goducks75

UCLA would hold their own. That would be a damn good match up though. Just imagine how epic the Kareem and Shaq matchup would be if they were each in their prime....

PG: Walt Hazzard
G: Gail Goodrich
F: Sidney Wicks
F: Marques Johnson
C: Kareem

Reserves:
Bill Walton
Reggie Miller
Ed O'Bannon
Baron Davis
Russell Westbrook
Willie Naulls
Jamaal Wilkes
Kevin Love
Don Maclean
Jordan Farmar
Aaron Afflalo

And of course we all know who the coach of that UCLA team would be......

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7thWardTiger

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True Cliff's TD returns did come against weaker competition but it's difficult to take it all the way even against weak teams. I won't disagree that Cliff could end up being a non-factor (insofar as a returner at least) against your special teams because your special teams units are very good. However, to assert that he isn't a good returner at all may be the most ridiculous thing I have heard in a very long time. You have to be at least pretty good as a returner to have the vision to make those runs and talented enough to have the speed to get it done against even the bad teams. Don't you think there would be more returners with 3-5 TDs as a returner considering most teams play a few weak teams every year? Why didn't Patrick Peterson return 2 against McNeese State or UL Monroe?

Other than that one claim I understand your argument but there is no way any rational football fan can say he's not a good returner at all. Whether he may be overrated or not is a different story entirely.

Mett's got a lot of talent (people have been talking about his talent since he was still at Georgia) and I think he'll be better than JJ by the time he's done at LSU, but I just don't see it happening this year unless JJ gets hurt or plays flat out awful and loses a bunch of games that LSU has no business losing.

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Last part said what I was trying to get across.

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Fair enough. :cheers:

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Only way to really look is how we both play the same teams.

2003: Arizona
LSU 59-13
UO 48-10

2003: Mississippi State
LSU 41-6
UO 42-34

2004: Oregon State
LSU 22-21
UO 21-50

2005: Arizona State
LSU 35-31
UO 31-17

2006: Fresno State
LSU 38-6
UO 31-24

2006: Arizona
LSU 45-3
UO 10-37

5/6 LSU did better against the same team. The defense Oregon fans claims is going to stop us from passing has all but once allowed more ppg then the LSU defense of the same time frame.

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You missed Washington in 2009 where LSU won 31-23 and Oregon won 43-19. And honestly, even including this more recent game this argument has little relevance with the two teams today outside of pointing out that LSU has typically had the better defense (or team in general as you guys won 2 NCs between '03 and '07) this past decade, and few Oregon fans would disagree with that claim. Oregon didn't begin improving too much defensively until Chip took over. None of the players from either LSU or Oregon from 2003-2006 are playing college ball anymore (well, unless you have a recruit from the '06 class that greyshirted or went on a Mormon mission or something that I don't know about). Not only that but you guys didn't get Chavis until 2009. This is comparing apples to oranges here. Oregon has been far more aggressive defensively under Chip as opposed to Bellotti where they played a far more conservative bend-but-don't-break defense that often broke more times than it didn't. Again, apples to oranges.

Oh, and keep in mind that we had Crowton as OC in '05 and '06. You guys know all about how that goes....

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Most people who follow LSU as I do felt that Crowton was the biggest probem on offense. He has too many packages for each formation. Too much shifting for no apparent reason. He's just too cute & he out thinks himself sometimes. This leads to plays being sent in late, causing confusion & takes time from the QBs presnap reads. Most of the time he has the better athletes....so just line up and run a play. Too much thinking takes away aggressiveness IMO. I think simplifying things will help JJ tremendously.

As far as the game goes, I expect both teams to give up at least 3 TDs. Theres a lot of talk about LSU's bad offense last year & rightly so. But Oregon has to win in shootouts. I watched ASUs offense have a field day and they werent that great last year. Oregon's D was pitful.

31-27 LSU

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I can definitely respect that. ASU's offense was abysmal but while ASU did better than usual that game, Oregon capitalized on Threet's HORRIBLE performance (a few of his turnovers were handed to us on a platter to be sure but a few were also forced). Oregon's defense also improved a bit as the year went on. As much credit as Auburn deserves for dominating on the DL in the NC (which they obviously did), we did do quite an effective job defensively of shutting down Cam better than even most SEC defenses did despite us not having much size. Then again, I think part of it also had to do with both the Auburn and Oregon defenses being so used to practicing against a fast paced offense every day in practice throughout the season. Both defenses played very well most the game against potent offenses....

I think that our defensive unit this year has the potential to be better than last year's defense was as we are putting in players with more physical talent and upside but I am of the belief that you can never underestimate the value of experience and we do lose a bit in that regard (Matthews, Paysinger, and Bair among others). With that said, the people stepping in for the most part had quality reps last year as we used plenty of substitutions, so it's not like we are putting in players that have never played a down at starting positions. We will need to rely on inexperienced players to get quality reps against you guys though and that could potentially be an advantage for the LSU offense.

We definitely understand the Crowton problem as we had to put up with him too. Part of me wishes he were still there rather than Kragthorpe.......

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If you aren't intimidated by what we did against North Carolina, what about what we did against Alabama, Florida, and Texas A&M ?????????????

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Duly noted and I did watch all those impressive games. That said, even with your talent that you still return, a) you lost a few key pieces from last year's team, b) you are installing a new offense (though way less complicated than Crowton's so it may actually be a good thing instead but time will tell there), and c) it's the beginning of the season. Time off from football and switching in new guys at starters (even those that got PT last year) alters the chemistry and thus they usually start off rusty (partly because by that time they've only had pads on for a few weeks and there's always an adjustment period). That's universal for most teams at the start of the year. I expect Oregon to be rusty too hence why I still think you guys win, just not by a huge margin.

Last year can be an indicator of things to come the following year but comparing what you did in mid/end of the season and assuming you'll just pick up right where you left off as if nothing changed at all to start the season doesn't make much sense. It hardly ever happens like that. Should be a good game but I do think both teams will be getting used to playing again and will not quite be at their respective midseason forms last season.

It's just something to get us talking. Steele has his own opinions, he just may be a tad looney tunes at times which happens to occur more times than not. In 2009 he didn't even have Oregon crack the top 40 and predicted they'd tie for 6th in the Pac-10 in his super-duper scientific (so he claims) preseason ranking system and we finished 11th in the final polls and won the Pac-10....

I did see you had a few in the all-SEC team even though they didn't make his All-American teams, but one I thought was funny with those was his putting Duron Carter in 2nd team all-SEC (I think, maybe 3rd) and he had all of 13 catches for 176 yards and a TD at Ohio State back in 2009.... May be talented and has the genes but he's done very little at this level so far....

And it just keeps on getting better in Columbus if this report is true:

LINK

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Experience helps...doesn't matter the year as much as the experience. LSU's young talent got that experience last year. Where was Oregons?

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Also getting experience.... I really don't get how you and others assume we didn't get experience because if you watched us at all last year (which judging by that last sentence you clearly didn't), you'd see that we frequently subbed underclassmen on both sides of the ball and many of those "inexperienced" starters got plenty of reps last year in significant points in the game....

Having said that, I do agree with many here that point out the ridiculousness of those comments by the guy trying to compare you guys to the 2009 Boise State team, say you guys aren't deep/very good on defense, etc.