Link: A better (?) way to look at college football's returning experience

Re: A better way to look at college football's returning experience

B1GTide said:

LSU has to prove that they have a real offensive game plan and a QB capable of executing it before I worry about them beating Alabama with your run defense. They will likely be the most talented team in the country in week one, but they don't play Alabama in week one. By the time that they play you guys, you will have a team of very experienced players.

As for OSU - serious rebuilding year, but I still like our chances of winning the B1G which I think will take a step backwards over-all this season.

Click to expand...

This is why LSU's fan base got so divided. The Bo Schembecler (sp?) style of offense is good enough to win 10 or so games with the talent we (LSU) have. The coach lost his "Lesticles" for the most part in 2008 when J Lee threw a huge number of pick sixes. We just normally wear teams down and rarely lose to lesser talented teams. Step up a notch to an Alabama and well that crappy style of play doesn't always work (see 2015 Alabama game and no adjustments). I would have fired Les that next day. But Les can point to his style and say well it got him in the championship in 2011 (defense was best we ever had) and we had Alabama on the ropes in 2012 and 2014 and really should have won both. As a fan, I'm seriously hoping the near firing was a wake up call. Les has shown that he can surround himself with good coaches and we can win if he lets them do their job. Problem is, he gets nervous, takes over, parks the bus, and it's ground and pound. Back to my original comment, some fans feel 10 wins, no probation and a clean program is enough to keep a coach. We got crucified by the media who loves to make fun of les, but when it came to actually near termination, they backed him. The powers that be caved and Les lives to coach another day.

Re: A better way to look at college football's returning experience

WSIV70 said:

We got crucified by the media who loves to make fun of les, but when it came to actually near termination, they backed him. The powers that be caved and Les lives to coach another day.

Click to expand...

I got the sense that the cost concerns saved Les as much as, if not more than, anything else last year. Either way, there aren't many better options out there, so LSU fans should be happy that he is still your HC in 2016. Still, fans are fanatical and the result isn't always pretty. I was talking football on another board this week and several LSU fans said that they would trade losses in every other game this season for a win at home against Alabama. While they probably didn't mean it quite that literally, you can tell that Alabama/Saban are in their heads and that a victory over Alabama may be the only thing that can save Miles' job.

Re: A better way to look at college football's returning experience

WSIV70 said:

Back to my original comment, some fans feel 10 wins, no probation and a clean program is enough to keep a coach.

Click to expand...

Honestly, even that is extraordinarily remarkable. In the wake of the recruiting and sexual assault scandals I place even more value on a standard like the one you mention than winning at all costs. There has been conversation on this board between fans who agree that we'd rather see the football program dismantled rather than letting something like Baylor or Penn State happen here. So 10 wins and a clean program is definitely not something even many Bama fans would sneeze at.

Re: A better way to look at college football's returning experience

B1GTide said:

I was talking football on another board this week and several LSU fans said that they would trade losses in every other game this season for a win at home against Alabama. While they probably didn't mean it quite that literally, you can tell that Alabama/Saban are in their heads and that a victory over Alabama may be the only thing that can save Miles' job.

Click to expand...

There are 3 shoe-in teams who would probably share this sentiment in the SEC: Auburn, LSU & Georgia. A runner-up would be Tennessee. Out of conference I've got to believe that Michigan State would trade a few just to get a little pride back as well.

Winning legitimate championships isn't really the goal in the SEC anymore. Other teams will tell you it is -but it isn't. The more satisfying goal for them is to beat Alabama.
How is it that we still have to hear about Texas A&M beating Alabama in 2012 - a year that we won our 2nd consecutive national title? Because the championship standard was and is Bama.
How is is that we still have to hear about Oklahoma beating Alabama in 2013? Beating Alabama was like winning a championship. I hear that game referenced more than I hear about the actual championship game between FSU & Auburn.
We still have to hear about how Ole Miss won both games (they literally rushed the field for an early season conference win in 2014) in years where we won the SEC Championship twice and won the National Championship. And that will get brought up for years to come - because to them, that was everything.

The word Alabama & Championship have become so synonymous that winning either one has the same euphoric affect - even if one is just a team.
The phrase "Beat Bama" has become an "Amen" to these teams. It's at the end of every prayer.
Meanwhile Alabama focuses on one thing. "Beat Everybody"

Re: A better way to look at college football's returning experience

B1GTide said:

I got the sense that the cost concerns saved Les as much as, if not more than, anything else last year. Either way, there aren't many better options out there, so LSU fans should be happy that he is still your HC in 2016. Still, fans are fanatical and the result isn't always pretty. I was talking football on another board this week and several LSU fans said that they would trade losses in every other game this season for a win at home against Alabama. While they probably didn't mean it quite that literally, you can tell that Alabama/Saban are in their heads and that a victory over Alabama may be the only thing that can save Miles' job.

Click to expand...

LSU had Jimbo Fisher lined up. Sexton upped the ante from 6 mil to 7 mil and you are correct, that caused a lot of trepidation. However, the final game of the year when we beat Arkansas, and I was there with my son who is now an Alabama student, the LSU students (the same group that starts the "F You Saban" classless chant during the Alabama games) lead a "Le-es Mi-les clap clap...clap clap clap" cheer and the stadium caught on. This was piled on top of the gridiron club lunch earlier that week in which a bunch of the supporters had a tearful farewell to Miles. Anyway, the powers that be felt the world supported Miles and in the post game press room, our AD made a statement that he evaluated the season and Les Miles will remain the coach. I think had Sexton not increased the demand, the powers might have ignored the fan support, but too much came together favoring Les.

Re: A better way to look at college football's returning experience

Intl.Aperture said:

Honestly, even that is extraordinarily remarkable. In the wake of the recruiting and sexual assault scandals I place even more value on a standard like the one you mention than winning at all costs. There has been conversation on this board between fans who agree that we'd rather see the football program dismantled rather than letting something like Baylor or Penn State happen here. So 10 wins and a clean program is definitely not something even many Bama fans would sneeze at.

Click to expand...

You're mostly right, but I think even y'all can admit that LSU has had equal talent the last 5 years. The number of players in the NFL supports it. The joke amongst some, me included is, No one does Les with more. We've had our share of internal issues like synthetic marijuana, but we have avoided the big ones. I wouldn't trade places with Ole Miss, that's for sure.

Re: A better way to look at college football's returning experience

WSIV70 said:

You're mostly right, but I think even y'all can admit that LSU has had equal talent the last 5 years. The number of players in the NFL supports it. The joke amongst some, me included is, No one does Les with more. We've had our share of internal issues like synthetic marijuana, but we have avoided the big ones. I wouldn't trade places with Ole Miss, that's for sure.

Click to expand...

I think last year was the first year in awhile that there was an obvious talent gap between LSU and Alabama in the offensive and defensive line. We dominated the LOS in the game last year and had significantly better QB play than LSU in the past several years. Alabama has been superior in the two areas that matter the most: LOS and the QB..

Re: A better way to look at college football's returning experience

WSIV70 said:

You're mostly right, but I think even y'all can admit that LSU has had equal talent the last 5 years. The number of players in the NFL supports it. The joke amongst some, me included is, No one does Les with more. We've had our share of internal issues like synthetic marijuana, but we have avoided the big ones. I wouldn't trade places with Ole Miss, that's for sure.

Click to expand...

Oh, I agree with the talent onboard the "No one can do Les with more" slogan rings true. I understand the expectation to perform. I just don't think it's a losers consolation to run a clean program that consistently wins 10 games. It really is admirable to do such a thing. I even think Georgia moving on from Richt was questionable (we love Mark Richt around here because we can always count on that 'W'). He had the misfortune of having a preseason championship favorite (even though there were deficiencies at QB and the offensive perimeter) getting trounced by Bama and still having the countries attention when his team let the lead go against Tenn. and lost to Florida. 10-3 season with a bowl win and an above-board program. Not bad for any school.

Re: A better way to look at college football's returning experience

TIDE-HSV said:

WSIV seems like a nice guy, and is a prospective Bama parent, but I've suspended him for now, except for posting from that perspective. We may revisit the issue shortly. Perhaps all the guys who gave us so much trouble have died off...

Click to expand...

I was afraid of that. The compassionate dictator has spoken so let it be done!

Re: A better way to look at college football's returning experience

TIDE-HSV said:

WSIV seems like a nice guy, and is a prospective Bama parent, but I've suspended him for now, except for posting from that perspective. We may revisit the issue shortly. Perhaps all the guys who gave us so much trouble have died off...

Click to expand...

My only question is why is this statement in this thread and not in the WSIV I Come In Peace thread?