The 2011 team was not great, stop it

The 2011 LSU team were SEC champs which they deserve credit for but stop this “might have been” greatest team of all time talk nonsense. They were a typical Les Miles type team, great defense but poor offense when it mattered the most. Let’s just look at some facts here. Before you start hyping up Bama let’s look at how other teams performed vs that same 2011 Bama team.

Here is a list of teams that scored more points vs Bama in 2011 than LSU did in the national championship game:

1. A 2-10 Ole Miss team was able to score more points vs Bama. That is right. A 2-10 team has a better offensive performance vs Bama than LSU.

2. Georgia Southern Yep, a division 1-AA school put up 21 points vs Bama. In fact Southern Georgia scored mored points vs Bama in just 2 quarters (14 points) than LSU did in 8 quarters of play vs Bama.

3. Kent State. They scored 7 points. LSU could not cross midfield.

4. Tennessee. A 7 loss Vol team put up more points than LSU did.

5. Mississippi State. A 6 loss MSU team did better than LSU.

6. Penn State, with 4 losses that year.

7. Auburn, with 5 losses that year.

8. Florida, with 6 losses that year.

9. Arkansas, with 2 losses that year.

In fact the 2011 Bama team only had three shutouts all year:

1. 5-7 North Texas was shut out.
2. 6-7 Vanderbilt was shut out.
3. 13-1 LSU was shut out.


Let’s look at just a few other team’s first downs vs Bama in 2011 compared to LSU’s national championship game performance.

LSU= 5 (fewest 1st downs vs Bama for their entire season)
Georgia Southern= 14
Ole Miss= 9
North Texas= 11
Vanderbilt= 8


Total yards vs Bama=

LSU= 92 (fewest yards vs Bama’s D for the entire year)
Georgia Southern= 341
Ole Miss= 141
North Texas= 169
Vanderbilt= 190


So to sum up yardage and first downs: A 5-7 North Texas team, 7 loss Vanderbilt team, 2-10 Ole Miss team, and a freaking 1-AA school had nearly double the yardage and first downs than LSU could muster vs Bama in the national championship game.


I would not even rank the 2011 team as a top 5 LSU team all time and none of my top five all time LSU teams would ever get out performed by a 2-10 team in the biggest game of the year.