re: Question About LSU Football, How To Beat LSU?

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While I, as a UW donor and ticket holder do not expect the UW to win, what I would like to know is in your honest assessment, what is the weakness of LSU this year? If there's one area the UW could focus on, what would it be?

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I guess I'm just an old school guy - LSU doesn't really have any weaknesses for 2009 yet, because we haven't played. Talent wise, our players could play, and probably start, for most teams in the country, though our QB would not be starting (this was supposed to be our all-everything QB Ryan Perrilloux's senior campaign) many BCS conference teams. I guess the focus would turn then to where we are not very strong -

QB - talent, but little experience and age. However, keep in mind that these same two QBs led us to an 8-5 overall. While the weaker QB play in 2008 contributed to most of the losses, so did poor (and certainly inconsistent) defensive play.

LB - Louisiana does not produce large numbers of great LBs - probably the football Achilles Heel of the state. Therefore it is not a strength. My point is further proven by the fact that two of our starters are former HS teammates from Stephenson, GA. However, we usually have an extraordinarily strong DL. This helps mask our relative drop-off in LB talent.

Our secondary looked poor at times last year, but the consensus is that it was the scheme, and perhaps less than outstanding position coaching (but I don't happen to share the last part of that). We had Co-defensive coordinators, which exacerbated problems that we had with LB and secondary play, and our outstanding DL underperformed. A "perfect" storm for some disastrous losses.

Having said that, if you watched our bowl game against a talented, accomplished Georgia Tech, it was obvious to any casual observer that, at least on that day, GT didn't belong on the same field as LSU. GT players were playing checkers, while LSU players were playing chess - Offense, Defense and Special Teams.

SO - as for your original question - how does UW beat LSU?

- Dual-threat QB - you have that - If UW beats LSU it will be anchored by a MVP performance from Locker. While LSU defenses have seen more dual-threats over the past few years, it is still unorthodox enough (and Locker is certainly talented enough to be a threat) to cause problems for LSU in a new scheme. Bad news-our new coordinator has had the most success of late in limiting Florida's Tim Tebow. However, this will be his first game as coordinator, so again, if you're going to get us - this is the best possible time.

- Stingy/opportunistic defense - that could be a problem - UW didn't play a very impressive brand of defensive football and it remains to be seen if you even have the athletes to keep up with a team like LSU for four quarters. However, opposing young, inexperienced QBs, in your own stadium is about the best chance you're going to get. Be stingy with points and big plays. Accept that LSU will have some sustained drives, but tighten up in UW territory and try to force FGs. We have a new starter at PK, as our career leading scorer just completed his eligibility. It's cliche to say force turnovers, but turnovers was the key weakness of the LSU offense in 2008.

-Sustain energy and don't allow LSU to get too large a lead. This is true of any team facing an uphill talent mis-match. The bigger difference between UW and LSU is down the depth chart, as opposed to the incremental differences in talent of the starters. As energy levels drop and subsitutions (particularly on defense) are either playing or not playing because it would be suicide - so the starters stay in tired, that is the danger for UW. If LSU gets a big lead, and/or UW starts to get tired, it's probably over.

So, there are my "Three Keys to Victory" for UW against LSU.