re: Chavis's departure will end up being a blessing

I was also getting tired of the Chavis defenses allowing late game comebacks, when they had stopped the other team all game long; a far cry from the Muschamp D that, in 2003 was still sacking Jason White to end the NCG. That D was the same D all game long, just plain nasty.

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I think our defense will be pretty much unchanged in results.

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i think we're going to be a feast/famine D. lots of negative plays created, and we will give up a frickload of big plays to offenses

i'm curious to see how that plays out with our offense

Yeah, much correctly has been made about Chavis giving up too many 3rd and long conversions and the collapse in the last 2 minutes of many games, but what is showing up now was the lack of effort (and I will throw Haley in there also now) as far as DL and LB recruiting for the 2015 class. IF LSU does a decent job at the front 7 on defense in recruiting, the credit belongs to the 2 new defensive coaches...certainly the foundation was NOT laid by the ones no longer on the coaching staff.

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moving forward? that's a ridiculous statement. the former staff recruited a ton of quality DL and LB in their time the foundation is already in place

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The DL recruiting wasn't an issue until this year, but consistent development, especially at DE, has been suspect.

However, to say that LB recruiting and development has been fine under Chavis is pretty ridiculous. We've had 2 big time impact LBs in 6 years. TWO. Then you have Kwon and one or two others who have been good and solid. The rest have been average to flat-out disappointing.

Now we have Beckwith, who was at least given a look at DE and may have been moved due to urgent need. He has loads of potential, but still has issues (see the ND game, when he went back to looking totally lost). Then you have Clifton Garrett, who has a great pedigree, but we haven't seen how that will translate to the field yet.

Past those two? Average to disappointing. And anyone who looks at our returning depth chart and current recruiting and says we are in great shape is fooling themselves. We are thin with Kwon leaving, and if we don't land Leo Lewis, we could be facing another average to below average year at the position.

Here's hoping that Steele can improve our performance at LB. In my opinion, our lack of consistency there was the most disappointing part of Chavis' tenure based on his reputation.

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Really? So you are calling Gilmore, Herron, Neal, and Bain quality recruits in those areas? Really? Funny, I thought they had been at LSU for 2 years and I see their pictures on milk cartons instead.

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This year, we will start to find out if we have had a massive case of the busts at DL the last two years, or if Haley dropped the ball. Because from a recruiting perspective, that was considered to be a can't miss group at the time. Busts happen, but usually not in such big numbers. Then it starts to look like a coaching/development issue.

I will be pretty surprised if two of the guys on your list don't get a big boost from working under Coach O. He isn't just a recruiter.

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i think we're going to be a feast/famine D. lots of negative plays created, and we will give up a frickload of big plays to offenses

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How we will perform and even what our defensive scheme will look like is all conjecture at this point. However, it possible to be solid fundamentally without being ultra conservative. I think a lot of Tiger fans have bought into the idea that this an either-or scenario. We know that Steele has a reputation for being more aggressive, and that Orgeron is definitely going to inject more fire into the front 4 than we've seen for a while.

However, a more aggressive approach doesn't necessarily mean rushing 6 or 7 at the QB every play. It doesn't automatically mean more big plays given up. But everything from now until the middle of September is just opinions and guesses.