re: Kevin Steele hire revisted

I am very pleased with him! Very.

I actually like what we have done limiting opponents early on while building a lead. We are tackling better so teams are not running all over us.. There is NOTHING worse than teams running all over you.. not even being passed on.

We are getting more turnovers, and much better penetration on the line.

I hope Mills returning soon will help the secondary position and play better.

The Dline is very thin this year, but they are doing a great job with it all things considered IMO..

Look forward to him and Coach O getting their recruits in as well. Our linebacker recruiting and dline recruiting is phenomenal right now.

Keep in mind the special teams have done the D no favors.. and often they are in bad field position because of it.. I have noticed when we get good field position the defense is far better in the 2nd half.. they force more punts with better field position. Naturally.. but they get after it better when the teams are backed up.

I honestly think our defense looks a good bit worse.

Our DL is definitely playing with more aggressiveness, but we have seen a lot of missed assignments and mental errors, especially in the secondary. Our numbers against shitty competition with backup quarterbacks aren't not what they should be. Our penalties are way up and we've seen better open field tackling.

I don't think its a terrible defense by any means and definitely good enough to win ball games, but it certainly isn't the well-oiled machine we've been used to (except for the last 2 minutes against Bama).

I'll give him a B-. He has room to improve though. We are very thin at a lot of positions.

LSU is leading the conference in total defense per game against conference opponents.

Additionally, LSU leads the conference in point differential per game against conference opponents at +15.7 points per game.

The college game is ALL about recruiting...we could end up with the #1 class this coming year...this is what I will judge Steele on...because hardly anything else makes much difference...ask Shorty!

Defense has actually taken a step back despite what everyone wants to say compared to after Beckwith took over in the second half of the season.

LBer play has been solid, yet a starter from last year is on the bench.

We continue to play Thomas at Nickel, yet he gets destroyed.

Our DT's have more depth than last year, yet seem to wear down quickly.

DE is the only area with depth issues and it just has to do with youth at this point.

All that said, the schemes haven't been strong and despite the fact LSU has played atrocious offensenses, they've still given up huge plays and over 20 ppg so far. They aren't horrible, but they aren't as good as last year.

Steele was a significant coaching downgrade no matter what people want to believe.

Welter starting and company getting ran on and missing tackles was far more frustrating than say a guy getting beat here and there in coverage (example: thomas last game)

I really like the way our guys are in better position to stop not just the traditional runners, but also stopping running quarterbacks.

There are a few scheme-related issues that need to be cleaned up, imo, and they're really the same stuff Chavis struggled with. In spread sets the middle is left wide open and they struggle with underneath routes. In addition, too many times no one has rotated over to cover behind a blitzing corner. Overall though the stats are good. Getting Mills back at the nickel should be huge.

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Against cupcakes


LSU played cupcakes last season, too

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Everybody plays cupcakes, no?

3 SEC wins, 4 P5 wins...

Well Mills injury didn't help.

Thomas has been bad.. Getting Mills back hopefully will help the Defense.

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All that said, the schemes haven't been strong and despite the fact LSU has played atrocious offensenses, they've still given up huge plays and over 20 ppg so far. They aren't horrible, but they aren't as good as last year.

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Should really go over the games individually..

Held Mississippi St to 19 points in our first game (no tune up) at their place. They had a couple of drives very late in the game playing desperate catch up.. Was this the game we put Jackson in and he got taken advantage of late?

19 points against Mississippi St at their place is better..

Auburn had 21 total points..

Syracuse had 24 points but the game so lopsided by the end it was understandable. LSU could have went in for 50+ points..

Eastern Michigan put up 22 points, but I don't really hold 7 points on the D considering they were gifted a freak turnover inside the 3 yard line.. a walk in 2 yard td was the result here.. so that's 15 points imo.

South Carolina scored 24 total points but 7 off the special teams retrun.. soo... that's 17 points

so to me it's 19 points a game our D is averaging..

I would take 19 ppg given up every time.

Keep in mind.. again the defense is getting more turnovers.. this is creating more opportunities for scoring.. we even have scoring touchdowns on D. at least one INT for a TD I can remember..

we were not doing this last season..

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You take away the special teams TD this last weekend and the ppg goes under 20 ppg. If you take away the EMU TD that was like 1st and goal on the two it drops further. The team is also probably experiemnting more while having comfortable leads.

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I was just typing this up! Someone that FINALLY gets and understands it!

I seriously don't get how people can be so harsh on the D.. It has been better than season. We are actually allowed to get out to LEADS finally.. Even when we were tested this past game and they had ball first and the D had a little early struggle.. they buckled down and held them to just 3 points.. first time we trailed all season long.. and we responded with a TD and a 7-3 lead immediately.. defense continued to stiffen and we were up two scores before you knew it because of them.