The case for keeping Gary Crowton...

Football is about winning conference and national championships. There are some programs that as a practical possibility are not capable of attracting, recruiting, and signing the talent it takes to win a National Championship.

Obviously, LSU is not one of these programs and has won 3 National Championships in the last 52 years. Therefore, thinking and speaking rationally, that is the measure of success.

Well how have National Championships been won over the last 25 years?

Lets take a look and how much experience their QB had?

1) 2009 UF - Tebow - Jr. - practiced in the spring with team before true Frosh. yr. Dec. grad.

2) 2008 LSU - Flynn - Sr. - redshirt

3) 2007 UF - Leak - Sr.

4) 2006 - UTX - Young - Jr. - redshirt

5) 2005 - USC - Linart - Jr. - redshirt

6) 2004 - LSU - Mauk - Jr. - redshirt

7) 2003 - OSU - Krenzel - Jr. - redshirt

8) 2002 - Miami - Dorsey - Sr.

9) 2001 - OU - Heupel - Sr.

10) 2000 - FSU - Weinke - Jr.

11) 1999 - Tenn. - Martin - Jr.

12) 1998 - NE - Frost - Sr.
- MI - Greise - Sr. - redshirt

13) 1997 - UF - Wuerfell - Sr.

14) 1996 - NE - Frazier - Sr.

15) 1995 - NE - Frazier - Jr.

16) 1994 - FSU - Ward - Sr.

17) 1993 - AL - Barker - Soph. - Redshirt

18) 1992 - UWA - Hobert - Jr.
- Miami - Torretta - Sr.

19) 1991 - CO - Hagan - Jr.

20) 1990 - Miami - Erickson - Jr.

21) 1989 - ND - Rice - Soph. - Redshirt

22) 1988 - Miami - Walsh - Soph. - Redshirt

23) 1987 - Penn St. - Shaffer - Jr.

24) 1986 - OU - Holieway - True Freshman - 1st & only one in history. Option QB

25) 1985 - BYU - Bosco - Jr.

Therefore, only one true Frosh has ever won a Nat. Title - and OU won the NC with a wish-bone option scheme that didn't call for the QB to pass that much. In fact, Jamelle Holieway threw 22 touchdowns and 15 interceptions (horrible ratio) and his completion ratio was 45.5% which is terrible. Clearly OU won running the football behind an awsome Oline, having a strong defense and didn't go undefeated with an 11-1 record the year they won the NC.

And, since only one true freshman QB has done it in over 100 years, a team's chances of winning the NC are over 10,000 to one in any given year.

No true sophomores have lead their team to a NC to my knowledge and if they have, please let me know.

However, there have been 3 redshirt sophomores that have done this feat. But, clearly there is a trend in the above data. And, that is that 84% of teams that won the National Championship have had quarterbacks that had a Junior or Senior at the offensive helm of their team. Furthermore, 96% had QBs that had at least two years in the offensive system BEFORE the year they won the NC.

Therefore, with LSU facing FL with a Senior QB that has already won one and played in two NCs and Bama which had a redshirt Jr playing QB, LSU was at a historical disadvantage compared to both programs this year considering JJ has less than two years (only one year's experience) in LSU's offensive system. Both teams are ranked in the top 3. Thus, the chances of LSU beating either team with a true sophomore QB is horrendously bad. Without beating one of these, LSU had no chance of making the SEC Championship game. And, since Bama went undefeated, LSU had no chance of making it the SEC Championship game.

LSU's only other loss was to Ole Miss who is QBed by a Jevan Snead, another redshirt junior.
Furthermore, the game was blown when the Head Coach, Les Miles called for a spike of the football. Any experienced Jr. or Sr. QB would have run a play and overruled the head coach rather than spike the football with one second left on the clock.

How Gary Crowton can be blamed for these problems is beyond me...

Additionally, whether LSU loses to Ole Miss or not, the best bowl LSU could go to was the Capital One Bowl, which is where the Tigers will end up.

For those that say Crowton hasn't developed a QB, I say this, he did and that was Ryan Perriloux. LSU's program was bound for failure in the context of National and SEC championships when Perriloux was kicked off them team. If you have watched football for the years that I have, you will know that both Miles and Crowton invested valuable time developing RP that can't be recovered in one or two years. LSU was in a rebuilding mode with the loss of RP and there are no two ways about it.

Furthermore, LSU had 100% attrition in the offensive line position in the recruiting year of 2006, losing 6 OLmen. 50% of the OL recruits (two of four) were lost in the class of 2007 and two of the DL recruited that year had to be converted to OLmen due to the 80% attrition at the OL position during those two years. Transfers, injuries, and disciplinary actions have taken their toll on the offensive line and there is no one that can predict this or plan for this no matter if you are making $1.00 or $4 Million a year.

Next, although LSU's offense ranked as one of the worst in the country during 2009 at #108, this was following a year when LSU had a QB that threw seven picks that were returned for scores and 16 for the season. If Gary Crowton didn't try to limit interceptions, he would have been fired for sure at the end of 2009. So you can't have it both ways. Crowton developed JJ enough not to not throw pick sixes and only 6 interceptions on the year. Anyone that knows football can see that if you are going to minimize turnovers by the QB, you are going to have to run a more conservative offense. Running a more conservative offense means that it will cut your offense's ranking vs. the other 120 teams. In all fairness, you can't rail against an offensive coordinator for going conservative with a 1st year starting, true sophomore QB after a year when everyone railed against him because of turnovers (interceptions) when he had a first year starter redshirt freshman QB. This is the very definition of illogical.

And, Gary Crowton was the offensive coordinator in 2007 when LSU averaged more points and more yards per game than any other year in LSU history. Add to that the fact that LSU has only beaten Florida, Alabama, Auburn, and Tennessee in the same year one time and that year was 2007.

If Senior WR Doucet would have lined up as he was taught vs. Arkansas, LSU would have won that game. And, if Senior QB Flynn doesn't under throw Lafell at Kentucky, LSU would have won the game. It is not Gary Crowton's or Les Miles fault that LSU didn't end up undefeated. Doucet and Flynn were both taught to not make those mistakes.

Lastly, LSU will lose their RB, WR, and OLine coaches this year. LSU needs some continuity on offense next year if we expect to beat Alabama and win the SEC West and win in the Championship Game. If we replace the OC, the players will have to learn a whole new system. If you think JJ has struggled this year, you can forget an SEC or NC next year.

And, if anyone has a list of true sophomores that have won the SEC Championship, I would like to see it.