re: The elephant in the room is attrition.

Losing a vast amount of talent from last year plus the two coordinators and then not having a spring session to teach the younger players translates to potential chaos to start the fall. In 1960 LSU had lost a huge amount of talent, including a Heisman winner, that in the two prior seasons had won a national title and were runner up for another, and was left with a lot of young players. They lost four of their first five games, then stunned the nation with a 6-6 tie of the 2nd ranked team in Oxford, Miss. They then won their last four games. In their next two seasons, 1961 and 62, they were formidable nationally. Just happens to be the season as a kid I was first taken to a game at LSU.