I checked, that's 1 crystal ball shy of LSU.
Well Rivals and Scout don't support that, but I will say we seem to get the most out of our recruits. Maybe all those 3-4* athletes are just more hungry and willing to do what it takes to find chemistry? Or maybe they are underrated? Whatever it is, the coaches see it, nurture it, and everyone sees the results on the field. It's probably why we are able to lose so many players through the course of the year and still compete well. I have immense confidence in what this coaching staff determines is "talent", and look forward to many more "Top 10" classes.
I think we would all agree the recruiting services are there simply as a guide to guage how much talent you are pulling in on a yearly basis. They are not useless by any means, but when you're talking differences between 1st and 10th, it's miniscule. Coaching takes over from there. Coaching makes the difference. So for Kansas to do what they did this season speaks volumes for Mangino's abilities as a head coach. Now can he start to pull in those prize recruits to keep it up? That's yet to be seen. That's how Bowden started at FSU. They were in the same shoes as Kansas is now, an afterthought on the college football landscape. It's gotta start somewhere. I definitely think California gets a little too much overhype by the recruiting services (moreso than Texas or Florida). I think the very best athletes come from Florida first and foremost, then I would rank Cali and Texas a virtual tie for 2nd, maybe the slightest of edges to Cali.
LSU showed this season that having players ready to step up when your star players are injured makes or breaks your season. Ask USC, West Virginia, Oregon, Cal and Oklahoma about that. LSU had Perrilloux ready for the big stage vs Tennessee. Byrd and LaFell stepped up when Doucet couldn't contribute for nearly half of the season. Coleman excelled when our All-American went down. Time after time after time, our backups were ready to take control. That's where you give head coaches the most credit. That difficult balancing act of keeping backups motivated enough to stay focused and ultimately prepared to come in and contribute when called upon. Coleman was clearly ready to shine. Even someone like RJF, who hadn't played all season, was ready to answer the challenge and may have been the difference in LSU winning the championship.
well, its definitely coaching, cause the top 10 schools every year compete, but cant put it all together. I know we won the NC this year, but we should have played in the NC the past 3 years with our Talent. imo.
Agreed. But we were constrained by the ineptitude of Jimbo Fisher. We would not have made it into the 05 game, since we were behind Texas and USC to start the season. We would have been the Auburn of 05. Fisher lost us the Tennessee game with his conservative "go in the tank" offense in the 2nd half with a huge lead. You play to win, as Crowton does. In 06, no doubt Fisher's poor play calling and player evaluation (who should be playing and who should be touching the ball most) cost us in both the Auburn and Florida games. Take away either loss (Auburn moreso) and you have LSU as back to back champs and a true dynasty (3 in 5 years). We would have demolished Ohio State 2 straight years.
you are dead on with that one Fisher definitely cost us that Tennessee game. Also, Russell didnt help us out in that Florida game, we beat ourselves that game.
We definitely beat ourselves in the Florida game. But just imagine Crowton is our OC at the time, you can't tell me he would not have found a way to win that game, even with all the mistakes. LSU 24, Florida 23 would have been the final instead.
