Slick44

Any one heard anything about where this guy may end up or why he left UCLA? If he was committed to Bama, I figure Coach Steele would be familiar with him.

Yeah, I figured I might get some funny comments about that wording...I guess I should have paraphrased. It was "I love him" in the manliest way possible, while he spit his dip in a cup. He seemed like a good dude.

Unfortunately, I don't have any inside info, but I just wanted to throw out some names that I think would be interesting options for us.

1. Brent Pry: In researching Shoop from Penn State (who I think would be a great hire), I noticed they have a co-DC, Brent Pry. He coached with Shoop (co-DC) & James Franklin at Vandy so he has SEC experience. He is a little younger, age 44, than Shoop I think, & has also coached under Bud Foster, & played under Jim Haslett. He also has some Louisiana history as well from spending 5 yrs as the DC at UL-Laffy. He must be well-respected as he has held the title of assistant head coach at ULL, Vandy, & now Penn State; he was also Ga Southern's top candidate last year for their HC, but turned them down. He coaches LBs at Penn State which does happen to be LBU, & was a finalist for national LB coach of the year this year. He played some college ball as a DB @ Maryville in Tenn and has recruited AL, TN, & GA in past coaching stops.

2. Vic Fangio: I heard Hanagriff mention his name as a very long shot, which I agree with. Probably the biggest home run of them all, so I wish Les would at least get a "no" from him before pursuing other candidates.

3. Jim Leavitt: Don't know if he would want to come back to college, but was the LB coach with the 49ers, so he may be unemployed currently.

4. Mel Tucker: Also is currently unemployed as he served as the DC for the Chicago Bears this year. I don't think the Bears D was very good this year, but he does have an LSU tie, having served as DB coach under Saban at LSU.

5. Mike Nolan: Another former LSU assistant likely now unemployed after Mike Smith was let go in Atlanta. I don't think the Falcons defense was very good either though.

6. Karl Dunbar: He certainly wouldn't be my 1st choice for DC, having never been one before, but I think you could make a case that he would be a better hire than Coach O for the DL coach should it become available. He was with the Jets this year, so he may not have a job currently.

Glad you guys like the post. I didn't look into OM or Bama, as we haven't played them yet. There could be injuries and what-not that may change the percentages by the time we play them. It would be interesting to know what their percentages were before going into their game last weekend though.

This is something I've been wondering too. He was really coming on last year before the injury. I know Martin was injured last year, but I think even when healthy, Thompson is just as big, but with more speed. I don't know if people realize that Martin & Thompson are just as big, if not bigger than a number of our linebackers. I wonder if they may redshirt Thompson and or switch him to backer.

The biggest thing I liked about Thompson was that he was one of our biggest hitters of last year. He had one of the biggest hits last year against tAm that really hurt one of thier receivers, and I believe, knocked him out the game. Martin doesn't seem to strike the opponent with a "meanness" or aggression that I like from a SS...just my thoughts

Dude...I went to Horatio like 7 yrs ago, I didn't know if he was still there, but I have been afraid to go back. I told him to go as hard as he needed to in order to get my knots out. Well, he took my advice, & that hour was about the most intense pain session I've ever had in my life. I was trying to play it cool and act tough, but my calves started cramping up just from him diggin in my back. In fact, I still tell that story sometimes. I did feel better after, but I think getting stabbed would be less pain so I guess everything was put in a new perspective. I didn't know he works on the Saints. I may actually give him another shot, cause my back is worse. I'll just take some alieve before I go and tell him to tone it down a notch.

I truly believe LSU wins that game on a good field. It is a well know fact that a wet/muddy field hurts fast teams. Now, I wouldn’t call PSU slow, but certainly LSU as more overall speed. I heard coming into the game that the weakness of PSU was their defensive backfield. After watching the game, I would say the same. In fact, I felt that the discrepancy between LSU’s WRs and PSU’s DBs was so great that LSU should, and could have won that game based on that fact alone. If I were Crowton, my gameplan leading up the bowl would have been to pass, pass, and then pass some more. Judging by the number of 3-4 WR sets we ran in the game, I think that’s just what they were trying to do. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate, and I guess Crowton didn’t want to, or couldn’t change the “gameplan” that close to gametime (the forcast did call for rain, but reports were that the field had been greatly improved since the Champs Bowl).

Anyway, what I’m getting to is that on a muddy field, a bigger, more explosive football player (LSU WR) is hurt more than a smaller, less explosive player. In order to understand this, you have to look at the laws of physics. In order for the grass beneath a play to slip out, a force must be exerted upon it. What is force? Force is equal to mass multiplied by acceleration (or deceleration). Therefore, the ground is more able to withstand the forces of a smaller, less explosive player, thus providing more “footing”. Furthermore, this is why all players are not equally affected by a muddy surface. On a good field (especially artifical turf), I think we would have seen the LSU WRs stop, cut, and explode out of their breaks on the way to a big day in that PSU secondary (and subsequently actually getting first downs, kepping our D off the field so they wouldn’t be so tired at the end of the game). Additionally, since the WRs were taking longer to run their routes in the muck, Jefferson had even less time to find the open guy due to our continuously shaky OL play.

The bottom line is that I’m an LSU fan, so I’d rather chalk this one up to mother nature and bad luck (PSU put the ball on the ground at least 4-5 times and recovered all of them, we fumble twice and lose them both). We do have a lot of problems that need fixing, but we win that game on a good field!

I'm staying in Salt Lake City for the next four weeks & I was wondering if there is any LSU or Saints fans up there that I could watch games with.

Also, anyone going to the Utah vs. Utah St. game on Thursday?