So 2015 proves to be nothing more than the latest demise of the LSU football Tigers. This is getting to be old hat. Every year since the 2007-08 national championship the NCAA football experts leave LSU in the hunt because of the sheer talent recruited year in year out. Yet something always go wrong and we in the Bayou state learn to accept mediocrity, justify the overall win-loss record of the head coach and point to other programs and say at least we are not as bad as them.
A couple of years ago LSU ran the table and was truly touted as the elite team in the NCAA. 13 victories and the sold #1 ranking heading into the BCS against Alabama, already defeated earlier in the year. Alabama went out and flat out stomped the Tigers, it was never even close. LSU and the coaching schemes got exposed.
Since that highly disappointing year, we have settled for good with continuous losses in Bowl games. This year the pattern continued. 2015 starts off 7-0 and the football experts give LSU a #2 ranking. I was skeptical and expressed that feeling back then. Yet all LSU has to do is take care of business against Alabama and they skate to an undefeated season. What a joke. Alabama single-handedly destroys LSU on the field and eliminates the name Leonard Fournette from Heisman contention going forward. LSU players and coaches seemed to accept this as "normal" and challenged LSU fans to stick with them and don't be fair weather fans. That is always the talk of teams in trouble. That trouble was brought to the spotlight tonight as Arkansas destroyed LSU with equal ferocity as Alabama. On both sides of the ball and in all three phases of the game, Arkansas dominated LSU in Tiger Stadium. Embarrassing. The way they lost tonight are the fundamental reasons LSU's current season is but another total bust:
1. Coaching. This is not personal or a hate Les Miles screed but the coaching and play calling is head scratching. As long as we were tangling with the likes of South Carolina, Eastern Michigan, Western Kentucky, we had enough student talent to offset ignorant coaching. Not anymore, Alabama, Arkansas and coming to a disappointment near you Ole Miss and Texas A&M will expose the coaching for just how bad it is. Do we even have a special teams coach because special teams, especially coverage teams are as bad as any other college in the entire US of A. O-line coach? Well he must be bad too. Finally defense coordinator; the imposter from Alabama Kevin Steele. Do we realize that every team has scored over 20 points on LSU this year except Mississippi State? I mean we gave up tons of yards and points to Eastern Michigan and Western Kentucky. Pathetic. Wrong calls, wrong schemes, wrong angles, out of position; just an all out terrible defense. Thanks coach Steele.
2. The poor situation at QB. Brandon Harris is not SEC championship caliber. He doesn't have it between the ears, athletically or leadership wise. Now if that is bad enough, try this on for size, he's by far the best we have. Yes. LSU, a prominent SEC contender (well kind of) has a disaster at QB and this has been a Les Miles disaster for most of the last 7-8 years.
3. Offensive line was supposed to be stellar, like among the best in the world. It's not even top 5 in the SEC. What happened? It's still the same guys. What the hell happened?
4. Defense again, see #1 above. I blame it all on that disaster of a coach from Alabama named Kevin Steele. Go back to Nick and the gang in red, and good riddance.
5. Kick-offs and punts. Every one is an adventure. We can't kick off, we can't cover, we lose field position and we suck. The punter is just as bad.
6. Penalties. Both a lack of attention to detail and poor coaching techniques have allowed LSU to be one of the heaviest penalized teams in the SEC and dare I say the whole NCAA.
Guess what Tiger fans, this ain't going to get better. There have been no adjustments are improvements to numbers 1-6 above. The best LSU fans can hope for is that we screw up in reverse, win one of the two remaining to finish 8-3 and get set up for our latest bowl loss. Sorry, best I got on the prediction meter but worse, it's the best I think the Tigers got left in them.
From almost magical to same crap/different year season.
And when you match this up with the Saints disappointing performances football season 2015 is hard to take. And it's all just sad. We've seen this movie before.
Nail.........on........the...............head.......!!!
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