re: The LSU / Les Miles TV dramedy continues....

Food for thought: LSU total offense rankings since 2008: 2008 55th, 2009 112th, 2010 86th, 2011 86th, 2012 76th. Note: 2010 was Gary Crowton's last year. To those who point to Miles' admittedly stellar W/L record, I contend that every team should strive to be the best on BOTH SIDES of the football. We are way better on the defensive end: 2008 32nd, 2009 26th, 2010 12th,2011 2nd, 2012 7th. Just imagine the W/L record if we just averaged around 35th to 45th on offense, certainly not an unreasonable expectation. I love Miles as a person and a recruiter and believe that he has a truly genuine interest in his players and that they love hin for it- great recruiter, great motivator, great "father figure", but his offensive philosophy is way outdated. Although it is said that defense wins championships, it seems that a lot of people think that a good defense goes hand-in-hand with a grind it out, "ball control" offense. I submit that there are very few teams that can achieve this because overall talent is fairly even, with Alabama being the most prominent exception. LSU has certainly NOT had such great offensive talent that they can just overpower everybody, especially higher-echelon SEC talent. Yes, we rushed for 258 yards against South Carolina, which was probably the highlight of the season offensively. The bottom line- in most situations the offensive scheme matters. Look at Oregon, which has a consistently top 10 offense- I believe it was top 5 the last 2 years. But Oregon makes its living on RUNNING the ball. They spread you out and run thru the gaps. On the other hand, LSU- especially on short yardage situations, usually "bunches up" with a 7 or 8 man line, zero or only 1 WR and QB, FB, RB. If you don't want the other team's defense to put 8 or 9 in the box, why not run a 3 or 4 WR set. In other words, the most effective way to run the ball is out of a " passing" formation- spread the field. You are automatically taking 3 or 4 men out of the box. That's how Oregon has been doing it for several years now, with great success.

It still amazes me that so many teams, college and pro, still employ old school football in short yardage situations. Probably has to do with many older coaches' "be tougher than your opponent, try to impose your will" philosophy. Anyway, I think that Miles primarily subscribes to this (outdated) philosophy and hope that he does hire a new OC, preferably someone LIKE Chip Kelly, Kevin Sumlin, etc. We've GOT to change the Offense. Sorry for the long post, it is my first post on TD.com. Will check tomorrow for any responses. GO TIGERS!