The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly -- Wisconsin game

http://m.espn.go.com/general/blogs/blogpost?blogname=ncfnation&id=97888&src=desktop

Gordon suffered a hip flexor late in the 2nd quarter.

 

You may be right, and I hope you are. Looks like the same offense to my eyes, and CLM is the common denominator. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful he is LSUs HC, and support him fully except this part. My perception is that he controls the game plan, whether it's accurate or not, I do not know. I realize it is his right to do so, he is the HC, and he has won roughly 80% of his games. I just wish he would let CCC dictate the offense as he sees fit, i.e. w/o meddling. Again, you may be right, I may be wrong in my perception, but I watch the games closely, too, and that offense Sat. night didn't look much different from any offense run by any of the OCs you mentioned except maybe GCs. I think he actually tried to let GC run it to some degree, but that pick six year really stung him, I think. Who really knows what goes on?

 

I think he controls the offense too, but allows CC to call the plays within the game plan devised and signed off on by Les himself.

I also think 2008 still haunts him.

 

I agree LSU has always had a strong running philosophy. Fact is though, when we have been most successful we also had a solid passing threat. I agree AJ is erratic and made some horrible passes. He also had a few great passes. You need the threat of the pass to open things up. In the second half when there was a pass threat LSU started running well. Before that we did not run well at all. It was a wall.

In '11 we had a special OL that eventually wore out opposing DL's and blew open holes. That is rare. This OL did not do that until the threat of the pass was there to made the D a bit more honest. We also need better run calls. UW does a great job of using motion and other forms of misdirection.

When I said the stats are misleading I meant the rushing numbers. Sorry if I was not clear. The majority of runs were for not. A few nice runs helped to bolster those numbers.

 

Agree Red, do people know how much time is between plays? Jimbo once told me nick would tell him, "Run Clock." Shorten the game, keep the clock running, get out with a win. Most every coach does this. Its known Peveto the Special Teams Coach watches for gaps, lineups, etc. He then comes to Les and lets him know of what he liked to use and when. But it better work. Beckwith played QB among other positions in high school, I saw him in high school, a great athlete, could have played on both sides of the ball. Sit back and enjoy football folks. A team improves the most between their first and second games. Hard to tell with the next couple games, but it will show up more during the Moo St game.

 

I truly believe there is (mostly healthy) tension between CLM and CCC. I believe Les wants to pound the ball more often than not and Cameron would be happy flinging it around the yard if he's got the weapons. I also believe that Les is involved in the game planning on both sides of the ball, but probably in a more general way -- "Film shows they're fast but sort of light. Might want to run right at them" or "That safety is pretty damned aggressive on the run. Play action is going to kill him" or "That's a strong, fast wide out. You're probably going to need safety help over the top." Or something like that.

I doubt very seriously that Les is on the headphones telling Cameron -- or Chief for that matter -- to run this exact play. Like you point out, there are 40 seconds from spot to snap and in those 40 seconds you've got to 1) get a play called; 2) get proper personnel on the field, if necessary; 3) huddle and communicate the play; 4) break, set formation and motion, if necessary; and 5) snap. There just isn't enough time to have multiple hands in the pie. Now does Les say, "I like our chances of a pass here, Cam." or something like that? Yeah, probably.

 

So what you are saying is that we should be hellbent on passing just like were when JLee had the all those pick sixes instead of bringing him along slowly & let him develope into a great qb? Damn, I really believe many of fans hear this crap so often that they have brainwashed themselves. We threw the ball 15 times in the first half then 7 times in the second half & I keep reading posts that we opened it up in the second half.

Cam Cameron is a very respected & confident coach. He wouldn't be here this year if Les meddled in the play calling last year like so many people claim. He'd be in the NFL as an OC.

He & Miles share a common belief in how an offense should be run, I'm sure Les gives his input on game plans at the beginning of the week & then lets Cam do his job. Just like all head coaches do with their coordinators unless they are really the defacto coordinator such as a Payton, Petrino, Malzan, etc.

Cam works with these QB'S every freaking day both on the field & in film study. He knows what plays he wants to run with them, he knows how well they read their keys, he knows what the different position groups are best at & I believe he is calling all the plays to give us the best chance of success.

And he likely knows that if Harris got more snaps than he did we likely would have lost the damn game by 2 or more scores.

If Harris has earned more time he'll get it the next two weeks if we build a large lead.

 

Just to be clear, I am not saying that he is meddling in the play calling all game long. My suspicion is that the week they put in the game plan, he makes it known what strategy he wants employed on offense, and approves of a certain number of plays. I am sure there is some allowance for the OC, too, and the actual play calling during the game is mostly the OC. But, what do I know. I'm going to take Dad's advice and sit back and enjoy the season.