LSU's win a preview for us?

[1LoudTideFan]

Did anyone else feel that LSU's dominating performance in the title game showed what great recruiting in the south will do on the big stage?

Recruiting not being the whole enchilada obviously, but surviving a talented conference, like the SEC, with outstanding coaches prepares you against the other talented coaches in other leagues.

To break it down, what im saying is, Les Miles is not a better coach than Jim Tressel, not by a long shot. However, he is decent enough, with an amazing arsenal of talent, to beat a better coach with maybe a little less talent.

Speed wasn't the only killer in the BCS Title game, the LSU lines on both sides destroyed the OSU front, making for a mismatch on both sides of the ball, especially when LSU got the momentum rolling.

There is no promise that Saban will win us a national title or four, but you have to know that those seniors were the ones he recruited. No telling how well, despite Miles success the last few years, LSU would have done had Saban not left.

Consider ourselves lucky, no matter what, we will be playing with the big boys soon enough! Except, Saban will be leading the ship! Patience is hard for us as a fan base, but it will be worth it. Petrino, Tuberville, Miles, and the rest know there is a reason that Bama is a special place to play. When we are at our best, we ARE the best!

That is the end of my rant/blog. RTR!

 

[BamaSkins]

agree 100%...Coach Saban will have Bama looking alot like LSU in 2-3 years...our future is promising...

 

[LCN]

Agreed . Great post , minus the part about being lucky . :wink:

 

[Bamabuzzard]

Being in Louisiana for 12 years now that game Monday night showed me a lot of things. First and foremost it showed me that LSU has come a LONG LONG ways. When I first came over here to Shreveport from Mississippi you couldn't find a LSU fan. It was all Texas, OU and the Dallas Cowboys. LSU was nothing more than a lower tier SEC (in the 90's) that lost over half their games in the 90's. The LSU fans you did find and talk to were like talking to Saints fans. Expecting the worst and if anything good happened just sit there long enough they'd screw it up and for the most part that was true.

I watched Saban as he was hired and saw the dramatic improvement of the LSU Tiger program. The culture began to change, the attitudes of the fans began to change. Then came the 2003/2004 recruiting classes which if I'm not mistaken finished #1 or #2 in the country two straight years. Saban left and Miles comes in and takes the reigns and develops that talent left by Saban into a powerhouse that was displayed Monday night.

I saw that championship teams are built with quality depth not just a great starting 22. You MUST have players on second string that are equal or not much less than your first string. LSU has that and is doing nothing but reloading. Don't expect much of a drop off next season. If they lose four games I will be utterly shocked. Their defensive line won't see much drop off at all. Nor will their offensive line and the qb position will improve and the wr position will probably be better.

As I watched that game I realized that LSU has come from the bottom to the top and Alabama is basically on that same road. We haven't reached the top, we're not even at the half way point yet. We're at the point in the road that LSU was at in Saban's second season with LSU. Still making changes and upgrades.

I think the 2008 season we'll see more gradual improvement from the Tide football team but still not at the point where we can realistically expect to compete for a conference title. We still lack on QUALITY depth and are still lacking in the performance category at two critical areas on offense. We need to be patient and enjoy the good games with the understanding that we will get better but it won't be an overnight transformation.

 

[Alanbama27]

It cracks me up when I listen to the sports talk shows and Aubie fans. Just yesterday some moron called in and asked Finebaum to ask Saban this question. Based on your "process" how did the team do last year? Obviously he was attempting to point a finger at Bama and Coach Saban for something, but I missed it. I know a lot of people had higher hopes for last year than 7-6 but not many had hopes higher (at the beginning of the year when we tend to look at things more realistically) than 8-5 or 9-4. That is where I thought we'd be and frankly we should have been. Had we not gotten several starters suspended for 4 games we would have ended the year in the top 15 or so and won no less than 8 or 9 games.

With that said, I agree with your statement and point of the post. Just look at our recruiting and you'll see where we'll be by '09, which is my guess for a shot at a title for us. It will be Coach Saban's 3rd year and we all know that in EVERY Bama coaches 3rd year they win at least 10 games. Give that to Coach Saban and look out for a title! At the very least an SEC title and at best a NC!

 

[rgw]

I think that LSU's dominance the last three seasons under Miles is at least partially due to raw talent. Saban was the man who brought that raw material in, but Miles and his staff were the ones to mold that raw material into a top-tier SEC product. I don't think Saban is any less capable than Miles (probably more), so if he can continue his success in recruiting with Alabama...I think our day in the spotlight is coming fast.

I think you can find striking similarities in Saban to Parcells and Belichick because of their reputations as great talent evaluators. On the same train of thought, I found this article on New England Patriots Strategy. The entry has a little history and explanation of the Patriots' offense and defense which I believe to be the schemes we also run with Saban.

 

[GrayTide]

Yes and No. Yes it shows what a program can be when you sign great recruits every year and these players are coached by one of the best coaches and staffs in college football. No from the standpoint that the SEC is better from top to bottom than when CNS first arrived in Baton Rouge. The talent seems to get better every year and it's no longer limited to going to Gainesville, Athens, and Baton Rouge. The SEC also rans are getting better quality players and the experienced, highly sought after coaches are flocking to the SEC. So is it a preview for us, possibly, but even though we will get better with each passing season so will the rest of the SEC. No team can rest on its past accomplishments in today's college football.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

Yes and No. Yes it shows what a program can be when you sign great recruits every year and these players are coached by one of the best coaches and staffs in college football. No from the standpoint that the SEC is better from top to bottom than when CNS first arrived in Baton Rouge. The talent seems to get better every year and it's no longer limited to going to Gainesville, Athens, and Baton Rouge. The SEC also rans are getting better quality players and the experienced, highly sought after coaches are flocking to the SEC. So is it a preview for us, possibly, but even though we will get better with each passing season so will the rest of the SEC. No team can rest on its past accomplishments in today's college football.

Exactly. To think what happened to LSU will be exactly what happens to us might turn out to be inaccurate. The SEC as a whole has definitely gotten better. Better players from top to bottom, better coaches from top to bottom. I think one thing that we can just about bank on is that Coach Saban will put us in a position to be on the same competitive level as the LSU's, Florida's, Georgia's of the SEC year in and year out. We've fallen out of being competitive to a lot of teams in the SEC and have a big hill to climb. It's hard to believe that three teams in our division currently hold a combined 13 year winning streak against us and one of those teams is Miss. St.(granted only two years but a streak none the less).

The landscape of college football (especially the SEC) has drastically changed on many levels. Nothing is guaranteed to any teams anymore regardless of the team's "tradition", "history" etc. It's what you do TODAY that makes the biggest impact. CNS is currently doing the things "TODAY" that will hopefully put us back to competing for conference titles and national titles.

 

[red55]

I think that LSU's dominance the last three seasons under Miles is at least partially due to raw talent. Saban was the man who brought that raw material in, but Miles and his staff were the ones to mold that raw material into a top-tier SEC product.

"Partially" is the key word. Raw talent alone wins nothing. It takes talent, grit, coaching, scheduling, . . . and a lot of luck. If talent alone won football games, then Southern Cal and Texas would play each other every year for the title.

The landscape of college football (especially the SEC) has drastically changed on many levels. Nothing is guaranteed to any teams anymore regardless of the team's "tradition", "history" etc. It's what you do TODAY that makes the biggest impact.

The evolution of the SEC into a new kind of super league was demonstrated in LSU's win last Monday. Ohio State had talent and coaching enough to compete but they hadn't faced the adversity of LSU in winning a rugged SEC schedule and a title game. They beat up on OOC cupcakes and won in a pudding-soft league. LSU was the only top-20 team that Ohio State played all year! LSU played eight top-20 teams and beat seven of them including two BCS conference champions in OOC play.

 

[BigEasyTider]

We're definitely assembling the kind of talent that Saban brought to LSU, and the kind you saw in the title game on Monday night. I think it is only a matter of time -- three or four years tops -- before we win the SEC again and start contending for national championships.

But Alabama and LSU are two different jobs, two different situations when Saban took them over, and two different environments to face. Things won't work out the exact same. It may be better or worse for us, but it will be a bit different. We shouldn't expect things to go exactly like they did at LSU.

 

[LSUFan21]

Great analysis of the situation guys. This is why I enjoy reading Tidefans.

 

[Alanbama27]

My point wasn't that we'll win an SEC or NC but that we'll be in a position to compete for it by '09. I also agree that talent alone doesn't win squat and that is why I have 100% full faith in Coach Saban. Expectations (regardless of what has happened with the league) will be sky high by '09 and frankly the only question mark we'll have on that team "should" be QB and hopefully that will be taken care of next year. However, if we've learned anything from watching LSU its that a 3 or 4 year guy who plays back up but has talent CAN win it all.

 

[LSUNO1]

LSU's win a preview for us?

I don't think the 2007 LSU team is necessarily a preview for Bama. If you want a preview of Alabama, look at LSU's seasons between 2002-2004. Saban put up a 30-9 record during those three seasons with a disciplined, fast defense and a conservative offense. LSU did not have a conservative offense, in fact, our offense was our strength this year.

2002 was the first year Saban's players started to have an impact at LSU. If you ask me, Alabama will be more like those LSU teams, rather then this year's LSU team.

 

[GrayTide]

My point wasn't that we'll win an SEC or NC but that we'll be in a position to compete for it by '09. I also agree that talent alone doesn't win squat and that is why I have 100% full faith in Coach Saban. Expectations (regardless of what has happened with the league) will be sky high by '09 and frankly the only question mark we'll have on that team "should" be QB and hopefully that will be taken care of next year. However, if we've learned anything from watching LSU its that a 3 or 4 year guy who plays back up but has talent CAN win it all.

Agreed Alan. My point was that in 2009 and beyond we should be light years ahead of where we are right now and although expectations will be high we need to understand that no other SEC team is backing up and that a 9-2 record now may be equivalent to an 11-0 record as recent as 5-6 years ago. It will not get easier but we will have the talent and coaching by then to be on equal footing with the top 2-3 SEC teams.

 

[BigEasyTider]

The evolution of the SEC into a new kind of super league was demonstrated in LSU's win last Monday. Ohio State had talent and coaching enough to compete but they hadn't faced the adversity of LSU in winning a rugged SEC schedule and a title game.

I'm going to have to disagree with you a bit on that one, buddy.

There is no way that Ohio State has as much talent as you guys did. The only kid that really impressed me on their team was Beanie Wells. I am really not sure that the other guys could have started at LSU.

Seriously, do you really think Brian Robiskie and Hartline could have beaten out Doucet and Byrd? Boeckman wouldn't have beaten out either Flynn or Perrilloux. And for that vaunted defense, it looked closer to our defense than the LSU defense. Their defensive backfield couldn't cover any of your receivers with any consistency, and I don't think [SIZE=-1]Laurinaitis could beat out either Highsmith or Beckwith. The interior tackles couldn't have held Dorsey or Francois' jock strap, and while Golston looked pretty good, I wouldn't take him ahead of Tyson Jackson or Kirsten Pittman.

Just being brutally honest, I think you guys had far more talent than they did.

Coaching is a slightly different story, I think. I generally think Tressel is a good coach, and he had the Buckeyes very much ready to play early on. But when LSU showed the first sign of life, Ohio State went into absolute meltdown mode thinking it was going to be a repeat of last year. Fights, dumb play, blown assignments, and personal foul penalties ensued. I'm not sure that he could have done a whole lot about it, given the talent gap, but Ohio State certainly was not ready to face the adversity. I don't think that had anything to do with them not playing enough solid opponents. I think it had more to do with the fact that they weren't prepared to be embarrassed by the SEC for a second year in a row, yet found themselves in no position to do anything about it, and subsequently imploded.
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[Fishhead]

I don't think the 2007 LSU team is necessarily a preview for Bama. If you want a preview of Alabama, look at LSU's seasons between 2002-2004. Saban put up a 30-9 record during those three seasons with a disciplined, fast defense and a conservative offense. LSU did not have a conservative offense, in fact, our offense was our strength this year.

2002 was the first year Saban's players started to have an impact at LSU. If you ask me, Alabama will be more like those LSU teams, rather then this year's LSU team.

Great post! The Saban recruits that played for LSU this season were practically never in his system. The LSU 2003 BCS team was completely a different animal than this years.

Talent wise, though...you can expect CNS to recruit the best for HIS system...and you can look for him to utilize them like he did from 2002-2004 at LSU.

 

[CornBiscuit]

Great post! The Saban recruits that played for LSU this season were practically never in his system. The LSU 2003 BCS team was completely a different animal than this years.

Talent wise, though...you can expect CNS to recruit the best for HIS system...and you can look for him to utilize them like he did from 2002-2004 at LSU.

First of all, most fans get excited seeing LSU's players because of the talent...not because of the exact yards per game and the system used. People are just excited to see playmakers on the field for the first time in a while.

And we wont mirror 02-04. New offensive and defensive philosophies. Major's style is different than Jimbo's.

 

[BigEasyTider]

I don't think the 2007 LSU team is necessarily a preview for Bama. If you want a preview of Alabama, look at LSU's seasons between 2002-2004. Saban put up a 30-9 record during those three seasons with a disciplined, fast defense and a conservative offense. LSU did not have a conservative offense, in fact, our offense was our strength this year.

2002 was the first year Saban's players started to have an impact at LSU. If you ask me, Alabama will be more like those LSU teams, rather then this year's LSU team.

When was Saban's offense in 2003 conservative? Mauck and Randall combined to throw over 400 passes that year, 30 touchdown passes, Clayton had over 1,000 receiving yards, and you guys had one of the top offenses in the country. It may have not been a spread attack, but it was anything but conservative.

And actually, I think our offenses at Alabama in the future will more resemble the 2007 LSU offense than the 2003 LSU offense. We, just like LSU, now run the spread offense, sans the option game. Just about the entire SEC is running the spread now, and we are no different. The offense that we have now really isn't all that similar to what you guys ran in 2003.

 

[CornBiscuit]

When was Saban's offense in 2003 conservative? Mauck and Randall combined to throw over 400 passes that year, 30 touchdown passes, Clayton had over 1,000 receiving yards, and you guys had one of the top offenses in the country. It may have not been a spread attack, but it was anything but conservative.

Exactly. The reason they were "conservative" was because of QB play and had to run QB draws a ton, but wouldnt have it even an average QB was behind center...and they single handedly handicapped those teams.

 

[LSUNO1]

When was Saban's offense in 2003 conservative? Mauck and Randall combined to throw over 400 passes that year, 30 touchdown passes, Clayton had over 1,000 receiving yards, and you guys had one of the top offenses in the country. It may have not been a spread attack, but it was anything but conservative.

And actually, I think our offenses at Alabama in the future will more resemble the 2007 LSU offense than the 2003 LSU offense. We, just like LSU, now run the spread offense, sans the option game. Just about the entire SEC is running the spread now, and we are no different. The offense that we have now really isn't all that similar to what you guys ran in 2003.

In big games. LSU got out to a lead and then let the defense win the game. See UGA, Florida, Ole Miss, OU as examples. I also think the emergence of Justin Vincent really got the offense rolling that year. I'm not saying our offense wasn't good, it was a great offense. Although we have seen LSU get conservative on offense in 05 and 06, so that may have been Jimbo Fisher's doing and not necessarily Saban's.