USAToday: Early look at #11 LSU

Redwood Forrest · May 1, 2017

3. Talent. Did you know that LSU has as much talent and athleticism as any program in the country? You probably did. Now imagine coaching philosophies and schemes that take full advantage of this ability — not just on defense but on offense, too. That’s something.

But recent history suggests that talent alone is enough to lift LSU to eight or nine wins even if the offense misfires and sputters once the calendar turns to SEC play. A little tweak and polish here and there makes LSU a pretty intriguing team to consider in the chase for the College Football Playoff.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...s-college-football-early-look-2017/101149078/

I don't think Coach O is any better than the Hatter, so I predict at least two losses in the West. I agree this is going to be interesting. Tee it up and kick it off!

B1GTide · May 1, 2017

Another thing holding LSU back is $$$. The Alabamas of the world have a HUGE staff outside of their coaching team to help in every aspect of player and game management. LSU is lucky to have a coaching staff at this point. Tremendous talent - absolutely tremendous - but when you have to beat Alabama, you need more than talent. Your preparation has to equal Alabama's preparation.

RollTide_HTTR · May 1, 2017

I just don't get the Ed O love from some people. What has he done to warrant it? He didn't even improve on Les last year. I would argue LSU would have finished the year with the same record with Les. Their D is going to continue to be great because they have Aranda but they need to actually do something impressive on O before I'm convinced they have improved after Les.

Redwood Forrest · May 1, 2017

RollTide_HTTR said:
I just don't get the Ed O love from some people. What has he done to warrant it? He didn't even improve on Les last year. I would argue LSU would have finished the year with the same record with Les. Their D is going to continue to be great because they have Aranda but they need to actually do something impressive on O before I'm convinced they have improved after Les.

I agree. Les was a good HC and I am not sure Coach O is better, so I expect the same two losses each year. Coach O has done amazing things to never have done anything. He is supposed to be this ace recruiter but when I went back and looked at his recruiting at Ole Miss, Tennessee and USC ..... I saw nothing spectacular. Coach O and Kiffin. Two peas in a pod .... they have nine lives!!!!!!!!

RTR91 · May 1, 2017

From what I can tell, the hype around O is based on a belief he'll Aranda and Canada coach and not get in their way like Les was known to do.

B1GTide · May 1, 2017

RTR91 said:
From what I can tell, the hype around O is based on a belief he'll Aranda and Canada coach and not get in their way like Les was known to do.

I think that this is true, but we will have to wait and see if he produces better results. If LSU scores more but still loses to Alabama, he will be fired.

rgw · May 1, 2017

If Coach O takes the figurehead role and lets Aranda and Canada do their job then I think LSU will be fine for a few years under O. The problem for the new regime in Baton Rouge is that I suspect both the coordinators are short-timers and likely to get HC opportunities within 2-3 years. Can Coach O show that he has a good eye and deep rolodex when it comes to staffing?

He's not as dumb as we'd like to think...he had more sense than Les when it came to Cam Cameron. The first thing he did as head coach was fire that guy.

RTR91 · May 1, 2017

B1GTide said:
I think that this is true, but we will have to wait and see if he produces better results. If LSU scores more but still loses to Alabama, he will be fired.

Oh, I completely agree. Plus, anyone doubt Aranda and/or Canada are gone within three years?

81usaf92 · May 1, 2017

I say 11-1 or 10-2. The talent is there and I will say that O has done something that makes me think that he might actually be a step in the right direction for LSU and that is that he is surrounded by great people and he allows them to coach.

Aranda is on par with Pruitt or atleast a close second. The question is how fast can Canada teach his offense.

81usaf92 · May 1, 2017

Redwood Forrest said:
I agree. Les was a good HC and I am not sure Coach O is better, so I expect the same two losses each year. Coach O has done amazing things to never have done anything. He is supposed to be this ace recruiter but when I went back and looked at his recruiting at Ole Miss, Tennessee and USC ..... I saw nothing spectacular. Coach O and Kiffin. Two peas in a pod .... they have nine lives!!!!!!!!

Ok I'm going to table the Kiffin slant for another time just to stay on topic.....

I think you are missing what folks are meaning about him being an improvement over les. They aren't saying as a whole they aren't saying as of the last 4 years. Les kept doubling down on Cameron and did the Mike Shula entitlement thing and basically told everyone who tried to tell him to get rid of Cam " I'm the coach and you are going to have to fire me to get rid of him". Having Cam there for so long did a lot of harm to their offense. WHAT O did with a TE coach on the fly was pretty amazing considering how much damage Cameron and Miles did to the offense the last 4 years.

Also name one great recruiter a Ole Miss that didn't cheat. Also at USC he was limited by sanctions.

Redwood Forrest · May 1, 2017

81usaf92 said:
Ok I'm going to table the Kiffin slant for another time just to stay on topic.....

I think you are missing what folks are meaning about him being an improvement over les. They aren't saying as a whole they aren't saying as of the last 4 years. Les kept doubling down on Cameron and did the Mike Shula entitlement thing and basically told everyone who tried to tell him to get rid of Cam " I'm the coach and you are going to have to fire me to get rid of him". Having Cam there for so long did a lot of harm to their offense. WHAT O did with a TE coach on the fly was pretty amazing considering how much damage Cameron and Miles did to the offense the last 4 years.

Also name one great recruiter a Ole Miss that didn't cheat. Also at USC he was limited by sanctions.

You could be right, I wasn't looking at the fact he was replacing an unpopular HC. I was only looking at his record, which is 22-29 at three different schools. I guess we will see in a couple of years what he can do.

81usaf92 · May 1, 2017

Redwood Forrest said:
You could be right, I wasn't looking at the fact he was replacing an unpopular HC. I was only looking at his record, which is 22-29 at three different schools. I guess we will see in a couple of years what he can do.

Well try to look at it this way....

LSU hasn't recovered from the beat down in the national championship game. Cameron was brought onto to improve the sturdawa offense but he just kept falling on his face. If we really want to use the Bama envy logic then let's do it from 13-15

13- they had Mett in a defensive showdown. Get boatraced when Bama got aggressive

14- Kiffin pulls an Alabama OC in Baton Rouge kinda deal in which they completely lose their mind (10,12,14,16). Cameron can't find jack to do in a game that was practically gift wrapped them.

15- Run LF when it is clearly not working.

In all 3 of those games LSU's defense played very well, but their offense was very predictable and uninspired. I remember talking to LSU fans after last year's game (I went) they said the difference between Miles the last 3-4 years and Oeaux is that atleast when Oeaux's offense is stalling he is willing to try something new instead of continuously hitting his head against the wall. Point is Les was probably the 4th best coach in the conference each of the last 4 years.

Redwood Forrest · May 2, 2017

81usaf92 said:
Well try to look at it this way....

LSU hasn't recovered from the beat down in the national championship game. Cameron was brought onto to improve the sturdawa offense but he just kept falling on his face. If we really want to use the Bama envy logic then let's do it from 13-15

13- they had Mett in a defensive showdown. Get boatraced when Bama got aggressive

14- Kiffin pulls an Alabama OC in Baton Rouge kinda deal in which they completely lose their mind (10,12,14,16). Cameron can't find jack to do in a game that was practically gift wrapped them.

15- Run LF when it is clearly not working.

In all 3 of those games LSU's defense played very well, but their offense was very predictable and uninspired. I remember talking to LSU fans after last year's game (I went) they said the difference between Miles the last 3-4 years and Oeaux is that atleast when Oeaux's offense is stalling he is willing to try something new instead of continuously hitting his head against the wall. Point is Les was probably the 4th best coach in the conference each of the last 4 years.

Bama envy is still alive and well in BR. Their fans refused to believe we had the better team and they were fortunate to win the 9-6 game. When the replay came about they blamed it all on Les, still refusing to believe. Now Les is a goner unLes he can beat Bama enough to make up for that championship loss and he could not do it. Coach O will have the same fate I am certain because I disagree with the article saying LSU has the same talent as Bama. Over the past 5 years Alabama has signed 26 five stars and LSU has signed 9 five stars. That is a big talent gap.

CrimsonForce · May 2, 2017

Who's their QB? Oh yea, Danny Etling. 8-5 or 9-4 until they get a real QB..

RollTide_HTTR · May 2, 2017

I get the idea that Coach O will let the coordinators coach and be more hands off and that may help in the short term. Like others said that will probably only be a short term solution as both coaches are probably HC in a few years. I'm just not convinced it will work all that well. Don't get me wrong I think LSU will be a good team but I'm not convinced their record will improve that much now that Les is gone.

CrimsonEyeshade · May 2, 2017

CrimsonForce said:
Who's their QB? Oh yea, Danny Etling. 8-5 or 9-4 until they get a real QB..

Thank you. Lock the thread.

rgw · May 2, 2017

Canada took a Tennessee reject QB and made Pitt into one of the most explosive offenses in the nation last year. So, I won't count them out with Etling. There probably is a ceiling that is short of champion with Etling but maybe not as low as his talent would dictate. We shall see.

81usaf92 · May 2, 2017

CrimsonForce said:
Who's their QB? Oh yea, Danny Etling. 8-5 or 9-4 until they get a real QB..

Their schedule is super easy. I don't see them going 8-5 even with Brandon Harris. Their 3 most difficult games are @ UF @Bama and @MSU. I don't see O dropping any games he shouldn't at or those at home.

B1GTide · May 2, 2017

81usaf92 said:
Their schedule is super easy. I don't see them going 8-5 even with Brandon Harris. Their 3 most difficult games are @ UF @Bama and @MSU. I don't see O dropping any games he shouldn't at or those at home.

5 losses seems high, but 4 is easily within reach. We have no idea what to expect from BYU in their opener, but their head coach did a pretty solid job last year given what he inherited with 9 wins. And the last 7 games on their schedule come with only their usual bye before the Alabama game. That is going to be a grind - especially if (when) they lose to Alabama. I have no idea what to expect with the change in coaching staff, but a 3-4 loss season seems likely right now.

RollTide_HTTR · May 2, 2017

B1GTide said:
5 losses seems high, but 4 is easily within reach. We have no idea what to expect from BYU in their opener, but their head coach did a pretty solid job last year given what he inherited with 9 wins. And the last 7 games on their schedule come with only their usual bye before the Alabama game. That is going to be a grind - especially if (when) they lose to Alabama. I have no idea what to expect with the change in coaching staff, but a 3-4 loss season seems likely right now.

The SEC is going to be really interesting this year. I'm not sure how to feel about a lot of these teams. Just looking at LSUs schedule Ole Miss, Tennessee, Florida, Auburn and Texas A&M all have new QBs this year. Florida, Auburn, Tennessee and Texas A&M all lost their some of their defensive players. That adds up to a whole lot of new and maybe an opportunity for someone like LSU to really take advantage or maybe Arkansas? If none of the new QBs turn out to be world beaters then I could see LSU pulling of a 1-2 loss season heading into their bowl game.

Side note: depending on how these teams work out we could really roll this year. @Vandy @A&M @MSST and the Iron Bowl are our only road games and only one of those games should be close competitive unless A&M pulls something off.

USAToday: Early look at #11 LSU

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