re: Blast from the past being that players are moving in today

quote:

---

the matt canada time is still a bit before my hardcore fandom started. was he actually decent but O was just an idiot?

---

Canada was a genius in his own mind.

The whole offense was based on running misdirection. It involved a lot of eye candy motions before the snap with the intention of making linebackers hesitate. It worked a bit, but often teams would just sit tight and let us do all of that motion and just play us straight up with relative success.

Orgeron thought all of the motion was silly. O was wrong because it did set up some of the "no-good-decision" situations the triple option can create when the offense was working right. But, O was right in that the offense never put up the numbers in either rushing or passing that was promised.

Moreover, Canada was a jerk to pretty much everyone. There was a reason he was incapable of holding a job for more than one year. He was the flavor of the month because his Pitt offense had beaten an eventual national champion Clemson, but his schtick wears out fast.

Bottom line: if you are going to be a jerk as a genius coordinator, the results had better be off the charts.

GEAUX TIGERS!

I think it was Christian Lacouture, Greg Gilmore, and fat Arden Key

quote:

---

Don’t wanna sound like im shitting on Etling completely but there are still fans who think Tom Brady stepped in for Harris because he could execute (kind of) Ensminger’s 2016 vanilla arse interim offense.

---

LSU QBs with multiple 2,000 yard passing seasons:

J. Wickersham
T. Hodson
J. Russell
Z. Mettenberger
D. Etling
J. Burrow

By LSUs standards, Etling was a great QB.

quote:

---

He did in 2019...right? And probably most of 2018?

---

Orgeron was out of the way in 2018 and 2019. The one time he tried to meddle in the offense (the Troy game), LSU became the laughing stock of college football for a week. Ensminger was allowed to run his offense in 2018. Unfortunately, HIS offense wasn't great (unless you think Ensminger was just sitting on the greatest offensive approach in 2016 and 2018 waiting for just the right moment to release it upon the world in 2019).

On the defensive side, Aranda had complete control from 2017-2019. (1) Aranda as DC was one of the big selling points O presented to Alleva when he was lobbying for the job and (2) Aranda's approach (mostly a base 3-4) differed from what O had run/coached his entire life (mostly a base 4-3). O didn't meddle in Aranda's defense. However, once Aranda left O had the opportunity to remake the defense to fit his preference. That's what he did in 2020. The result was LSU going from a good unit to one of the worst in the nation. It stayed below average until the 2021 Alabama game when the approach suddenly looked completely different than it had for the last 1.5 years. Not surprisingly, LSU's defense looked like one of the best in the nation. In the span of one game LSU went from being destroyed by Ole Miss to harassing Bryce Young, forcing turnovers, getting big 3rd and 4th down stops, en route to holding Alabama to its lowest regular season point total 4 years.

Outside of recruiting, there is a inverse relationship between Orgeron's level of involvement in the actual on field approach and the amount of wins by his teams. You saw it at Ole Miss when Houston Nutt took O's players and turned a 3-9 team into a 9-4 team in the span of a year. Unfortunately, you saw the opposite at LSU where O became more involved an took a program that had gone 34-7 in the 3 years prior to a .500 team (not counting the Texas Bowl) the next two years.

Frankly, that's why I'm optimistic about this year's group. I don't think people realize just how bad a coach O is when he is significantly involved in the on-field approach. LSU is going to be better by default simply by virtue of Orgeron not being in a position to frick things up.

quote:

---

2017 was an interesting year

---

Very, especially since we very easily could've beat Bama if Etling completed a deep ball that game.

That being said I'm pretty sure outside of Auburn every team we beat had a 1st year coach or a coach that got fired. That schedule was weakkkkk. I think that team might be a 6-7 win team with our usual schedule.

quote:

---

was he actually decent but O was just an idiot?

---

yes and yes.


Canada is a world class a-hole.

The big issues, as I recall were:

1. Canada wanted to play Brennan. O was more concerned about immediate success, so he demanded Etling play

2. Canada wouldn't play more of a base offense in practice, so Aranda couldn't practice D properly. Aranda got upset, Canada was his a-hole self, and that was that. O took more control over the offense. This is when Aranda got that $2.5M salary, too.

Russell Gage owes a lot of money to Matt Canada he was great in his offense and has made good money being a solid NFL WR.

quote:

---

Moreover, Canada was a jerk to pretty much everyone. There was a reason he was incapable of holding a job for more than one year.

---

Before LSU, the only job he was fired from was NC State, after 3 years, and most people attributed that to Dave Doeren being on the hot seat. All the other jobs Canada left were due to HC changes or better offers.

I'm not trying to argue that Canada is a great guy, but the implication that he moves around a lot just because he's some next-level a-hole is stupid. Most coaches change jobs often as they work their way up. That's the nature of the business. Hell, Aranda's 4 years at LSU are the longest he has stayed anywhere.

I appreciated Etling
He was a worker

Yep.

I remember hismissing chark on multiple deep balls.

Sti love etling.