Chavis's departure will end up being a blessing

Apparently the reason Brick always came in second was because he was handling the DL and LB recruiting so his buddy didn't have to get off his fat arse and talk to the players he may end up coaching.

Weren't you pretty upset at the Steele hiring?

Although he hasn't landed anyone yet, Ed O's enthusiasm is pretty infectious. It's hard not to get excited when you hear him talk about the team.

Pretty sure the ed o hire eased the pain of hiring ks as the dc. If we could have gotten o and kept chavis i think we would be better though. His defense was really nasty with a great d line.

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That's inexcusable, regardless of how stacked the next year should be.

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CFB players have a 3 to 5 year cycle, by exception. LSU should sign 25 players, unless total cap limited, period. A typical class should look like this:

1 QB (*)

2 RBs

1 FB/TE

3 WR

4 OL

4 DL

4 LB

3 DB

3 "Other" - specialists, a blue chip player for whom you must make room, "position of need", 2nd QB (occasionally), athletes who project at another position (TE might grow into OT)

If you have any attrition at all (LSU does) - you just barely keep up with demand at the position. A full 85 will look something like this (more or less - each group's slack is probably 1 either way):

4 QB

11 RB/FB/TE

12 WR

14 OL

12 DL

12 LB

12 DB

8 specialists (PK, P, SNP, Return specialists, etc.)

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Well yeah I read that, but I seem to remember you were livid. I'm not calling you out...I was upset for a day...but I came around on it.

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I've come around a bit, but am still pretty skeptical due to his past. I like his recruiting abilities and switching to a more aggressive scheme. Will he be more effective at this stop? We'll see.

I feel like he kind of relaxed too much knowing the offense would take all of the blame.

Here is the reality for all on the fence with the Chavis departure and Steele coming in.....

Chavis had a great reputation from his days in Tenn, but if people really remember, the SEC was bad then. His only competition was Florida and some of the early 90's Bama teams. Just go look at how they did against those good teams. Poorly! At LSU, he got acclaim for the Oregon game and the 2 games against aTm. The reality was all he did was go man and apply pressure because of the speed he had and the DBs he had to use. Beyond that, he gave up 4th Qtr leads that ended up losses over the last 4-5 year about a dozen times. Most to mediocre teams and once at home to Bama.

He has never been a great recruiter and his LBs have never been special. Minter was the only one that I would say played as an All American LB. It took him 1 year and 5 weeks, with 2 blowout losses to realize Welter should never be on the field in front of Beckwith. How many think any other coach would have done this???? Poor gameplan against Miss St, Auburn, Arkansas and Notre Dame. Poor LB play for a couple years with no good LB recruiting. Beckwith was a great get but he wasn't the lead and he moved the states second best LB in that class to FB who is not since off the team.

To me, Chavis was a product of Patrick Peterson, Honey Badger, Mingo, Brockers, Logan, Minter, Reid, Simon, Claiborne, and the list goes on. It would be hard pressed to screw up that talent. But I heard some say that it wasn't his fault because we were young and "Les" did bring in the talent. Well, when your DC is too lazy to recruit, also is not a great teacher.....how can you sustain excellence?

LSU is in a far greater position just for the fact that Steele is a bigtime recruiter. He may be a 7 to Chiefs 8 or 9 in the X & O dept(if the reputations are true). But I would much rather a coach who can bring in stud NFL talent and could motivate them to get it done, as apposed to another guy who says his reputation and scheme should bring in the talent that he can't coach up. Add to that is coach O, who is an all-time top 5 recruiter/DL coaches in the modern era. The kids he has been able to get at every stop and the production of the DL makes he and Steele home runs over Chief and Brick. I love what Brick did as a recruiter, but the DL has been HORRIBLE since he arrived. The last 3 years the DL has under-performed to say that least. From Montgomery, Freak Johnson, Ego, Mingo, Hunter, Rasco, Herron....the bigtime kids ended up looking average. I for a change in Herron and the rest of the DL.

Sorry for the long post..... looking forward now!