Growing Pains: Talent and Experience

The LSU football team has talent. No sane person would argue otherwise. Miles typically signs top ten recruiting classes every year. Indeed, Miles signed the #2 recruiting class in the nation last year.

However, much of the top talent from 2011 left after last year. These are the players who would be in their 4th year now. LSU was left without any starting offensive skill players. LSU has talent in the skill positions, but almost no experience. The offense is experiencing growing pains. The little things that players know after playing in the SEC for a while, LSU shill players are just now learning.

LSU seems to be installing a new blocking scheme. Thus, although the LSU OLs have years in service, they do not have experience with the new system. OLs are notoriously the last unit to gel. I’m optimistic that the OLs can get it together soon. If LSU is going to install a new blocking scheme, they might as well do it this year and improve the OLs during the same year as the skill players. No point in installing a new blocking scheme next year when the skill positions will be hitting their stride.

2012 was not a top ten recruiting year, particularly for DTs. Thus, LSU is left primarily with 2013 recruits for DTs. It’s exceedingly rare for a second year DL to start at LSU. This year is different: LSU is left with missing personnel on the DL. SO, RSFR, and FR DLs have to play. However, complaints about RSFR DLs not being ready to start sound odd to someone who is not used to having RSFR DLs get much playing time, let alone start. I believe that we have a tremendous amount of talent on the DL; they just lack the experience to play proficiently at an SEC level. It’s an unusual position for LSU that is causing some growing pains on the defense.

Mississippi State returned 18 of 22 starters. They have as many SRs on their defensive line as LSU has on its entire defensive 2-deep. More importantly, they have a 4th year QB. MSU might not have been able to recruit the most talented players, but they recruited SEC caliber players (some of whom were recruited by LSU), and they have the most experienced team in the SEC.

LSU has talent. No one can debate that fact. However, in critical positions, LSU lacks experience. MSU has talent, maybe not as much as LSU, but they have tons of experience, and they have it in the critical positions. Many times, experience trumps talent. In this case, the difference in talent was clearly not as great as the difference in experience.

LSU will gain more experience as the season progresses. The offensive and defensive units will come together. I am optimistic about this season for LSU and the seasons beyond.