This was a fantastic football season. Despit the defense.

I don’t subscribe to the idea that any season that doesn’t end in a championship is a failure. We have won 4 NCs in over 100 seasons. I refuse to accept that all other ones were failures. It just underscores just how hard it is to win one. EVERYTHING has to come together just right. We had a terrible defense, but had the 2nd best offense in LSU history. And our QB won the Heisman. Our 3rd. So winning the Heisman is rarer than winning the NC. And I would argue it’s the 2nd best accomplishment a team can win (it’s an individual award technically, but you can’t win it without a great supporting cast). I think it’s more important than making the playoffs and losing the NCG relative to future team success. LSU will parlay Jayden’s Heisman infinitely more than TCU will their runner-up from last year.

Granted, the defense was atrocious and hard to watch, but it’s not as easy as “if we just had an average defense, we would have made the playoffs.” Because the 2 rarely come together at the same time. Which again, makes winning the NC even more special. Bama has warped our perceptions on just how difficult it is. And it a lot like our ‘05, ‘06, ‘09-‘12 seasons, just opposite when we had great defenses, but not complimentary enough offenses. (‘06 and Jamarcus were great, but they laid 2 eggs on the road).

But more importantly, the older I get, the clearer it is that we only have so many revolutions around the sun. We have a finite amount of LSU football seasons, and every year they seem to go by faster and faster. I’m too old to “waste” any of them just because we didn’t wind up hosting the big trophy at the end. I don’t get to hoist it anyway. I don’t get a ring. All I get is the journey. And Jayden and company gave us a hell of an entertaining one this year. And that’s what I’ll choose to focus on and remember very fondly. I’m in my mid 40s, have been a die-hard for over 35 seasons. And this was one was in my top 5-6, despite the terrible defense. It was certainly frustrating at times, but it was a fun fricking ride. Tip of the cap to the players and coaches who made it happen.