I hear what you are saying but I believe these new offenses and the players that have been playing in them in high school have brought them up to a new level whereby they are harder then ever to contain. And I don't believe it is the newness that makes them hard to contain, just sound mismatches where if one players misses his assignment the play will succeed. And we are talking in relative terms here, we still only gave up 250 yards. Look at the stats around the country, even in sec games and you'll see there is a new norm.
This is true. There's a lot less 0'ing out of teams. A lot of very talented players would rather be a big fish in a little pond also than a little or medium fish in a big pond. The big programs are not getting all of the star talent.
Two things really concern me a bit about this team. One is the focus. Young or not, we are killing ourselves all too often. Too many penalties, many of which are drive killers or big plays from the opposing O. Our OL has had too many false starts. The D plays very well but will have a few drives that leave you shaking your head. I feel a lot of it is personel. We need more of Hunter, Allen, Beckwith, and White, with less of Martin, Welter, and Rasco. The punts are also a concern. Right now LSU can easily get away with shanks but come SEC play we will need better punting as field position becomes much more critical. Overall more focus, better punting, and better tackling and the sky is the limit. I feel very good about this team. I love the aggressive play calling. I love the way Mett, Beckham, and Landry are on the same page.
Some of that is academics, too. When you see a bowling ball RB like that Kent St. kid last night, what I think of is that either he was a "late bloomer" or didn't have the grades to get into an upper echelon school. Doubt he thought, well, in this offense I will be a big fish in a small pond and get noticed. Maybe, but I doubt that is the case w/most. Most would rather be at a high profile school, and have confidence/arrogance that they will be the big fish at the big school. LSU, Ala, FSU, etc still get the top talent that is academically eligible, imo.
We played 56 players last night, 8 walk-on guys. I think Chief will have his starting 11 after the auburn game, the rest are playing for back-up positions. When the OL wants to block, look out, those guys are starting to get it together. The punting is something that needs correcting, the guy is 23 years old and should be able to handle the pressure. We do have a couple guys that can punt, this next game should be his shot to keep his job.
Just for comparison. . .Saban is considered one of the best defensive minds in college football. Bama gave up 628 yards of offense yesterday. I truly think we are in a new era of football. The rules simply give every advantage to the offense. It's become far more about bending and not breaking than total dominance.
Many factors come into play with getting some of these kids, like you stated. Many times schools find these kids, get a verbal and cross their fingers a larger team won't come in an offer. This year a friend of mine found a kid in North Pole, Alaska. They got him into their camp, gave him an offer. He attended the SMU camp while he was down South, SMU offered him during the camp. The lucky part, he stayed with the first offer. Yep Alaska. Remember LSU got a player out of Canada, an needed him to win a NC.
Good - Mett and the o... Looks really good but could be better... The received have to slow down for some of his long passes... Still beats last year's 5yd over throws... Bad - the d still hasn't looked dominant in any phase and no turnovers to speak of... The penalties are gonna hurt when we get to the big boys... Ugly - punts like like shit... don't look like we'll be winning the position battle or flipping the field like with wing...
