re: Booger McFarland's comments on Finebaum

Defense should be a strength of the team.

Returning starters and mostly experienced backups.

I don't have a ball hawking Honey Badger to point to, but I will mention that Beckwith will start and play a whole season at Mike. I don't think you can put a price on what that will mean when it's all said and done.

Another added plus is that the man responsible for taking so long to insert Beckwith in the middle is gone. Some may disagree with me, but Chavis checked out long before events unfolded last year.

I speculated often on this site about his impending retirement. It was the only thing that made sense. Sure enough, A&M gave him his retirement package. LSU will be a better defensive squad because of his departure. I know the players liked him, but he wasn't doing the team any favors, and it didn't take them long to realize it when the shite hit the fan.

I finally re watched the Bama game recently. The one biggest factor of success in that game was the play of Beckwith. When he had to leave the field, Bama scored their only regulation TD. Remember all those drops by Cooper? They were all slants toward the middle of the field. That's the kind of difference Beckwith makes.

If you don't believe me and you have a clue about what you're watching, go back and re-watch the Bama game, isolating on the Mike position, and you will have no choice but to see what I am saying.

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Mathieu is almost impossible to recreate though, but Adams will be fun to watch.

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Dwayne Thomas was going to be that guy... in the first 5 games of 2014, he was second on the team in tackles with a couple sacks and a couple turnovers.

An ACL tear and a burglary charge later, I doubt he ever realizes that potential.

Can you imagine how nasty the secondary would be this year with Tre White, Dwayne Thomas, Rashard Robinson, Kevin Tolliver, Ed Paris, Jamal Adams, and Jalen Mills?

I argued this in the other thread. I don't see it. The dline doesn't have 3 1st-round talents across it with a 2nd rounder. We rotated somewhere around 10 defensive lineman. How many young lineman did you see LSU rotate last year? That tells you all you need to know. They weren't ready. Granted, they can mature fast but the odds are very unlikely. We got extremely lucky with that line in 2011 and it doesn't happen very often regardless what school you are.

It's really unrealistic and unfair to say these guys are going to be like the 2011 defense. Can it happen? Absolutely. Is it likely? Not really. LSU rotated a lot of lineman even the year before 2011 but our problem on defense since 2013 has been the line. Teams were killing Chavis defenses at the end of games because we had 0 pass rush from the line. That's why Miles smartly went out and got Coach O. No domination in the trenches don't expect to get anywhere in the SEC. It's that simple.

Defense all hinges on the defensive line development this year. That's the key area. Defense is going to be good I just don't think it's going to be 2011 good...call me crazy or w/e. That's one of the best NCAA defenses the past 15 years easily and even with recruiting like LSU it's not easy to recreate. It's even harder now since everyone has more incentive to leave early for the NFL since rookie cap prevents players seeing value coming back their senior seasons.

The DL tlent isn't as bad as it has looked the last few years. Even when we've had talented guys (Hunter) they haven't come close to reaching their potential.

Ed O > Brick, and by a very wide margin.

I think a lot of people are going to wonder where all these guys were last year oce the season starts and the DL is the best looking one we've had since that 2011 team.

It's not like these guys are scrubs. They just have been coached up in a few years.

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Why, with all the supposed talent we have on offense would we want to rely mostly on the defense?

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Exactly.. Maybe we will actually take chances on offense and if there were mistakes then we could rely on the defense. but I want LSU to start scoring TDs.. I don't even care how many yards we pass for.. we just need to get it in the end zone.

"Our schedule is easier..."

The difficulty of schedule is what made 2011 special. All competitive games against the best teams. Beat the winners of all the major bowls including the Sugar Bowl.

ETA: It ain't just the talent level, it's how well they focus and compete. Les's coaching in 2011 was the best of any in the last 60 years.

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really going to miss valentine and Lmfao... whatever reasons of their own doing, they were still highly talented kids.

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Potential never won or lost a football game.

Hell, potential never made a tackle for loss or scored any points. I thought highly of those kids, Valentine particularly (I always thought LMFAO had character questions).

But, as always, we win or lose based on the kids who suit up and play - not the ones that don't, period.

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This dline is not close to the 2011 dline.

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The interior is closer than you think. LaCouture put up Bennie Logan type numbers last season. And Godchaux wasn't too far off either without knowing what he was really doing. Now that Godchaux understands his responsibility better along with the play-calls without LaCouture having to help so much. They can both pin their ears back a bit more. The key is finding diruptive play-makers at the DE position. 4 to be exact.

That's what makes this seem unlikely, but I would think Les Miles knows what he's seeing on the defensive side because he relies on it so heavily.

I don't get why people think our defensive line will be weak. LaCouture and Godchaux are going to be outstanding with Beckwith backing them up. The middle of the defense will finally be shut down this year. Our ends and OLBs are experienced, insanely fast, and technically sound with the additions of Steele and Orgeron.

The secondary is second to none. Not many teams will be able to throw the ball on LSU. White is going to completely shut down his man which gives our safeties the ability to double cover other wide receivers.

On offense, our OL should be better than years past on paper. A lot of the difficulties last year came from changing to a predominantly zone blocking scheme which none of the backs were used to. Pass protection was good at the start of the year but wore down towards the end.

Our RB room is the most talented in the nation, bar none, nothing else to say here.

TEs and FBs should play well and give us what we need to win games.

WRs should greatly benefit from Tony Ball. I'm more excited about Tony Ball teaching our WRs probably than Steele and Orgeron. We've done very well at recruiting WRs but have done a poor job at developing them in the recent years. None of the WRs in 2014 should've been starting at a school like LSU, but when you lose 4 WRs with tons of experience it's bound to happen.

Finally, at QB. I don't get all of the hoopla about the position. We have been fine with terrible QB play and we could do fine with it this year. The difference is having Cam Cameron teaching the QBs since 2013 compared to QB situations of the past. I expect to see a huge jump from Jennings or Harris this season in their fundamentals, leadership, and football IQ.

Overall, this team is not like the 2011 team, but the results can be similar. We have quality depth at every position and there's no reason why we shouldn't get to at least 9 games. We are better on paper than every team we will be facing this year.