re: 1 top 5 finish in last 6 years and 1 BCS bowl appearance

Recruiting is definitely a major reason that teams like Bama and FSU are where they are this season. It's also the reason LSU went 13-1 in 2011 with LSU's 2009 recruiting class a huge part of that season.

The advantage those teams (Bama and FSU) have had isn't a lack of attrition, but the fact that they continued to put up top 10 and specifically top 3-6 classes to account for the annual losses.

LSU's recruiting simply hasn't been even close to that level. It's averaged 8th and only had 1 top 5 class in the last 6 years.

That's been one of the major issues at LSU. Their coaching is great with great talent and slightly average to mediocre when they don't have great talent.

In the end, Les isn't keeping up with Bama because his recruiting isn't good enough to account for the coaching talent differences. He's a good coach, but not as good as LSU needs to stay an elite program.

Coaching is critical, no matter what people think. Talent can definitely hide poor coaching, but championships are more often than not won with great coaching and no where is it more evident than Auburn this season where coaching is helping lift a team with less depth and talent to play some pretty darn solid ball and the huge difference between their 2010 and 2012 team.