re: Glaring weaknesses after 2007

Several years ago Dave Dixon, who first envisioned building the Superdome, faced the question as to whether Louisiana ought to elect as governor a certain politician from New Orleans. That was about as loaded a question as this one is.

I'll step out on the limb and say it (again): The problems at LSU under the Miles regime have centered around the lack of communication between the head coach and the quarterback.

What that does is to jeopardize your team's chances of winning when close (big) games come down to crunch time.

The concept is basic: the quarterback is "the coach on the field." That's the way it was with Bear Bryant at Alabama and with Nick Saban at LSU, and it is the way it is with Saban at Alabama right now.

This is why I think that the whole country doesn't get it when it comes to calling A. J. McCarron a "Game Manager." And it's why the Heisman Trophy has never been awarded to an Alabama quarterback. The Heisman Trophy has come to be an award for the glitziest, show-and-tell performer in college football. Meanwhile, the Alabama quarterback quietly goes about his business and usually winds up winning two or three more games per year than the Heisman Trophy winner does.

When Saban was at LSU, he brought in two "game managers," Mauck and Flynn. Think of it -- Matt Mauck was a budding dentist. What did he do but come into the game and proceed to work, dentist-like, on the game plan. I would go to him today, based upon his work on the field for LSU.

The myth is that you can bring in the greatest athletes in America, turn them loose on the football field, and that they will then proceed to exhibit such overwhelming athleticism and swagger that all other teams are going to cower behind their benches, resulting in an undefeated season, a conference championship, and a national championship.

Bear Bryant's oft-quoted statement was, "You can't make chicken salad without chicken." He also said, "Good athletes don't come calling." But he also made a point of walking the campus with his quarterbacks the day before the Game. As Mal Moore said, the quarterbacks were "in" with Bryant. He called them his "coach on the field."

Nick Saban, I believe, was a state championship high school quarterback. He played defensive back at Kent State, probably because he was too short to play quarterback. His high school coach has said, "He made me look like a smart football coach."

It seems to me that Will Muschamp is the perfect example of the opposite type football coach. Muschamp walked on as a defensive back at Georgia. His pre-Florida experience in coaching has been as an assistant coach on defense. When he took over the Gators, a reporter asked him about offense, and he said," I don't know about offense. I leave that up to Charley Weiss."

Rah-Rah and athletic talent, if there is enough of it, may take a football team a long way. It even seems that it can create such intensity on the field that mistakes are eliminated. But if there is not that stabilizing force, that bond between the head coach and his quarterback, sooner or later the system springs a leak and then it begins to break down.

It's the same way in a marriage. You can marry the most beautiful woman on the planet, but if the two of you can't communicate, your marriage will last, on average, about seven years.