Depth? You can only put 11 on the field at a time. LSU had the players to run with most teams. Like I said, Hal Hunter proved this... As for the movement of Josh Reed, this was done before the 2000 season, from the LSU Sports.....
Once again I am bringing this to debunk the theory that Saban didn't have a ton in place here when he arrived. I have this one record every time this gets brought up. Each one of these made a NFL roster at one point. Fred Booker Jerel Myers Ryan Clark Rohan Davey Trev Faulk Bradie James Corey Webster-- Josh Booty Craig Nall Randall Gay-- Marcus Randall-- LaBrandon Toefield Josh Reed Devery Henderson-- Eric Alexander-- Dominick Davis John Corbello Lionel Turner-- Jarvis Green Rodney Reed Donnie Jones Stephen Peterson-- Jack Hunt-- Robert Royal Howard Green Eric Edwards Norman LeJeune Kenderick Allen Abram Booty Adrian Mayes-- Brandon Winey The ones with -- following the player are guys who were recruited by both Dinardo and Saban and most of them were on board before Saban arrived on November 30th. I left Lavalais and Mauck off the list because both were persuaded by Saban to join the team.
Do you consider that loaded, or top heavy? I don't think anyone is denying there was a great nucleus, and he could hit the ground running, but loaded?
I would say any team with that many players considered to be NFL talent as fairly loaded. There were also many other big contributers in that class and that class was very successful in college ball. This is one of the big reasons Saban wanted to come here and Emmerrt sold it. I would also contend if you went and picked the same types of players in any given class from LSU National champiohsip years or what others considered loaded teams you would see about the same number of players.
3 respected posters in Dad, Tiga, and Bhelm with the same stance. I will stand down now admit defeat in this debate.
Well then I'll answer the question you injected about underachieving- sorta. At the time, no. By today's standards, as someone already pointed out, yes. That's not really answering, I guess. At least it's riding the fence, maybe. Don't mean to do that but two different times and two different standards. Like Saban once said, "This year's accomplishment becomes next year's expectation." That always stuck with me. I'm pretty sure it's red who's often said Saban had to change the culture here. Not that we didn't have an overall "winning program" but he put us on that "next level" imo.
I agree Saban brought that mentality and Dinardo started the cycle of making sure our talent doesn't leave the state.
