re: Would 2012 LSU football have won the SEC if honey badger didn’t get suspended?

Great hypothetical observation

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If by disingenuous you mean he was the highest rated passer in the SEC at the time he was demoted, then yes it is disingenuous.

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He was outright bad against Bama. It is what it is and the team looked horrible with him in the game. I agree that he should have seen the field again after that game, but I think Les had flashbacks to freshman Jarrett Lee after the second INT against Bama. That 2008 season fricked with Miles' head and entire offensive philosophy. I don't know if he ever fully trusted Lee after that.

Yes

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Definitely, in my opinion. Would have beaten Bama then demolished Notre Dame

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People always assume that if we had beaten Bama that night, we would’ve rolled to a national championship. Of course we would have curb stomped Notre Dame but everyone who says this always leaves Georgia & the SEC championship game out of this scenario. They were a tipped pass inside the 10 yard line away from beating Alabama. There’s no guarantee LSU wins that game. Not saying they couldn’t, but people just never consider UGA in this hypothetical.

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Turned out differently when Saban had a month to prepare.

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CLM had a month to prepare as well but with the apparent confusion with clock management he lost count in regards to which month.

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Oh, come on now

I get the "let's bash Les" sentiment, but be real: those two teams were very evenly matched. Bama completely destroyed Lee the first game, he was reverting back to the Pick 6 guy we'd seen in the past. Heavy pressure and no time to throw. We were going backwards with him in.
Our defense held, but they moved better. They got into a lot of long field goal situations, which they missed. But they'd get 30 or so yds per drive, and we'd go 3 and out, and punt well if we don't turn it over first.

Les found the one answer in that game, which was running JJ. That tipped it to our favor, we got yards, and eventually wore them down. We should have punched in the TD in OT, which we would have done.

But leading up to game 2, Saban had time to counter the one thing that worked for us, JJ running. Nothing worked for them the first time, nothing for Les to counter. And let's look at Bama's scoring drives:
1) 49 yd punt return, got to the 26. They drove 20 yds and kicked a FG.
2) drove 58 yds, their longest of the night. Got inside the 20, kicked a FG.
3) drove 52 yds to get to the 24, kicked another FG to end the half.
That's only a hair better than game one, where they drove to the 27, the 33, and the 31 and missed, and made one from the 17 in the first half.


In the second half, they drove 50 yds to get to the 18, made a kick.
Intercepted at the 27, moved 4 yds and missed from the 23.
Drove 20 yds to get to the 27 and made the kick.

At this point, we have zero offense against their defense, but it's still a 2 score game in the second half and they can't move much at all. The 3 differences between those two games, is:
1) a big punt return to give them a chip shot, something they never did in game 1.
2) Remove that score, and their kicker made 4 FG in 5 drives, instead of 2 like in the first game.
3) JJ moved on them when he came into the first game, he didn't in the second. So, we have 0 pts instead of 6 on 2 FG.

They had 300 yds of offense in the 1st game, and just over 400 in game 2. We had 230 in the first game, and just over 100 in the 2nd. They really should have won the first one, but couldn't kick the ball.

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I think we beat Bama because of the emotion in Tiger stadium that night.

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So Tyrann tackles Yeldon?

After having quit smoking for 20 years I was so mad that I lit one at the tailgate after the game and was back to a pack a day habit. Took 5 more years before I quit again for good. I could see Yeldon right in front of where we were sitting Tyrann was my first thought when we blew it. The GOAT defensive player in LSU history. His highlite film most would think covers 4 years.

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Both losses were one possession Games. And even if we lose to Florida, I think we beat Bama because of the emotion in Tiger stadium that night.

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Defense wasn’t the issue with the 2012 team. Honestly think not playing Mett in 2011 was the biggest issue with 2012. He made tremendous strides in 2013 after taking his lumps in 2012.

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Both losses were one possession Games.

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IMO, he probably accounted for a 6 point per game swing (returns, turnovers, sacks, passes defended, tackles, and, of course, defensive scores). Insane how big his impact on the game was. I'd like to see some sophisticated better's individual line on how much Mathieu was worth all by himself.

ETA link:

CBS Sports

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Based strictly on his actual scoring plays and the field-flipping effects of the turnovers he forced, Mathieu's presence was worth somewhere in the vicinity of a touchdown per game, without taking a single snap on offense.

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YES and if Jarrett Lee wouldn't have been replaced with Les Miles blow up doll, JJ. That team was incredible when Lee was running the show.

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Ehhh, idk. I watched Lee in the GOTC and it was abundantly clear that the stage was just too big for him. All of the bad habits came back to haunt him again.


That whole entire situation was a cluster of epic proportions. Miles bungled sooooo many things leading up to the 2011 natty.

Not finding or preparing a legitimate weapon at QB cost this team more than just the 2011 title. Running the guys into the ground with his junction boys practices didn't help matters. The amount of offensive talent that was wasted under Les Miles is just astounding.