re: Why Were Miles Offense at OSU better than Now?

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Because he didn't have a top 5 defense to lean on. His tendency (philosophy learned from Bo Schembechler) is to do just enough on offense to win, use defense and ST to shut down the opponent, don't turn the ball over, and "secure victory". It makes for some of the most unwatchable football on the planet, but wins games.

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I was ready to say this, but you've beat me to it. The correct answer is that Miles has figured out that his defense can win him 90% of the games by itself.

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The philosophy breaks down when you play a team that is on your level defensively, or your O is so putrid that it can't even score one TD...then there is no margin for error and you lose. Miles rolls the dice banking that this won't happen, because more often than not it doesn't happen, and then he wins.

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Execellent point. The part in bold is extremely true. By coaching this way, Miles opens himself up to be labeled as "lucky" because everybody can point to about 5 "what ifs" in all of the close games that LSU has because of the philosophy of letting the defense lead the way. LSU wins about 3 games a year where the opposing fan base walks away thinking, "we should have won that game".

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hy Were Miles Offense at OSU better than Now?

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Simply put, if Miles didn't feel that his players were better than his opponents, he'd open up the playbook and take more chances. The last several years at LSU, Miles knows that 95% of the time he has the better players.

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With way more talent available how is it Miles can not figure out how to run a fricking offense at LSU.

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because Miles isn't running the offense....his qb's are. if Mett and the recievers (other than Boone) were pulling their weight we would be, IMO, undefeated by a large margin. also...do you really think that we have "way more talent" at the skill positions, year in-year out, than okiest? yeah, right.

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or is it his misses on QB recruits?

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he didn't miss on RP and anyone who doesn't think his getting kicked off the team didn't hurt LSU and the qb progression needs only to look at the effect the loss of TM7 has had on this team. two heisman caliber players, one a jr. qb and one a jr. db/kr/wreaker of havoc.

we, finally, have a stable qb progression in place and some strong wide outs coming so the next two years should really tell us if CLM can develop an effective offense. until then we'll just have to suffer with a 20-2 ('12-'13 so far) program.

2011 offense was pretty good under Lee until Miles started with the 2 QB system. This is not a bash on either QB so don't make it into one. This is simply stating that Lee started to lose some of his confidence once JJ returned and he began to look over his shoulder. I don't have the stats nor did I look them up, but just recalling from memory that the offense started to change identities after the completion of JJ's first game back. Lee's confidence was shot at that point.

even before that game you could tell he was looking over his shoulder knowing that if he screwed up that Miles was inserting JJ. Hell, we all could tell that was all it would take for a change, regardless of what he did the first 8 games.

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Because he didn't have a top 5 defense to lean on. His tendency (philosophy learned from Bo Schembechler) is to do just enough on offense to win, use defense and ST to shut down the opponent, don't turn the ball over, and "secure victory". It makes for some of the most unwatchable football on the planet, but wins games. Did you ever watch Michigan-Ohio St in the 80's or 90's? God awful football.

The philosophy breaks down when you play a team that is on your level defensively, or your O is so putrid that it can't even score one TD...then there is no margin for error and you lose. Miles rolls the dice banking that this won't happen, because more often than not it doesn't happen, and then he wins.

The real question to be asked is if this philosophy is sustainable in the ESPN/NFL highlight era (when you never get on the highlights because your team is so unremarkable, and guys want to go early in the draft). Will recruits still come here? Will you continue to get offensive players? Will your opponents out recruit you because they steal your good Offensive recruits? (Saban, has already stolen a bunch of them and will continue to do it).

These are the questions you should be asking.

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Great post. Finally somebody that knows a little football.
Well, except for Saban stealing a bunch of offensive recruits. Can't say I agree.
Like who ?

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The second Flynn was gone after that last title, Miles went into conservative "protect my freshman/inexperienced QB" mode.

Since Jefferson and Lee showed little to no ability to LEAD an offense effectively, he played everything close to the vest to protect his passers.

It was working and the QB's continually showed a lack of ability to to do what the likes of Mauck, Russel and Flynn had done in the past.

With Mett coming in, we all thought we were getting back to the days where we had a formidable offense. Mett didn't initially look stellar and we have 1,254,953 running backs on our depth chart, so why not just keep doing what's gotten you W's all these years.

Problem is, our offensive line has sustained injuries and it has affected us in a negative way tremendously.

Fortunately, we have a defense that can continually keep us in close games.

The Mad Hatter is no more. Miles is a good coach and a great recruiter. If LSU is content with having a program that plays not to lose instead of playing to win, the current coach Miles is our guy. I really think that string of QB's that couldn't be game managers severly changed his approach to how LSU plays football

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I agree with every statement here 100%.
What's going on with the rant ?
Two great posts in one thread.

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Yes he did! He missed big time on RP. A QB with debilitating character issues is equivalent to a QB whose throwing arm is too weak to compete.

He missed on RP, JJ, JL, and now possibly Mett, all because of character flaws. We need to start recruiting QBs who are good citizens and have heart.

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That is the most revisionist thing I have ever read. Outcome determinative hokum. That logic is so incorrect that it would dictate that Miles missed on Mathieu. Untenable.

Everyone scores big pts against big 12 defenses. "They suck", thats why they scored so much.

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He missed on RP, JJ, JL, and now possibly Mett, all because of character flaws. We need to start recruiting QBs who are good citizens and have heart.

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What was JL's character flaw?
What is Mett's "possible" character flaw?
Does Rivers have a character flaw, as well?
Looking at Miles' recruiting history, I feel confident saying we have recruited QB's who are good citizens and have heart. Are they perfect? Of course not. In addition, we've only been exposed to seeing a few QB's because most have not developed to the level of being a starter in the SEC; in addition, there's been at least one starter, Andrew Hatch, (who really wasn't an SEC caliber starter) who I don't recall having any significant character flaws. Seems like a pretty broad statement to say that in 5 seasons all our QB's have had character flaws......

I think Les Miles has never recovered from the disaster that was the 2008 offense. He saw that an offense could lose you games with turnovers, and ever since he has been reluctant to throw the football to specific areas of the field. Les seems to prefer QB play that doesn't lose games to QB play that wins games.

What sucks about the lesson Les seems to have learned from 2008 is that the crappy defense that year required the offense to try and keep pace with opponents, and our redshirt freshman QB wasn't ready for that challenge. LSU now has a defense that can overcome an occasional turnover, and Les should show some confidence in his QB by letting him take a few more chances.