re: An Open Letter to Les Miles

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But you do owe Drake Nevis. You do owe Kelvin Sheppard. You owe Pep and Jai. You owe Barksdale. You owe Patrick Peterson. All of these guys are about to suit up as LSU Tigers for 8 more regular season games. And then it is gone. Some won't play real football ever again. Some will go pro but they'll never play in Tiger Stadium again. These guys have put in the work. They fight and bleed for you and their teammates.

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This is something that I relate to the most. When something is paid for in blood, it's expected to be paid back with success.

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I read the entire thing. Nice work. Can't really quibble with anything you said.

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This

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10-22 75 yds 2 ints.
Can Lee really be worse?


He sure was when his interceptions kept getting returned for TD's. How soon people forget.

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Lee never had a game as bad as that. No Div-1 QB that I can remember has ever had a 3 game stretch as bad as JJ has this year. Also, JJ's 2nd int would have been a pick six if the db didn't trip over his own feet! But I guess that pass was somehow better than the pick 6's that JL threw because the guy tripped on his own feet at the 5 yd line. How soon YOU forget! Other than the Ole Miss game in 08 when he got hurt and JJ had to come in, I don't think JL ever started a game that he didn't throw a TD pass (to LSU). Certainly not 3 games in a row without a TD. At this point he can't be any worse! JJ needs to sit for at least a half because he's in a downward spiral and it will probably help him to watch and observe and if nothing else take all the pressure off him so he can clear his head. If JL is by some statistical miracle actually worse than JJ has been you can always put JJ back in. Again, the passing game CAN'T get any worse.

Why the hell did this get a sticky.

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deafjam

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What up Benito?

Is Bailey a redshirt? If not does he suck? Is it possible that he's better than JJ or JL?

Please Les..... recruit a handful of QBs and assure them GC will not be around.

Please send this to the the Advocate to be printed in the opinion or letter to the editor section. Someone please give him contact info to get this letter to coaches/admin -- although they must already know this

They unstickied everything.

Mike, I appreciate your perspective but I couldn't disagree more.

I read today's paper and I see a couple major issues you didn't hit on at all:

1) Offensive penalties put us in too many long yardage situations

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"Jefferson seemed to come out in rhythm early in the game, but a spate of penalties constantly forced LSU to work from behind the chains.

The Tigers were flagged for seven offensive penalties: three holding infractions, three false starts and an illegal formation.

As a result, the Tigers ran eight plays when more than 10 yards were needed for a first down. On 13 third downs, the average distance to go was 9.2 yards and LSU converted only 3 of 13, nine on six first-half chances."

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2) Receivers not running the correct route or worse yet, dropping the ball or deflecting the ball to the waiting hands of a defender.

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Not that Jefferson was solo in his struggles.

"On the first offensive series, senior Terrence Toliver botched a catch on a well-thrown Jefferson pass inside the WVU 20-yard-line and the Mountaineers’ Keith Tandy picked off the carom."

"Inside receiver Russell Shepard also was targeted on a few throws when it appeared his route might not have been run as precisely as necessary."

"Another 20-yard strike to Toliver was wiped out by a holding penalty on P.J. Lonergan."

“It’s a lot of little nitpicky things,” Ridley said. “In the first quarter we had so many penalties, all because of little things. But they add up and that’s aggravating.”

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Jefferson clearly has his problems and Lee will likely see more playing time. But I hold out little hope that Lee is some messiah that will energize our offense. The fans seem to have some mystical faith (not unlike the people who voted for a certain candidate in 2008) that Lee will come in and be our savior. Folks, the QB cupboard is bare. We are stuck with the mediocre QBs we have this year. This isn't the NFL -- we can't make a midseason trade for Michael Vick. Lee and Jefferson are all we have unless they convert Shepard back to QB. And if Lee was all that fantastic in practice, he would have won the starting job. He will get his chance - at a minimum I see him playing a lot against McNeese or earlier if LSU falls behind early against Florida or Tennessee. Soon enough, you'll get to see Lee play some serious minutes. But all this bitching and moaning in the middle of a thus far undefeated season is highly unproductive. It's a self fulfilling prophecy -- we keep telling the QB he sucks and he lives up to your expectations that he should suck. Frankly, I think the fans would be more disappointed if they had nothing to boo about. So many of them hate Miles (and conversely lust over Saban), that they want reasons to boo so they can run Miles out of town and go get the next new shiny Saban wannabe. It's human nature to bitch, bitch, bitch. And Tiger fans are expert bitchers.

And I'll bet that as the season goes on and Petrino and Arkansas look better and better, there will be a lot of threads on TD talking about how Petrino is the new shiny Saban wannabe that we must immediately hire for a gazillion dollars. Not only are LSU fans expert bitchers, we're also experts at coveting every shiny thing our neighbors have that we don't have.

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I have been a long time supporter of our coach’s decisions concerning players. I supported the coach’s decision in the MF / JR debate. The coaches see the players every day in practice. If JL was obviously better than JJ, I firmly believe he would be starting. The scary thing is that JL is probably not better than JJ. Even with that, I do think that it is time for JL to get some meaning playing time.

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JL will get serious minutes as the year goes on, probably against McNeese or sooner if JJ suffers a major collapse or the team falls behind by multiple scores against Tennessee or Florida. Regardless, it won't come soon enough for JJ's blind faith fanatical followers.

But you correctly highlight the real problem -- it's highly unlikely JL will be our savior as he hasn't impressed the coaches enough to start him. The cupboard is bare -- these are the 2 QBs we are stuck with this year.

The only theory that might be plausible for JL being our savior is that the receivers are tanking it for JJ because they have no faith in him. But that's a really hard theory to believe. JL could be a spark plug, but I just don't see it. But he'll get his chance to prove me wrong soon enough...