Favorite team:LSU 
Location:Prayers up for 3
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Registered on:12/4/2005
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quote:

He will be needed in Auburn. Harris seems to be the only WR that can win one on ones. All others need to be schemed open


Exactly. Winnie is still really good, but Harris has emerged as our best WR. He and Sam have developed some really nice chemistry over the past few weeks. I don’t think he meant it like this, but one poster above mentioned Lane might hold him out this week with the bye coming up. Some others mentioned needing him back for Bama. Which is true, but we need him back for Auburn 1st. That Bama game doesn’t matter if we don’t win Saturday on the Plains. If he’s cleared to play, he is playing. Even if in a limited role.
quote:

Do we really think they’re going to quickly put that behind them and focus on the next task at hand?


Absolutely. They are a 2-loss team and right in the mix with a bunch of us other 2-loss teams. They had a bye last weekend, and that helps longer than just the 1st game afterwards. They will be fresher than us, playing in our 8th straight Saturday. And they got to watch Georgia beat Bama and move to #1 in the polls. They had 2 choices: 1) think going into Athens would be too daunting, that they had no chance, were destined for a 3rd loss and the end of their—slim, but still existent—playoff hopes and roll over and lose. 2) Get focused and prepared and confident they could go inside the hedges and beat the #1 team in the country.

They chose the latter. They have new life. Bama has proven to be beatable, so the Iron Bowl seems winnable to them all of a sudden. We haven’t won a road game all year, and lost to Kentucky. And with all the craziness yesterday, should probably jump a decent bit in the rankings. They will obviously be ranked now this week. They will have a little swag and confidence this week that they haven’t had in a while. There will be an excitement and energy on campus and around town that hasn’t been felt in a while. And they know they’ll be playing in a stadium that will be as electric as any 11 a.m. kickoff can allow.

Do I think that that makes them a better team? No, not in the physical sense. They still are who they are. But do I think it makes them better psychologically? Yes, because they will be more confident and believe in themselves more. And unless their head coach and staff are just completely incompetent, all that will have them very focused this week.

This “hangover” thing is just wish casting. Had they gone into Georgia off a bye and got their asses whipped, giving them their 3rd loss, then I could easily see them thinking their season was basically over and losing focus for our game. I think beating Georgia just gave them
new life and will have them even MORE focused this week. We’ll get their best shot.

But do I think we’ll still win? Yes. At the end of the day, they can be as focused as possible, but they are who they are. And we have better players and coaches. Who are all getting better. As much as it sucked, and as much as I’m pretty sure it’s going to wind up keeping us out of the playoffs, that loss to Kentucky will wind up being “good” for this ‘26 LSU team as long as we still only have 2 losses. I think we learned a lot about focus and preparation ourselves. I think yesterday being so crazy, this whole season being so crazy, and specifically Auburn beating Georgia, will have our team as focused and prepared as possible. It’s been a long 7 weeks without a bye. But they can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. Just one more week. Just one more game. Focus and finish this 8th game off with a win, then we get to rest. Mentally and physically. And come back home 2 weeks later —hopefully with our best offensive weapon back—for a new 4-week season, a 4 week playoff. One elimination game at a time. Go 1-0, then 1-0, then 1-0, then 1-0, and we can rest and reset again for the actual playoffs.

Whether or not any of us think we finish that stretch 4-0 is irrelevant. The players and coaches will believe they can. But they also know none of that matters if we don’t finish this stretch off with a win over Auburn on the Plains. So I don’t think focus or preparation are going to be an issue for either team come Saturday. Both teams will be dialed in. And the team that executes best, makes more plays, makes less mistakes, will be the one to come out with the win. I absolutely think it will be us. But it won’t be due to any silly “hangover” effect that causes Auburn to lose focus after beating Georgia. It will because we are better. That said, Jordan-Hare is a crazy place for us to play. Wild things happen there. If you guaranteed me a 7-6 win right now, I’d take it and run.
quote:

but we would perenially make the playoffs with their schedule.


No we wouldn’t. “We” wouldn’t be “us” with that schedule. Would have less money, worse coaches, worse players, less fans—nobody wants to watch that schedule—in all 3 big sports. Our brand would diminish fast. Some of y’all really have a difficult time with long-term thinking.
It may have been the worst decision an SEC commissioner has ever made. Then he chased it with 2nd one, agreeing to the 24-team playoff. Add to that his petty bullshite against LSU, and there’s no way he remain in that position very much longer.
quote:

the issue is that we have a tissue soft defensive front that can't rush the passer. we have to blitz to get pressure.


What? :lol:
quote:

Really hate that they lost. Takes all the shine off of the game with them in TS.


It may add to it if we beat Auburn and Bama. Could be a 2-loss showdown and elimination game.
quote:

So other teams can prepare for it right?


That’s just something else they’re not preparing for. And we can run something different out of that same look.

quote:

The object is to surprise a team with plays like that not run them up 31-0


Small minded, short term thinking. Sometimes there are multiple objects.
The reverse? To put on film. Coaches are never just playing this particular game.

re: Berry?

Posted by Hot Carl on 10/17/26 at 1:54 pm to
Not as good as Jones. It’s that simple.

re: I want Leavitt back next year

Posted by Hot Carl on 10/17/26 at 1:52 pm to
quote:

ipodking


I know you’re kinda trolling. Still, kill yourself.

re: If the Team comes out slow & Sluggish?

Posted by Hot Carl on 10/17/26 at 8:05 am to
quote:

Mostly hired guns that don't care.


Who are all these players dogging it like they don’t care?
quote:

Great post brother


Thank you, sir. :cheers:

quote:

I’ll take it a step further, but sort of on the negative side. The Alabama rematch, which was sort of the precursor to this whole thing, was brutal not just in the sense that we lost the national title, but that it rendered null and void, one of the biggest wins in LSU history.

Other than the 03 title, 9-6 was probably the happiest at that point I’d ever been after an LSU win.


Dude, I hear ya. Same. I’m not sure where you were watching the game, but I was living in Baton Rouge and drove to New Orleans for a watch party. (Drove my friends’ Porsche that she bought herself as a divorce present. Not really relevant, just pointing out how special and memorable that whole day was.) And it was perfect outside weather in New Orleans. That crisp, cool fall air. We were at a friends’ house in uptown and had a huge projector screen set up to watch it. Probably 40-50 people. Tons of food, all kinds of booze. And it was the best watching experience I’ve had outside of Tiger Stadium. You could feel the tension of everybody watching. The Ford overtime touchdown being called back. The field goal. Us stopping them to win the game. We were all hugging each other and screaming.

Then went out to the Goldmine dancing to this little jingle me and my buddy made up on the way. “9 to 6. 9 to 6. 9 9 9 9, 9 to 6.” Over and over and over again. I can still hear it. Now those days are over. Nobody will bother to throw a big outside watch party for a regular season game when 24 teams make the playoffs. And won’t for anything other than maybe the National Championship game. In mid January. Now I’m too old for a day full of drinking and going dancing after a game (well, maybe not :lol:), but our kids won’t have those experiences now. And that’s another thing that’s not talked about out. Sports’ fandoms—baseball and college football mostly—are passed down from fathers to sons and daughters. Parents to children. And then their children. It’s a passion that becomes generational tradition. Taking so much passion out of the sport makes it harder and harder to pass down. Especially today with it competing with cellphones and streaming services. My 2 kids watched the Ole Miss game with me earlier this year. Caught both of them glued to their phones, just scrolling. In the 4th quarter!!! :lol: So it’s already difficult enough even when I’m still invested. I still stand up on every 3rd down in my own damn house. :lol:

But as my emotional investment and passion wanes with every expansion, so will every other father’s. Making it even harder to pass down. That’s why I get so frustrated by people who can’t see the bigger picture. It’s not just about the playoff ratings in a 2 year window. The novelty hasn’t worn off yet. But they are losing a lot of their current fanbase and any chance to sustain it by not creating their future ones. The sport is not just changing, it is dying. I just wish the people in charge cared.
quote:

Last year's playoff was a resounding success.


Was it? It may have done big numbers, but those just made short term thinking people like you want more and are doubling the size. If it was a victory for the sport, I’d argue it was a a Pyrrhic one. And will eventually lead to its ruin.

quote:

There are blowouts in the NCAA basketball tournament, and it's no less of a spectacle.


1) the NCAA has done an incredible job of marketing the tournament, and it’s been established as a unique event for over 40 years. The CFP? Not so much.

2) does anyone that’s not a HUGE basketball head or gambling junkie pay any attention at all to regular season games that don’t include their teams? Hell, LSU basketball has been so bad lately, I’m not 100% sure college basketball even has a regular season. If it does, I’ll have to take your word for it, because I sure as shite ain’t watching. With the 1 and dones and the portal, I, along with a lot of other people, just do not care. At all. It’s terrible basketball. It’s a terrible product. It’s unwatchable. Until the tournament. Which is still terrible basketball, but it’s fun. Again, that is due to the incredible marketing job of the NCAA for that event. That lasts a whopping 6 weekends. Which is exactly what the more traditionalists of college football absolutely do not want. It should be a 4 month season, not a 4 week one. That is what made it special. Now it’s just the NFL, but with worse players, worse coaches, worse teams, less time to practice, and just an overall worse product. Which is not sustainable.

quote:

the NCAA basketball tournament, and it's no less of a spectacle. The football playoff will be the same. I


:lol: Name one memorable play or historical moment form the 12 team playoff era.

quote:

it's still a huge improvement over meaningless bowl games where half the starters opt out.


I completely disagree. Bowl games have historically been incredibly meaningful. Like the ‘01 and ‘06 LSU teams that won the Sugar Bowl. Those games were very meaningful, historically important, and put a stamp on 2 of the greatest seasons in LSU history. Those teams and players will forever be remembered. Now, nobody will care if you won the quarter or semi-final if you lose your last game. Those teams and players will be forgotten. And that’s a shame.

And the bowl opt outs only became a thing with the expanded playoffs. Started with the 4 team, got worse with the expansion to 12, and will be even worse moving to 24. If they still even have bowl games after their contracts run out. But make no mistake, there will still be opt outs. They will just be during the regular season when star players just happen to have a 1-week flare up of some vague injury that doesn’t actually exist. Just wait until all the big rivalry games the last weekend of the regular season has a team—or both—sitting 7 starters to get ready for the playoffs because they’ve already secured their spot.

quote:

The "it will diminish the regular season" argument has been proven wrong each of the last two years, and is continuing to be proven wrong this year.


No, it really hasn’t. And no, it really won’t. You are short term thinking again. Are you incapable of macro thinking or just being willfully ignorant?

quote:

The regular season is no less significant, and I would argue that the 24-team playoff will actually make it more significant for those four loss teams that are fighting to get in, and everybody else on up.


There’s the rub. We just have completely different perspectives. frick each and every 4-loss team fighting to get in. They don’t need to be anywhere near a playoff. How can you not see being able to lose 4 regular season games and still have a shot at winning the NC doesn’t drastically diminish the regular season? Not the cumulative, but each and every individual game? I can’t comprehend your incomprehension.
quote:

Perfect seasons don’t matter any more.


That is not a good thing. At all. What separated college football champions from champions in other sports was that it was based on who was the best team from the 1st weekend of September until January. A 4 month+ playoff. A picture of the entire body of work. Made up by 13-15 weekly snapshots that all mattered equally. Now it will only be a December/January picture made up of only 4 snapshots. But really only 1. The championship game. CFB has already approached the “win the NC or your season was a failure” territory. It will only get worse with expansion. You’re either holding the big trophy up in the stream of confetti, or your season—your team—is totally forgotten. You may not as well have even had a season.

Again, that’s what made college football so special. It was about the journey, not just the destination. Some of the greatest experiences of my fandom life have come during seasons when LSU made the fricking Independence Bowl. Dinardo’s 1st year. Dinardo’s 3rd year. Saban’s 1st year and we come back and beat Georgia Tech in the Peach Bowl after replacing Booty with Rohan, with a gimpy Brandon Winey gutting it out like a beast, on 2 touchdown passes to Tommy Banks of all people (not a shot, just pointing our FB catching 2 passes period in one game, much less 2 touchdowns was wild) in his final game in an LSU uniform? Sweet. The 2001 SECCG without Rohan? Then the demolishing of Illinois in the Sugar Bowl? Hell yes. Donkey stomping Notre Dame in the ‘06 Sugar Bowl? Hell, hell yes. I think will remember and love those teams forever. And not just because they won their bowl games, but because of the ride of individual regular season games that got them there. How awesome was the Earthquake game when Tommy Hodson found Eddie Fuller in the end zone as the clock expired? Even after our 3 recent NCs, that may still be the 2nd most iconic game in LSU history behind the Halloween Billy Cannon Ole Miss game. As long as college football exists and people talk about LSU, the story of that game will always be told. But does anybody know we finished 8-4 that year with a loss to Syracuse in the Hall of Fame Bowl? If they do, do they care? The Bluegrass Miracle. Probably a top 5-10 iconic game in LSU history. We finished that season with 5 losses.

I could go on and on. But those moments, those games, those teams, will forever be remembered. And none of them won the National Championship. We are rapidly moving toward those type teams, games, moments, being completely forgotten. Like trees falling in a forest with no one around. Will they have made a sound? Will they have even existed?

And I think eventually, even the National Champions won’t be memorialized. When more and more 2 and 3 loss teams start winning them, their places in history won’t be immortal. They won’t be compared to previous great teams from the past. Their fans will care. Everybody else will just keep it moving. Because they only watched a 4 week tournament. Or maybe only 1 game like a lot of people do with the Super Bowl. Because they weren’t invested for the weekly ups and downs of a 4 month journey. Because the expanded playoff allowed them to not have to be. And as someone who always thought college football was the greatest sport on earth to follow, I think that really fricking sucks.

Tl;dr—the expanded playoff is going to kill the regular season which is what has made the sport so special, gonna make any team that doesn’t win the NC be completely forgotten, and going to even make the NC teams less revered and less memorable historically. They’ll all just blend together by everyone except their own fans. There will be no more magical moments. No more games of the century. Because the stakes of each individual game, each individual play, will be significantly lowered. Until the playoffs. When most of the country has moved on to Christmas and are not paying attention. And it will suck.
quote:

Because #s13-24 are never going to win it al


I’m not sure that’s true. A team could lose a couple—or even a few—early due to injuries or just not gelling, get hot, go on a run, and win it all. Especially an SEC team with the ridiculous 9th game added. That was such a clusterfrick by Sankey and why he had to agree to the 24 team model because he knows he screwed the conference by adding that 9th game completely unnecessarily. It automatically adds a loss to half the teams in the conference. It adds to the already brutal grind of an SEC schedule. But one thing that I’ve talked about that no one else seems to really consider, is that it forces everybody to play an unbalanced schedule. Half the teams have to play 5 road SEC games instead of 4 now. And we’ve seen this year with the parity in the league and in the sport overall, that home field really, really matters.

But that’s not an argument FOR the 24 team playoff, it’s an argument AGAINST it. I don’t want 3 or 4 loss teams sneaking in and being able to go on a run. That diminishes the regular season substantially. Which is what has made college football sacred. The OP listed all the other football leagues and levels that have bigger playoffs and college football having historically been the exception. YES!!! EXACTLY!!! That’s the whole point. It’s what made it unique. And why a huge portion of the people that post on this board thought college football was the greatest sport in the world.

And if you—not YOU, bluestem, the royal “you,”—don’t think it will kill the regular season, you’re an ignorant fool. EVERY single time a sport has expanded their playoff, their regular seasons have become less and less important. I love sports. All of the big 3 for sure. I’m in my late 40s, so my priorities have changed and that’s certainly a contributor, but growing up, if a baseball game was on tv and I was home, I was watching it. Suffered through the ‘85-‘90 Braves’ atrocious teams and watched every game I could on my little 13” black and white tv. It got a lot more fun when they started winning in ‘91. I was glued to every regular season game from ‘91-‘93. Because there were only 4 divisions in all of MLB. East and West of both leagues. A 4 team playoff. Regular season games mattered significantly down to the last day. The Braves and Giants had the best records in baseball in ‘93, but both played in the NL West, so only one team made the playoffs(Braves won 104 to the Giants 103). That was incredibly exciting. But, I realize now like the league did, that that was only exciting for the teams still in it. Regular season games quit mattering to most teams long before the end of September. So they expanded the league and the playoffs by 1 round, making it an 8 team playoff instead of 4. And teenage Hot Carl quit watching regular season games as much. Quit planning my day around them. Sure, I’d watch if I was home and they happened to be on, but I didn’t go out of my way. The Braves were so good that they were almost assured of making a 4-team NL playoff. And with each expansion of the playoffs, I started to watch less and less regular season games. Now, I don’t watch any. Wake me up in October.

And it’s been the same for every other sport. I like the NBA. But it’s 2 different seasons now, the regular season, then the playoffs. Wake me up when the playoffs start. NFL? Same thing. I’ll watch almost every Saints game, but other than that, I’m not watching any other regular season games. And almost nobody else would either if it weren’t for fantasy football and gambling. When a 10-6 or 9-7 team started winning the Super Bowl? Wake me up when the playoffs start. College basketball besides LSU? Wake me up in March.

Because when you expand the playoffs, the regular season only matters on the cumulative. Individual games do not. I have been a college football fanatic for 40 years now. Watched every big game on tv all day. Wouldn’t go hunting with my dad because I didn’t want to miss any games. And I was ok with the 4 team playoff. Loved the BCS, but realized it was only because LSU never got hosed. Most years 1 or 2 teams had separated themselves, but there were a few years where a 3rd team got screwed. So 4 was fine. (Though I thought it should be 6 with the top 2 teams getting a bye. You’d hate to see an ‘11 or ‘19 LSU team
not get rewarded for their incredible regular seasons by having to play a good team on a neutral field in an extra round). But when they went to 12, I quit tuning into all the big early season games with undivided attention that didn’t involve LSU. Y’all remember the amazing ‘24 early October game against Oregon and Ohio State when the Ducks squeaked out a 1 point win at home? No? Neither does anyone else. Because Ohio State won the game that mattered in the playoffs. Bama and Georgia last week was a great matchup, and a great game. I’ll have to take your word on it, because I didn’t watch a single play. Granted, they were on while LSU was, but I usually would have switched back and forth. But now, I can just wait until they meet up again in the SECCG and/or the playoffs. I said “and” because there’s a decent chance they play 3 times this year. So could Indiana and Ohio State. And you can fricking miss me with that bullshite. And a 24 team playoff will almost mathematically guarantee a couple of rematches.

That’s how the regular season—and the sport—will suffer by diminishing the regular season. Every game will have lower stakes. We will all still watch LSU. Every other fanbase will watch their schools’ games. But they’ll quit watching all the others until the playoffs. And you will eventually see a gigantic crash in tv ratings for regular season games. May take a few years, but it’s coming. So is less attendance at home regular season games. It is coming. And when novelty of all the cool matchups we haven’t seen much of in the playoffs starts happening—when Georgia and Bama play for the 7th time in 4 years, or when LSU and Michigan, who have never played before, play 3 times in 5 years, the numbers for the playoffs will start to drop significantly too. “Wake me up in January for the semifinals.” This is a short term money grab made by people either incapable of seeing the guaranteed unintended consequences or just don’t care. And it will destroy the sport.

(Oh, I don’t even mention all the stars that will be siting out regular season games throughout the year. Gonna be a huge uptick in hamstring tweaks and ankle twists.)
quote:

He’s the best WR prospect in la in decades, maybe ever. You’ll see soon enough


What makes him that, Les? I have literally not seen 1 second of highlights, so I don’t know what makes him so elite. I agree with you that in 2026, the WR position is as important as ever. But the elite WRs finish in the end zone. That’s been a huge problem with this current LSU team. Almost all of our explosives, save a handful—and 2 of those were trick plays last week—have been between the 20s. Winnie is great at getting open and finding space downfield, but he’s not finishing in the end zone.

Which is fine and has a lot of value, except that we are terrible in the red zone when the field shrinks. Part of that is our OL—we just don’t have the ability to get the push needed to run the ball effectively when the defense is bunched together. (We are good inside the 5 with Sam, Clark, and Dillin. It’s why we have so many rushing TDs. But from the 20 to inside the 5, we have not been good).

But the other reason is that we have relatively small and weak WRs that get knocked off their routes and get up and high point and beat guys to win 50/50 balls. I don’t know if it’s scheme or personnel, but Sam has had to throw a couple of absolute breadbasket fades in the back corner of the end zone for us to score. He’s missed a few obviously, but he’s also thrown some nice balls to some of our smaller guys that they just can’t come down with.

We obviously miss Trey’Dez there big time. But we won’t have him next year. So what does Royal do that will help us score touchdowns? You don’t have to be tall to do that. Jamar Chase is 6’0”, but played like he was 6’4”. Very strong hands. Very good at turning 50/50 balls into 75/25 ones. And also had the breakaway speed to and strength to catch a ball at midfield, slip or break a tackle, then beat everybody to the house.

Is Royal that type of player, like Chase? Plays bigger than he is? Is he more Malik? Just a fricking dog that ran elite routes and was fast enough to break one? An OBJ? A Jarvis? Who’s his LSU comp? Hate to limit it to just LSU guys, but that’s who we’re all more familiar with, and with the run of studs we’ve had at that position over the past 25 years, there should be enough to choose from.

But looking at that list I just made, all those guys had 1B or very good #2s playing opposite them. Chase had Jefferson. Malik had BTJ. OBJ had Jarvis. Jarvis had RBJ. I’m sure Royal would be good enough without another 1st rounder opposite him, but what type of WR would best complement his game? What type would help him reach his ceiling? And do we have that guy on the roster currently? If not, how do we get him?

One thing that kinda scares me about throwing so much cash at a 5’11” high school WR is Eugene Wilson. Super talented, quick twitch, fast, etc…but we just can’t seem to figure out a way to get him going. And it’s not like he hasn’t been out there. Pretty sure he lead the WRs in snaps going into the Kentucky game. But he seems to be more of a horizontal guy, get him the ball on some crossers within 20 yards and see if he can bust it. Get him the ball quick around the LOS and let him go to work. But he hasn’t been able to do that much? Again, is that scheme? Is that personnel? Do we need more threats at WR and/or TE to run some DBs out of the play and give him more space? Is it the OL? Sam not finding him in his progressions? Or is he just not a great route runner? Is he getting knocked off his routes? We’ve hit him down the sidelines a few times—I think he came down with 2–but he had very little separation and it took perfect passes from Sam to even give him a chance.

This is not me arguing against Royal. Not in the slightest. I want him. But it’s more from things I’ve read, not things I’ve seen. I trust your evaluation on him and what kind of player he is. And I’m curious what we need around him to get the most out of his talent. And where do we get it? And how do we afford it considering all the other holes we’re gonna have to fill?

(Just as an aside, and this is probably more for the Rant, but damn Manson Delane, AJ Haulcy, and Ty Benefield are 3 of the best DBs we’ve ever had. At DBU. And their seasons will be mainly forgotten because the teams weren’t championship caliber. Add Princewill too as one of the best edges we’ve ever had. It’s gonna hurt having to replace him and Ty.)

re: LSU Should GEAUX Independent

Posted by Hot Carl on 10/15/26 at 10:19 pm to
quote:

Because we get singled out at every turn. Its BS. We play against a stacked deck and everyone sees it.


:wah:
quote:

Why would we celebrate Baz Luhrman anally raping established properties? His Elvis movie was hilarious. I ONLY CARE ABOUT THE BLACKS MOMMA!!!


You people are so fricking insufferable. Get over your fricking self.