- My Forums
- Tiger Rant
- LSU Recruiting
- SEC Rant
- Saints Talk
- Pelicans Talk
- More Sports Board
- Fantasy Sports
- Golf Board
- Soccer Board
- O-T Lounge
- Tech Board
- Home/Garden Board
- Outdoor Board
- Health/Fitness Board
- Movie/TV Board
- Book Board
- Music Board
- Political Talk
- Money Talk
- Fark Board
- Gaming Board
- Travel Board
- Food/Drink Board
- Ticket Exchange
- TD Help Board
Customize My Forums- View All Forums
- Show Left Links
- Topic Sort Options
- Trending Topics
- Recent Topics
- Active Topics
Started By
Message
Preparing for Year 7 in the Leslie Edwin Miles Era
Posted on 8/21/11 at 8:05 pm
Posted on 8/21/11 at 8:05 pm
LINK
From 1958 to 1972, the LSU football team finished in the Top 10 of one of the 2 major CFB polls in 10 out of 15 seasons. ( LINK) That was a remarkable era, both for LSU and for the SEC. Well, here were are again.
Since a low ebb around 2002, football in the SEC has grown more and more exciting with each passing year. And since 2005, so too has LSU football under Coach Miles. Every year something new and unexpected. Every year a new point of contention and dischord amongst a bickering fanbase. Every year fury and outrage and cynical detachment and elation, all mixed together.
Before we as LSU fans once again take the plunge into fall madness, let's take a chance to look back and reflect on the issues that have faced us over the last 6 season.
YEAR 1: 2005
The Main Fan Issue: Is Miles in over his head coaching at a program like LSU?
Secondary Issue: Can Pelini coach defense?
On January 2, the day LSU named Les Miles as head coach, most fans were not in a mood to celebrate. Since Smoke Laval made the CWS in 2003 and 2004, there were still mostly happy feeling within the fanbase for Skip Bertman, the athletic director since January 2001, but some questioned his first football hire.
In addition, many fans worried that Emmert and Saban (both with LSU from late 1999 to late 2004) were the main forces driving LSU to greater success, and that with both of them recently gone, that the new leadership of Sean O'Keefe, Skip Bertman, and Les Miles would not be up to the challange of maintaining that success.
Many were upset over the timing of Saban's departure, noting that UF had just acquired Urban Meyer and SCAR had just acquired Steve Spurrier. The 2004 season (when LSU struggled mightily to defeat lesser opponents such as Oregon State, Troy, and Ole Miss) and Capital One Bowl loss to Iowa had been somewhat of a letdown after the 2003 NC season, and now it looked as if LSU might recede into the background once again as a bit player in SEC football.
Then came the shocks of Hurricane Katrina on Monday, August 29, and Hurricane Rita on Friday, September 23. The fanbase and the state of Louisiana seemed to rally around Coach Miles and the LSU football team in the aftermath of the disaster, and on September 10, already Week 2 of the CFB season, LSU opened with a rescheduled road game against Arizona State in Tempe, winning in dramatic fashion, 35-31.
Thanks to Rita, LSU did not play its 2nd game until the Week 4 of the CFB season, with a rare Monday night football game against Tennessee in Tiger Stadium. There an emotional 21-0 halftime lead evaporated, turning into a 30-27 overtime defeat. Again, the defense looked awful.
At this point, the team's future looked shaky, but Coach Miles pulled them through, reeling off 9 straight wins in the next 8.5 weeks, 7 of them against SEC competition. In general, we fans were extremely proud of our team for what it accomplished under the circumstances, but under no illusions of its greatness. The 21-17 win against #11 Florida (that made Urban Meyer cry in Baton Rouge) was ugly, with LSU committing 5 turnovers and forcing none. The 20-17 overtime win over #16 Auburn was a magnificent thing of beauty, but still, there were those 218 rushing yards collected by Kenny Irons. The 16-13 overtime win over #4 Alabama on the road was sweet relief. The putrid offensive performance in the 19-17 victory over Arkansas to close out the regular season was just plain relief without the sweetness. Still, for the most part, the reasonable fan was grateful that LSU managed to make it through the season relatively unscathed, with a beautiful 10-1 record intact.
That the team folded in the SECCG against Georgia (the only SEC champ in the last 10 years to lose its bowl game, by the way) could almost be excused. And when Matt Flynn and the boys put a 40-3 whipping on #9 Miami in the Peach Bowl, most of Tiger Nation felt as though we were moving on to bigger and better things with Coach Miles at the helm.
YEAR 2: 2006
The Main Fan Issue: Is Miles capable of ever truly winning the big ones and bringing home a national championship to a dejected fanbase?
Secondary Issue: Is Jimbo Fisher holding us back on offense?
What do you get when you follow up back-to-back 45-3 victories in Weeks 1 & 2 with a 3-7 loss on the road at Auburn due to some of the worst officiating luck in history? One EXTREMELY pissed off fanbase, that's what. That this happened after a 9-10 loss at Auburn in 2004 from a bizarre PAT call didn't help matters one bit.
Hate this strong tends to spill over into all kinds of crazy directions, and we saw a lot of this in 2006. Many Tiger fans will still insist that the '06 team was the most talented collection of football players this program has ever had, and while the 10-23 loss on the road to the eventual NC Gators stung hard and put the final nail in the coffin for LSU's NC hopes, it was the Auburn loss that continued to cause the sharper anguish.
Honestly, the frustration was valid. The criticism of Jimbo Fisher was valid. Although the team put up big stats against vastly outmanned competition, when push came to shove against the big boys of the CFB world, LSU's offense was overly conservative to the point of being sclerotic, and undoubtedly, it cost us games--and almost cost us more.
Coach Miles had a rough time among fans during the tail end of the '06 season, but he would have had it much worse had LSU lost a third game that year. JaMarcus Russell took an offense that was lethargic against decent opposition, and managed to will the team to victory late in games with pure talent. The 28-24 victory at Tennessee, 23-20 victory vs. Ole Miss (in OT!!), and 31-26 victory at Arkansas, are all that stood between the LSU fanbase and complete anarchic rage against the team's underperformance compared with its expectations.
But if the fiasco on the plains stoked the fury of the LSU fanbase, the dominating Sugar Bowl victory over Notre Dame helped soothe the anger. By this time, Fisher had already been interviewing for the head coaching job at UAB, and although that fell through, it wasn't long before he left to become OC at FSU. As he left, Tiger Nation breathed a sigh of relief, and hoped for the best in 2007.
YEAR 3: 2007
The Main Fan Issue: Does Les Miles habitually reward loyalty and favorite players rather than simply utilizing top talent to maximum efficiency and tighter discipline? What would Saban have done?
Secondary Fan Issue: Is it true that Hester only starts because people are jealous of the size and shape of Keiland Williams's calf muscles?
Tertiary Fan Issue: Are LSU's colors truly be said to be purple & gold, or are they really cheddar & blurple?
From start to finish, 2007 was a year on the brink--that is, for the fanbase, if not for the actual team. There have been lots of times, if indeed not most times, when the LSU fanbase has gotten downright silly--few of these times, however, will ever compare to the silliness inherent in 2007, during a season in which Coach Miles managed to win a national championship and completely alienate half the fanbase for being incompetent at the same time.
The comparisons to both Nick Saban and Larry Coker were constant and unyielding. The Tiger Rant had a near meltdown over LSU's opening Thursday night 45-0 victory on the road against Mississippi State. The 28-16 and 34-9 victories over SCAR and Tulane were said to be so ugly that some were embarrassed by them.
And then it came. On Week 6 of the CFB season, one of the greatest
From 1958 to 1972, the LSU football team finished in the Top 10 of one of the 2 major CFB polls in 10 out of 15 seasons. ( LINK) That was a remarkable era, both for LSU and for the SEC. Well, here were are again.
Since a low ebb around 2002, football in the SEC has grown more and more exciting with each passing year. And since 2005, so too has LSU football under Coach Miles. Every year something new and unexpected. Every year a new point of contention and dischord amongst a bickering fanbase. Every year fury and outrage and cynical detachment and elation, all mixed together.
Before we as LSU fans once again take the plunge into fall madness, let's take a chance to look back and reflect on the issues that have faced us over the last 6 season.
YEAR 1: 2005
The Main Fan Issue: Is Miles in over his head coaching at a program like LSU?
Secondary Issue: Can Pelini coach defense?
On January 2, the day LSU named Les Miles as head coach, most fans were not in a mood to celebrate. Since Smoke Laval made the CWS in 2003 and 2004, there were still mostly happy feeling within the fanbase for Skip Bertman, the athletic director since January 2001, but some questioned his first football hire.
In addition, many fans worried that Emmert and Saban (both with LSU from late 1999 to late 2004) were the main forces driving LSU to greater success, and that with both of them recently gone, that the new leadership of Sean O'Keefe, Skip Bertman, and Les Miles would not be up to the challange of maintaining that success.
Many were upset over the timing of Saban's departure, noting that UF had just acquired Urban Meyer and SCAR had just acquired Steve Spurrier. The 2004 season (when LSU struggled mightily to defeat lesser opponents such as Oregon State, Troy, and Ole Miss) and Capital One Bowl loss to Iowa had been somewhat of a letdown after the 2003 NC season, and now it looked as if LSU might recede into the background once again as a bit player in SEC football.
Then came the shocks of Hurricane Katrina on Monday, August 29, and Hurricane Rita on Friday, September 23. The fanbase and the state of Louisiana seemed to rally around Coach Miles and the LSU football team in the aftermath of the disaster, and on September 10, already Week 2 of the CFB season, LSU opened with a rescheduled road game against Arizona State in Tempe, winning in dramatic fashion, 35-31.
Thanks to Rita, LSU did not play its 2nd game until the Week 4 of the CFB season, with a rare Monday night football game against Tennessee in Tiger Stadium. There an emotional 21-0 halftime lead evaporated, turning into a 30-27 overtime defeat. Again, the defense looked awful.
At this point, the team's future looked shaky, but Coach Miles pulled them through, reeling off 9 straight wins in the next 8.5 weeks, 7 of them against SEC competition. In general, we fans were extremely proud of our team for what it accomplished under the circumstances, but under no illusions of its greatness. The 21-17 win against #11 Florida (that made Urban Meyer cry in Baton Rouge) was ugly, with LSU committing 5 turnovers and forcing none. The 20-17 overtime win over #16 Auburn was a magnificent thing of beauty, but still, there were those 218 rushing yards collected by Kenny Irons. The 16-13 overtime win over #4 Alabama on the road was sweet relief. The putrid offensive performance in the 19-17 victory over Arkansas to close out the regular season was just plain relief without the sweetness. Still, for the most part, the reasonable fan was grateful that LSU managed to make it through the season relatively unscathed, with a beautiful 10-1 record intact.
That the team folded in the SECCG against Georgia (the only SEC champ in the last 10 years to lose its bowl game, by the way) could almost be excused. And when Matt Flynn and the boys put a 40-3 whipping on #9 Miami in the Peach Bowl, most of Tiger Nation felt as though we were moving on to bigger and better things with Coach Miles at the helm.
YEAR 2: 2006
The Main Fan Issue: Is Miles capable of ever truly winning the big ones and bringing home a national championship to a dejected fanbase?
Secondary Issue: Is Jimbo Fisher holding us back on offense?
What do you get when you follow up back-to-back 45-3 victories in Weeks 1 & 2 with a 3-7 loss on the road at Auburn due to some of the worst officiating luck in history? One EXTREMELY pissed off fanbase, that's what. That this happened after a 9-10 loss at Auburn in 2004 from a bizarre PAT call didn't help matters one bit.
Hate this strong tends to spill over into all kinds of crazy directions, and we saw a lot of this in 2006. Many Tiger fans will still insist that the '06 team was the most talented collection of football players this program has ever had, and while the 10-23 loss on the road to the eventual NC Gators stung hard and put the final nail in the coffin for LSU's NC hopes, it was the Auburn loss that continued to cause the sharper anguish.
Honestly, the frustration was valid. The criticism of Jimbo Fisher was valid. Although the team put up big stats against vastly outmanned competition, when push came to shove against the big boys of the CFB world, LSU's offense was overly conservative to the point of being sclerotic, and undoubtedly, it cost us games--and almost cost us more.
Coach Miles had a rough time among fans during the tail end of the '06 season, but he would have had it much worse had LSU lost a third game that year. JaMarcus Russell took an offense that was lethargic against decent opposition, and managed to will the team to victory late in games with pure talent. The 28-24 victory at Tennessee, 23-20 victory vs. Ole Miss (in OT!!), and 31-26 victory at Arkansas, are all that stood between the LSU fanbase and complete anarchic rage against the team's underperformance compared with its expectations.
But if the fiasco on the plains stoked the fury of the LSU fanbase, the dominating Sugar Bowl victory over Notre Dame helped soothe the anger. By this time, Fisher had already been interviewing for the head coaching job at UAB, and although that fell through, it wasn't long before he left to become OC at FSU. As he left, Tiger Nation breathed a sigh of relief, and hoped for the best in 2007.
YEAR 3: 2007
The Main Fan Issue: Does Les Miles habitually reward loyalty and favorite players rather than simply utilizing top talent to maximum efficiency and tighter discipline? What would Saban have done?
Secondary Fan Issue: Is it true that Hester only starts because people are jealous of the size and shape of Keiland Williams's calf muscles?
Tertiary Fan Issue: Are LSU's colors truly be said to be purple & gold, or are they really cheddar & blurple?
From start to finish, 2007 was a year on the brink--that is, for the fanbase, if not for the actual team. There have been lots of times, if indeed not most times, when the LSU fanbase has gotten downright silly--few of these times, however, will ever compare to the silliness inherent in 2007, during a season in which Coach Miles managed to win a national championship and completely alienate half the fanbase for being incompetent at the same time.
The comparisons to both Nick Saban and Larry Coker were constant and unyielding. The Tiger Rant had a near meltdown over LSU's opening Thursday night 45-0 victory on the road against Mississippi State. The 28-16 and 34-9 victories over SCAR and Tulane were said to be so ugly that some were embarrassed by them.
And then it came. On Week 6 of the CFB season, one of the greatest
24
Posted on 8/21/11 at 9:27 pm to Doc Fenton
...
YEAR 4: 2008
The Main Fan Issue: Should Miles have kicked Ryan Perrilloux off the team? How much has the program been set back because of RP, and whom should we blame for it?
Secondary Fan Issue: What in the name of Lou Tepper is going on with our defense!?!
Tertiary Fan Issue: Does Jordan Jefferson represent the future of LSU?
LSU should have been on top of the world entering the 2008 season, but in the world of our own perception, we definitely were not. Coach Miles was still openly mocked with Larry Coker references. The internal splits within the fanbase continued to fester and get worse. Posi-Tigers, Nega-Tigers, Reali-Tigers, etc. You name it, we had it.
In the spring Ryan Perrilloux got all the reps as the 1st string QB and heir apparent to greatness. Getting reps at #2 QB was Andrew Hatch, the Mormon kid from Harvard liked by Crowton. Getting the rest of the reps were redshirt freshmen Jarrett Lee and friend-of-Les T.C. McCartney.
Then on May 22, Perrilloux was suspended indefinitely. Prognosticators marveled at the strength of our offensive and defensive lines over the last few years, but openly questioned our ability to find a suitable replacement at QB.
As Hurricane Gustav approached Louisiana, LSU moved up its home opener against Appalachian State to a morning game to get football out of the way before the storm arrived. The game was boring (even though Spielmen referred to our D-linemen as being like Imperial Stormtroopers), the QB play of Hatch & Lee was terrible beyond our worst expectations, and Gustav had the strongest wind damage in Baton Rouge of pretty much any hurricane ever.
Lots of home generators were passed out from Home Depots, people around the nation braced themselves for financial collapse after the nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and two weeks later LSU won another uninspiring game against North Texas, 41-3, again with Andrew Hatch as the starter.
Hatch's 3rd start on the road against #10 Auburn was less successful, but the end result was much more exciting. After a pitiful 1st half performance, Jarrett Lee found his spark for the first time, and did just enough to lead LSU to a 26-21 comeback victory on the road in his first taste of SEC competition. In truth, he was mostly bailed out by a fantastic game by Charles Scott running straight up the gut, along with some help from his WRs.
But there were problems beyond the mere collapse of the global financial system to contend with here. For it was clear that this was not a very good LSU team. A 34-24 victory over Miss. State moved the Tigers to 4-0, and gave us a glimmer of hope that the team was learning how to play in the early season so that it could play better later.
In his first start as a Tiger, Jarrett Lee went 18-27 for 261 yards with 2 TDs, while only having 1 INT and 1 sack. His second start as a Tiger was much tougher, as the Tigers lost 21-51 in The Swamp to eventual NC Florida. Lee was 23-38 for 209 yards with 2 TDs, 2 INTs, and 2 sacks, inlcuding a 52-yd pick-6 to Brandon Spikes with LSU losing by 20 points in the 4th quarter. (By the way, LSU's 21 points was more than any other team scored on the Gators all year, with the sole exception of Ole Miss's improbable 31-30 victory which prompted the immortalized Tebow Speech.)
Of course, if you are already down by 20 points in the 4th quarter, then why not start taking chances with your throws? Which brings up the real problem on the 2008 team, which was the disastrous Peveto-Mallory co-DCs defense. Whereas rational fans realized both (1) the defense was the key problem, and (2) that having a freshman QB taking gambles trying to bail out his terrible defense isn't necessarily a bad thing, the unfortunately reality is that when things go bad, the mob always searches for the most convenient scapegoat to give them the easiest explanation for events. In this case, the easiest thing to latch onto was the eye-popping stats on Lee's pick-6's.
And so although Lee continued to do well on the road by going 16-26 for 186 yards and 1 INT in LSU's 24-17 victory over a winning Gamecock ballclub, things started to go horribly wrong for the kid when he returned to his own home crowd.
His 2 pick-6's against Georgia were too much for the rabid fanbase to bear in the year following a national championship. Whereas before hopeful fans could still point to the team's 5-1 record going into that game, afterwards there is little good to make of a team that allowed 50+ games twice in the same season.
Strategically speaking, it certainly makes sense to gamble on offense when your defense is giving up almost 10 yards per pass attempt by Stafford and almost 8 yards per run by Moreno. Nonetheless, Lee was crucified for throwing more pick-6's in his 4th start as a Tiger, although he also threw for 287 yards and 3 TDs.
And so we saw the very bizarre phenomenon of a freshman QB who led an offense to nearly 30 ppg in his first 3 starts (all against SEC teams) being made the scapegoat for the defense's incompetence. And if October was tough on Jarrett, November would be much, much worse.
Tulane (W, 35-10) - 8-20, 99 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT
Alabama (L, 21-27 [1OT]) - 13-34, 181 yards, 1 TD, 4 INT
Troy (W, 40-31) - 20-34, 216 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
Ole Miss (L, 13-31) - 4-12, 49 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT
This is what it looks like when a QB starts to collapse under pressure. To this day, a significant portion of the LSU fanbase has still not forgiven Jarrett Lee for that 4-game stretch.
In any case, a new issue arose around true freshman QB Jordan Jefferson, who had already played in several games (having thrown a pass as early as the 2nd game of the season), was the future of the LSU football program. Though he could only generate 3 points for LSU in the 2nd half against Ole Miss, in his first start against Arkansas (4-7, 1-6 in SEC), a team that had given up an average of 31.14 ppg in SEC competition, Jefferson went 9-21 for 143 yards, 2 TD, and apparently most importantly for the LSU fanbase, 0 INTs.
In his 6th week practicing as the official starter of the LSU football team, Jefferson participated in a total demolition of #14 Georgia Tech, 38-3, gaining 142 yards in the air through 16-25 in passing for 1 TD--and again--0 INTs.
The season had been a total disaster. When Pelini had left after the NC game in January 2008 for Nebraska, Coach Miles had not been able to find a suitable replacement in time to fill the void at the DC position (rumors say he was going after Muschamp), and so had recruiting Mall-veto from within as a stopgap measure (a tactic that would appear again after the 2009 season).
Fans of Miles were difficult to find at this point in time, but for those of us still in Miles's camp at this point, we could at least point to the way he handled the departures of Mallory (to New Mexico) and Peveto (to Northwestern State) with a high degree of class, and landed a great new hire with John Chavis from Tennessee.
The fanbase was so dispirited at this point that the majority of Tiger Nation was not enthused or confident about the new DC. In reality, however, Chavis had led the most fearsome defense of the last 15 or so years not counting the Gators. Even better, he was noted as being very good with LBs, a known weak point in LSU's defensive schemes since 1997.
...
YEAR 4: 2008
The Main Fan Issue: Should Miles have kicked Ryan Perrilloux off the team? How much has the program been set back because of RP, and whom should we blame for it?
Secondary Fan Issue: What in the name of Lou Tepper is going on with our defense!?!
Tertiary Fan Issue: Does Jordan Jefferson represent the future of LSU?
LSU should have been on top of the world entering the 2008 season, but in the world of our own perception, we definitely were not. Coach Miles was still openly mocked with Larry Coker references. The internal splits within the fanbase continued to fester and get worse. Posi-Tigers, Nega-Tigers, Reali-Tigers, etc. You name it, we had it.
In the spring Ryan Perrilloux got all the reps as the 1st string QB and heir apparent to greatness. Getting reps at #2 QB was Andrew Hatch, the Mormon kid from Harvard liked by Crowton. Getting the rest of the reps were redshirt freshmen Jarrett Lee and friend-of-Les T.C. McCartney.
Then on May 22, Perrilloux was suspended indefinitely. Prognosticators marveled at the strength of our offensive and defensive lines over the last few years, but openly questioned our ability to find a suitable replacement at QB.
As Hurricane Gustav approached Louisiana, LSU moved up its home opener against Appalachian State to a morning game to get football out of the way before the storm arrived. The game was boring (even though Spielmen referred to our D-linemen as being like Imperial Stormtroopers), the QB play of Hatch & Lee was terrible beyond our worst expectations, and Gustav had the strongest wind damage in Baton Rouge of pretty much any hurricane ever.
Lots of home generators were passed out from Home Depots, people around the nation braced themselves for financial collapse after the nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and two weeks later LSU won another uninspiring game against North Texas, 41-3, again with Andrew Hatch as the starter.
Hatch's 3rd start on the road against #10 Auburn was less successful, but the end result was much more exciting. After a pitiful 1st half performance, Jarrett Lee found his spark for the first time, and did just enough to lead LSU to a 26-21 comeback victory on the road in his first taste of SEC competition. In truth, he was mostly bailed out by a fantastic game by Charles Scott running straight up the gut, along with some help from his WRs.
But there were problems beyond the mere collapse of the global financial system to contend with here. For it was clear that this was not a very good LSU team. A 34-24 victory over Miss. State moved the Tigers to 4-0, and gave us a glimmer of hope that the team was learning how to play in the early season so that it could play better later.
In his first start as a Tiger, Jarrett Lee went 18-27 for 261 yards with 2 TDs, while only having 1 INT and 1 sack. His second start as a Tiger was much tougher, as the Tigers lost 21-51 in The Swamp to eventual NC Florida. Lee was 23-38 for 209 yards with 2 TDs, 2 INTs, and 2 sacks, inlcuding a 52-yd pick-6 to Brandon Spikes with LSU losing by 20 points in the 4th quarter. (By the way, LSU's 21 points was more than any other team scored on the Gators all year, with the sole exception of Ole Miss's improbable 31-30 victory which prompted the immortalized Tebow Speech.)
Of course, if you are already down by 20 points in the 4th quarter, then why not start taking chances with your throws? Which brings up the real problem on the 2008 team, which was the disastrous Peveto-Mallory co-DCs defense. Whereas rational fans realized both (1) the defense was the key problem, and (2) that having a freshman QB taking gambles trying to bail out his terrible defense isn't necessarily a bad thing, the unfortunately reality is that when things go bad, the mob always searches for the most convenient scapegoat to give them the easiest explanation for events. In this case, the easiest thing to latch onto was the eye-popping stats on Lee's pick-6's.
And so although Lee continued to do well on the road by going 16-26 for 186 yards and 1 INT in LSU's 24-17 victory over a winning Gamecock ballclub, things started to go horribly wrong for the kid when he returned to his own home crowd.
His 2 pick-6's against Georgia were too much for the rabid fanbase to bear in the year following a national championship. Whereas before hopeful fans could still point to the team's 5-1 record going into that game, afterwards there is little good to make of a team that allowed 50+ games twice in the same season.
Strategically speaking, it certainly makes sense to gamble on offense when your defense is giving up almost 10 yards per pass attempt by Stafford and almost 8 yards per run by Moreno. Nonetheless, Lee was crucified for throwing more pick-6's in his 4th start as a Tiger, although he also threw for 287 yards and 3 TDs.
And so we saw the very bizarre phenomenon of a freshman QB who led an offense to nearly 30 ppg in his first 3 starts (all against SEC teams) being made the scapegoat for the defense's incompetence. And if October was tough on Jarrett, November would be much, much worse.
Tulane (W, 35-10) - 8-20, 99 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT
Alabama (L, 21-27 [1OT]) - 13-34, 181 yards, 1 TD, 4 INT
Troy (W, 40-31) - 20-34, 216 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
Ole Miss (L, 13-31) - 4-12, 49 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT
This is what it looks like when a QB starts to collapse under pressure. To this day, a significant portion of the LSU fanbase has still not forgiven Jarrett Lee for that 4-game stretch.
In any case, a new issue arose around true freshman QB Jordan Jefferson, who had already played in several games (having thrown a pass as early as the 2nd game of the season), was the future of the LSU football program. Though he could only generate 3 points for LSU in the 2nd half against Ole Miss, in his first start against Arkansas (4-7, 1-6 in SEC), a team that had given up an average of 31.14 ppg in SEC competition, Jefferson went 9-21 for 143 yards, 2 TD, and apparently most importantly for the LSU fanbase, 0 INTs.
In his 6th week practicing as the official starter of the LSU football team, Jefferson participated in a total demolition of #14 Georgia Tech, 38-3, gaining 142 yards in the air through 16-25 in passing for 1 TD--and again--0 INTs.
The season had been a total disaster. When Pelini had left after the NC game in January 2008 for Nebraska, Coach Miles had not been able to find a suitable replacement in time to fill the void at the DC position (rumors say he was going after Muschamp), and so had recruiting Mall-veto from within as a stopgap measure (a tactic that would appear again after the 2009 season).
Fans of Miles were difficult to find at this point in time, but for those of us still in Miles's camp at this point, we could at least point to the way he handled the departures of Mallory (to New Mexico) and Peveto (to Northwestern State) with a high degree of class, and landed a great new hire with John Chavis from Tennessee.
The fanbase was so dispirited at this point that the majority of Tiger Nation was not enthused or confident about the new DC. In reality, however, Chavis had led the most fearsome defense of the last 15 or so years not counting the Gators. Even better, he was noted as being very good with LBs, a known weak point in LSU's defensive schemes since 1997.
...
Posted on 8/21/11 at 9:28 pm to Doc Fenton
...
YEAR 5: 2009
The Main Fan Issue: Is Crowton really that stupid? Is Miles really that stupid? Is Jefferson really that stupid? Where is all this horrible, soul-crushing incompetence on offense coming from? Is it the fault of the QB or the fault of the O-line?
Secondary Fan Issue: Why are players being so underutilized, and why is our D-line so incredibly lethargic and terrible? Also, how many T-Bob and Josh D. jokes can be invented in one year?
Issue Behind the Scenes: What were the causes of this horrible black hole of recruiting "bad luck" that occurred in 2005 & 2006, and has it been rectified or will it continue indefinitely into the future?
Nobody was very optimistic about LSU going into the 2009 season. Our linemen had been exposed as weak and soft. Our backs like Charles Scott had been exposed for being out of shape. Our QB rotation had ended in miserable failure. Our WRs were not what they were in 2006. Our defense was so thin that Chavis held virtual tryouts for players who wanted to convert to LB.
We expected a bad season. We did not expect, however, anything like the degree or pathetic incompetence displayed by the LSU offense this season. It was simply beyond our imaginations.
After 4 putrid games against lackluster competition, LSU headed into Athens with a 4-0 record intact, and came up with a huge win. This dramatic (and incredibly fun) 20-13 win between the hedges represented the apex of hope in the Jordan Jefferson era. He went 18-27 for 212 yards, 0 TD, and 1 INT, but even more crucially, he hit upon huge first down conversions to players like Richard Dickson and freshman Rueben Randle. The Tigers were 5-0 and headed into a huge showdown with Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators in Baton Rouge. There was every reason to celebrate the coming of a big event.
And a big event it was, with a record number of tailgaters packing the stadium from early in the morning. The first half built tension with a great defensive battle. The second half left Tiger Nation frustrated with what might be the worst offensive effort ever seen in Tiger Stadium.
In 22 passing plays, LSU went 11-17 for 96 yards, with 0 TD, 1 INT, and 31 yards lost on 5 sacks--to say nothing about the many pass plays that resulted in futile scrambles to the sideliens. On 25 running plays (some including the futile scrambles, and some including idiotically futile runs into a back of the pile with 3-TE sets), LSU gained 97 yards. Whatever the reason, it was clear at this point that LSU's offense sucked. #1 UF 13, #4 LSU 3. What was unfolding was the worst LSU offense since Curley Hallman.
To make matters even worse, D.J. McCarthy was basically a dead man walking with the recruiting violations he committed regarding 4-star DT Akiem Hicks, a JuCo transfer who never even touched the field.
The team itself was very tough, and fans reveled in the spectacular individual efforts of players like Chad Jones, Patrick Peterson, Rueben Randle, Russell Shepard, etc., but ultimately losses at Alabama (15-24) and Ole Miss (23-25) spelled incredible frustration for the fanbase, and the issue of "time management" began to creep up to the forefront of fans' concerns.
The 17-19 Capital One Bowl loss to Penn State was just emblematic of the whole season. Yeah, the field was in terrible condition. But LSU players (especially the defensive line) put forth terrible effort, the offensive line was young and overmatched, the offense as a whole was completely discordant and chaotic, and guts and talent seemed to be the only things keeping the game close.
All things considered, however, it had to be admitted that the LSU football program looked to be in much better shape at the end of the 2009 season than it was at the end of the 2008 season. First and foremost, Chavis stopped the bleeding on terrible defensive coaching. Second, the offensive was so comically terrible that it couldn't possibly get any worse, and the team went 9-4 as it was. Third, the recruiting classes were finally starting to lineup properly, thus rectifying the calamitous missteps during Miles's first 3 recruiting classes in February 2005, 2006, & 2007.
The only issue left to deal with was replacing Gary Crowton, and on this front, Tiger Nation was in for a shock. He was staying. It hurt.
In a situation that looked similar to what happened at the end of the 2007 season, Miles could not find a suitable replacement, and settled with implementing a stopgap measure to preserve continuity--in this case, opportunistically bringing in outsider Billy Gonzales from UF as a "passing game coordinator" to try and help fix the circus sideshow going on with the offense's inability to get basic plays called in from the sidelines and implemented properly on the field.
And so the fanbase took a deep breath, prayed that all the hype about Jefferson improving were true, and hoped for the best in the ability of Gonzales to fix whatever the hell Crowton was doing wrong in terms of instructing players on--you know--what they should actually be doing in a timely fashion.
...
YEAR 5: 2009
The Main Fan Issue: Is Crowton really that stupid? Is Miles really that stupid? Is Jefferson really that stupid? Where is all this horrible, soul-crushing incompetence on offense coming from? Is it the fault of the QB or the fault of the O-line?
Secondary Fan Issue: Why are players being so underutilized, and why is our D-line so incredibly lethargic and terrible? Also, how many T-Bob and Josh D. jokes can be invented in one year?
Issue Behind the Scenes: What were the causes of this horrible black hole of recruiting "bad luck" that occurred in 2005 & 2006, and has it been rectified or will it continue indefinitely into the future?
Nobody was very optimistic about LSU going into the 2009 season. Our linemen had been exposed as weak and soft. Our backs like Charles Scott had been exposed for being out of shape. Our QB rotation had ended in miserable failure. Our WRs were not what they were in 2006. Our defense was so thin that Chavis held virtual tryouts for players who wanted to convert to LB.
We expected a bad season. We did not expect, however, anything like the degree or pathetic incompetence displayed by the LSU offense this season. It was simply beyond our imaginations.
After 4 putrid games against lackluster competition, LSU headed into Athens with a 4-0 record intact, and came up with a huge win. This dramatic (and incredibly fun) 20-13 win between the hedges represented the apex of hope in the Jordan Jefferson era. He went 18-27 for 212 yards, 0 TD, and 1 INT, but even more crucially, he hit upon huge first down conversions to players like Richard Dickson and freshman Rueben Randle. The Tigers were 5-0 and headed into a huge showdown with Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators in Baton Rouge. There was every reason to celebrate the coming of a big event.
And a big event it was, with a record number of tailgaters packing the stadium from early in the morning. The first half built tension with a great defensive battle. The second half left Tiger Nation frustrated with what might be the worst offensive effort ever seen in Tiger Stadium.
In 22 passing plays, LSU went 11-17 for 96 yards, with 0 TD, 1 INT, and 31 yards lost on 5 sacks--to say nothing about the many pass plays that resulted in futile scrambles to the sideliens. On 25 running plays (some including the futile scrambles, and some including idiotically futile runs into a back of the pile with 3-TE sets), LSU gained 97 yards. Whatever the reason, it was clear at this point that LSU's offense sucked. #1 UF 13, #4 LSU 3. What was unfolding was the worst LSU offense since Curley Hallman.
To make matters even worse, D.J. McCarthy was basically a dead man walking with the recruiting violations he committed regarding 4-star DT Akiem Hicks, a JuCo transfer who never even touched the field.
The team itself was very tough, and fans reveled in the spectacular individual efforts of players like Chad Jones, Patrick Peterson, Rueben Randle, Russell Shepard, etc., but ultimately losses at Alabama (15-24) and Ole Miss (23-25) spelled incredible frustration for the fanbase, and the issue of "time management" began to creep up to the forefront of fans' concerns.
The 17-19 Capital One Bowl loss to Penn State was just emblematic of the whole season. Yeah, the field was in terrible condition. But LSU players (especially the defensive line) put forth terrible effort, the offensive line was young and overmatched, the offense as a whole was completely discordant and chaotic, and guts and talent seemed to be the only things keeping the game close.
All things considered, however, it had to be admitted that the LSU football program looked to be in much better shape at the end of the 2009 season than it was at the end of the 2008 season. First and foremost, Chavis stopped the bleeding on terrible defensive coaching. Second, the offensive was so comically terrible that it couldn't possibly get any worse, and the team went 9-4 as it was. Third, the recruiting classes were finally starting to lineup properly, thus rectifying the calamitous missteps during Miles's first 3 recruiting classes in February 2005, 2006, & 2007.
The only issue left to deal with was replacing Gary Crowton, and on this front, Tiger Nation was in for a shock. He was staying. It hurt.
In a situation that looked similar to what happened at the end of the 2007 season, Miles could not find a suitable replacement, and settled with implementing a stopgap measure to preserve continuity--in this case, opportunistically bringing in outsider Billy Gonzales from UF as a "passing game coordinator" to try and help fix the circus sideshow going on with the offense's inability to get basic plays called in from the sidelines and implemented properly on the field.
And so the fanbase took a deep breath, prayed that all the hype about Jefferson improving were true, and hoped for the best in the ability of Gonzales to fix whatever the hell Crowton was doing wrong in terms of instructing players on--you know--what they should actually be doing in a timely fashion.
...
Posted on 8/21/11 at 9:28 pm to Doc Fenton
YEAR 6: 2010
The Main Fan Issue: Why has Jefferson "regressed"? And why is the coaching staff so adamant about keeping him as the starter no matter how bad he does?
Secondary Fan Issue: Why don't we use Russell Shepard as a runner anymore?
Going into 2010, there was no real consensus amongst fans on what was going to happen. The fanbase in general was just skeptical. Skeptical of everything. We had largely moved beyond the Saban thing (finally), but there was a growing sense of futility growing among fans about being able to predict what the hell was really going on with anything.
And so Tiger Nation headed to Atlanta to see LSU face off in the Chick-fil-A sponsored Labor Day weekend game against North Carolina, a team that supposedly had a bunch of 1st round defensive talent, but that was also hit with scandal right before the game.
When the season finally got underway, Tiger fans were treated to an exciting spark from the special teams, resulting in a new enthusiasm for Patrick Peterson and Russell Shepard. The 30-24 win left much to be desired, but it was hard to read too much into the 2nd half collapse when Chavis started putting in freshman DBs all over the damn field. Among fans, "opinions varied."
Jefferson seemed to play a really good game, going 15-21 for 151 yards, 2 TDs, and 1 INT (and only 1 sack!!!), but apparently many fans were just worn out from having expectations for him that were unrealistically high. The offensive line also played really well, but most fans were so used to bashing them reflexively that the habit just continued into 2010, as people lamented the injury to Will Blackwell on the very first play.
This, however, was a great LSU team, and that became more apparent with every game. But the more the team improved, the more the passing game seemed to struggle. By the 5th game of the season, LSU fans were just about fed up. During the 20-14 victory over West Virginia, boos rained down upon the field in disapproval. Crowton's offense had become an undeniable debacle and impediment to further success.
And so as 4-0 LSU entertained Derek Dooley and 2-2 Tennessee, the crowd was in no mood for more of the same, which is what they got. Until, that is, Lee stepped back onto the field and once again gave the Tigers a spark. The bizarre way in which the game ended need not be detailed here. We all remember it. The shock and chaos. The mass confusion. The rising anger over the meltdown that was being witnessed in real time. The homicidal rage at the coaches for having thrown away a game to the lowly Vols, followed by the guilty pleasure of watching an unusual win, followed once again on Sunday and Monday with anger at rage at what had "almost" happened.
And then there was the victory at The Swamp, where (AGAIN!) Lee came off the bench to spark the team to victory, capping off a 33-29 thriller with a TD pass to Toliver as Urban Meyer looked on the verge of tears once again.
And yet, there was still a great deal of discomfort within the fanbase over all this. LSU kept winning, but the coaches kept fricking up--to put it bluntly. After a 32-10 win over McNeese, Tiger Nation cast its eyes upon its undefeated 7-0 football team, and still had no idea what the hell they were looking at.
Once again, NegaTiger battled PosiTiger. Miles-backers battled Miles-haters. Team JJ battled Team Lee. It had to be the most discontented, angry, bitter, nasty, hateful, pissed off, fanbase for a 7-0 team in the history of major college football.
It was such a strange time that I think the 24-31 loss on the Plains of Auburn actually made the LSU fanbase happier and more relieved. LSU had finally lost and now we could go about the business of getting on with our lives. Well, that is, those of us who weren't too caught up in the vicious battles going back-and-forth over the defense giving up 400 rushing yards without attempting to change scheme, and for those still hung up on the Nick Saban thing, with Alabama coming into town next.
A famous personality once said that Les Miles would never beat Nick Saban at Alabama again. In reality, though, I think we all knew it was more likely than not. In a crazy season, nothing could be predicted with 100% accuracy, but the win over Alabama just felt good and proper. Like something that was more normal and natural than anything else that had happened before in such a crazy year. (Besides of course the annual bulldozing of Miss. State, which happens like clockwork.)
And so the season progressed along the same trajectory as before, with a 2nd loss coming in a freak game on the road against Arkansas, where (in a mirror image from what happened in Gainesville) everything just happened to bounce the wrong way. C'est la vie.
But life and Tiger football marches on, and the demolition of Texas A&M was both methodical and expected, and nothing could contain the enthusiasm for LSU football going forward, save for the dark suspicion that Gary Crowton would stay on as offensive coordinator.
In times of such trouble and uncertainty, Tiger Nation of course turns to one voice above all others--that of belowpar. And so we heard the back-and-forth bickering that is usual amongst LSU fans, with some arguing that we had to "accept reality" that Crowton was staying, and others preaching hope for the future, because Miles just had to turn away from the madness and hire somebody else ... because he "just had to." And so he did.
On January 13, it was announced that Gary Crowton was leaving for Maryland, and soon after Miles found his new man in Steve Kragthorpe, the offensive sage of Tulsa who had failed as a head coach at Louisville. His understudy James Kilian announced he was leaving for LSU as well, and most fans breathed yet another sigh of relief as it looked as if things would finally turn out okay. Then again, things never go ahead as planned.
Posted on 8/21/11 at 9:56 pm to Doc Fenton
quote:
Doc Fenton
Dude,
Posted on 8/21/11 at 9:59 pm to Doc Fenton
woah
Posted on 8/21/11 at 9:59 pm to Doc Fenton
Good work!
Posted on 8/21/11 at 10:06 pm to Doc Fenton
Awesome job! I love the fan issues 
Posted on 8/21/11 at 10:07 pm to Doc Fenton
excellent! yea i read it all
Posted on 8/21/11 at 10:08 pm to zzemme
Thats a lot of work on your part! thanks for the post. 
Posted on 8/21/11 at 10:12 pm to Doc Fenton
quote:
Is it true that Hester only starts because people are jealous of the size and shape of Keiland Williams's calf muscles?
Posted on 8/21/11 at 10:25 pm to Doc Fenton
Super job Doc for all of the above posts. Thanks.
Posted on 8/21/11 at 10:31 pm to Doc Fenton
Nice read.
Posted on 8/21/11 at 10:37 pm to SuperPredator
Thanks Doc, well thought out. No doubt this season will have it's own special "quirks". 
Posted on 8/21/11 at 10:47 pm to Doc Fenton
quote:
Tertiary Fan Issue: Are LSU's colors truly be said to be purple & gold, or are they really cheddar & blurple?
Posted on 8/21/11 at 10:51 pm to Doc Fenton
Posted on 8/21/11 at 10:52 pm to Tiger Paw Paw
Posted on 8/21/11 at 10:53 pm to Doc Fenton
Wow. What a recap! I got all pissed off reading and remembering auburn 06. I got happy again reading about 07. 08 & 09....no comment. Really looking forward to this year!
Posted on 8/21/11 at 10:56 pm to Doc Fenton
Excellent post Doc. I read every bit of it. Thanks for the post. 
Posted on 8/21/11 at 10:57 pm to Doc Fenton
Outstanding
A great read
Props to you
A great read
Props to you
Page 1 of 5
Popular
Back to top
Follow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News