November 23, 2009

Off The Wagon: No Sponsor Call Needed for TE...

You all know of my semi-retirement from penning game-related write-ups for this LSU team after what I thought was a bad karma situation last year. LSU-fueled by a record setting (in a bad way) RS Freshman Quarterback & a horrible coaching decision by Les Miles to promote Co-Defensive Coordinators-swooned from a 12-2 record & a national championship to an 8-5 season. The Tigers finished a disappointing 3-5 in conference play, with ugly losses to Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Ole Miss, & Arkansas.

The offseason brought perhaps the best recruiting class in LSU's history, all of which were academically eligible & in school by the time Fall Camp started, as well as John Chavis, Brick Haley, Ron Cooper & Joe Robinson on the Defensive side of the ball to right the Purple & Gold ship.

Optimism abounded. With a young quarterback who had a good-if not large-amount of experience returning, a stable full of playmakers on offense at the skill positions, & a uber-talented secondary being the calling card of a revamped & extremely well coached defense, LSU was loaded for bear.

Fast forward to Week 12 of this College Football Season. LSU stands a disappointing 17th in the Polls that matter, with a 4-3 SEC record heading into their regular season finale in Tiger Stadium against the Arkansas Razorbacks. It's an eerily familiar situation, & one that's cause for great concern amongst the Tiger Faithful.

Tough losses at home to #1 ranked Florida, & on the road to #3 ranked Alabama were bitter disappointments, if not completely & entirely unexpected. After the loss to the Tide, most viewed the 3 game stretch run to close out the season as Les Miles toughest coaching job of his career.

You see, when Miles' 2008 squad lost the goal of a berth in Atlanta, they death rattled their way to a putrid finish, and according to some folks, quit on their coach. They had to battle back from a huge deficit to defeat an inferior Troy team, & then stumbled through losses to the Rebels & Arkansas to finish the year. Miles was able to rally the troops & lay a beatdown on the flavor of the month that was Georgia Tech in the Chik-Fil-A Bowl, however.

This year, after losing to the Crimson Tide, LSU's coaching staff was again faced with losing the goal of Atlanta. The three game finish against LaTech, Ole Miss, & Arkansas quickly became the litmus test of LSU Head Coach Les Miles & his staff. Win out, & LSU could finish 11-2, & Miles could silence the doubters that inferred the prior year was the start of a trend, & not an anomaly. Finish strong, & the Tigers could lay the foundation for another run to Atlanta, &-perhaps-something much bigger.

Instead, in Vaught Hemingway Stadium on Saturday afternoon, the entire nation saw what could very well be a program in decline.

A team with 6 Louisiana players who didn't even get offered by their in-state flagship University lucked out in spite of their own absolute ignoramus of a coach in Houston Nutt, & beat the Tigers 25-23 in one of the ugliest, gut-wrenching, inept, pathetic coaching performances of all time.

Uninspiring performances out of elite-level athletes, an absolutely abhorrent gameplan, executed with the intensity of a Jeffrey Lebowski rug-shopping spree, somehow lead to LSU, down by 2 points, recovering an onside kick & being in field goal position with less than a minute to play.

After 5th year senior Wideout Brandon LaFell caught a 20 yard catch & run, breaking tackles along the way, LSU-in what can only be described in a lapse of sanity-called two straight deep drop passing plays in a game with an obviously hobbled quarterback, whom had been sacked 4 times prior to the last drive.

The results? An incompletion, & a mind-blowing sack. On 3rd down, LSU's Offensive Staff set down their MENSA applications in order to dial up a Screen to tailback Steven Ridley. Which promptly lost another 7 yards.

From this point, obviously most of you have seen the Irrefutable Video Evidence of LSU Head Coach Les Miles' complete idiocy, coupled with him needing to be reminded that in the age of Mass Communication, you can't exactly fib your way out of screwing up.

Yes, unfortunately, the Hat looked as lost in the immediate aftermath on national television as well.

I have thought long & hard about how to address this issue. As all of you who frequent this site know, I have been a huge Les Miles fan, both here & elsewhere. I have defended him with good reason against the ill-informed, dolts, internet-keyboard-commandos, & even the feeble-minded souls like Bleed Crimson.

As I typed this post out, this paragraph & all that follows were the hardest to write since I've been here.

I am no longer a Les Miles Fan. I can no longer ignore the objective-and even the subjective-criticism aimed at the man. To whit, I will debunk a few popular notions held by folks, such as myself, who were-prior to Saturday-solidly Les Miles fans.

LSU is 23-0 against non-conference competition. Awesome. Really. Except for the fact that LSU has achieved that record against a plethora of in-state bums like LaTech, ULM, UL-L, & Tulame University.

The better stat to pay attention to is LSU's conference record. Including last year, it's a disturbing 7-8. For you Alabama graduates, that's less than .500 (47%, to be exact) over the last two years (with the aforementioned game against Arkansas ahead). With narrow escapes against the likes of Mississippi State in both 2008 & 2009, as well as Georgia, this record could very easily be much worse.

Les Miles has victories against Nick Saban, Tommy Tuberville, Larry Coker, Jim Tressel, Mark Richt, Steve Spurrier, Paul Johnson, Charlie Weis (Does "Mayor McCheese" Charlie Weis count, anymore?), & Urban Meyer. Seriously, that's a great stat, as well. I really do mean this. But, the simple retort here is, "Name the last time he beat one in a game that mattered?"

Other than his big victory over a disappointing Georgia team this year, or the W over Johnson in the Chicken Bowl last year, he hasn't done it since 2007. Then, one must point to 2 game losing streaks to Florida, Alabama, Ole Miss, & a pre-existing 2 game losing streak to Arkansas (who will be going for their 3rd straight over LSU on Saturday).

Couple this with the absolute mind-numbing meely/mush-mouthed response mentioned earlier that almost makes one wonder if he took public speaking lessons from Loony Tunes Characters, if not drawing up his gameplans with them...and you have the recipe for mediocrity that has lead me to the point I'm at now.

I am officially ambivalent about Les Miles as the head football coach at LSU. I cannot openly hope for & wish that they fail. While that would hasten his departure, which I am unfortunately now saying that I'm in favor of, I cannot say that I would wish a loss on any of our players. I love any kid that chooses to don the Purple & Gold, & I want them to achieve at a high level during their time in Tigertown.

On the other hand, if Miles finishes 2-0 with a win over Arkansas & a bowl game victory, there is very, very little chance that LSU would axe a coach with four 10-win seasons in his first 5 years. Especially considering that this is the 2nd year that Ryan Perrilloux's absence is being felt in Baton Rouge.

(The NFL's Next Pacman Jones is paying his debt to Football Society in the Siberian Gulag that is Jacksonville State...while leading FCS in passing efficiency...the prick)

Especially considering that LSU has lost 3 of its top 5 tailbacks to season ending injuries.

However, I can't honestly say that I expect a victory against Arkansas. With a demoralized team, a coach that can't be counted on to string three coherent sentences together, much less effectively coach a 2-minute end-game scenario in order to steal a game from an inferior opponent that outcoached your ass up and down the field all game, as well as an entire football staff whose living environment in Baton Rouge can charitably be described as crucible-like in appearance & temperature, a victory isn't exactly something I'd bet the farm on at this point.

My personal opinion on the future of this LSU program is thus:

Miles has a 1 game season starting Saturday. Win there against the Hogs in Tiger Stadium, & its Bowl Prep, & a chance to prove your mettle in a bowl game. Win there, & you get one more year, but you'll be told in no uncertain terms that your entire offensive staff must be scrapped & replaced (with good reason).

If he stumbles, no matter where, Miles will find his future in the hands of LSU Athletics Director Joe Alleva, who has fielded angry phone calls from lots of Tiger Fans (including some who have donated an awfully large amount of money to LSU over the course of the past few years). If he stops getting his ear bent, & starts getting it twisted, things could start moving very fast in Baton Rouge.

It breaks my heart, truly, to say these things. To even have to think about them, really. Les Miles is an extremely good man, with great character & a good heart. He loves his family, & has created a chemistry on his staff that anyone whose a member of it and coached elsewhere will tell you is unparalleled in College Football.

He's also won a heckuva lot of football games for the University I love.

There is also the concern of whether or not I am overblowing this situation in the immediate aftermath. Am I being a little too Cornhusker-like? I know most Nebraska fans are in love with former LSU Defensive Coordinator Bo Pelini, but, most of them will agree that their decision to fire Frank Solich was a huge mistake on their part.

Am I the spoiled child who doesn't realize what he has while it's here? Have I been raised for the past 5 years with a silver spoon in my mouth, just taking it for granted?

Or am I staring Ron Zook & Larry Coker made-over, right in the face?

It's a tough situation to wrestle with, to be sure. But, there is a point in time where one must draw a line. Where one must think critically, objectively, & dispassionately.

Is Les Miles the right man for LSU? After Saturday, I'm not sure I can answer that question, anymore...

Comments:

Off The Wagon: No Sponsor Call Needed for TE...
You all know of my semi-retirement from penning game-related write-ups for this LSU team after what I thought was a bad karma situation last year. LSU-fueled by a record setting (in a bad way) RS Freshman Quarterback & a horrible coaching decision by Les Miles to promote Co-Defensive Coordinators-swooned from a 12-2 record & a national championship to an 8-5 season. The Tigers finished a disappointing 3-5 in conference play, with ugly losses to Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Ole Miss, & Arkansas. The offseason brought perhaps the best recruiting class in LSU's history, all of which were academically eligible & in school by the time Fall Camp started, as well as John Chavis, Brick Haley, Ron Cooper & Joe Robinson on the Defensive side of the ball to right the Purple & Gold ship. Optimism abounded. With a young quarterback who had a good-if not large-amount of experience returning, a stable full of playmakers on offense at the skill positions, & a uber-talented secondary being the calling card of a revamped & extremely well coached defense, LSU was loaded for bear. Fast forward to Week 12 of this College Football Season. LSU stands a disappointing 17th in the Polls that matter, with a 4-3 SEC record heading into their regular season finale in Tiger Stadium against the Arkansas Razorbacks. It's an eerily familiar situation, & one that's cause for great concern amongst the Tiger Faithful. Tough losses at home to #1 ranked Florida, & on the road to #3 ranked Alabama were bitter disappointments, if not completely & entirely unexpected. After the loss to the Tide, most viewed the 3 game stretch run to close out the season as Les Miles toughest coaching job of his career. You see, when Miles' 2008 squad lost the goal of a berth in Atlanta, they death rattled their way to a putrid finish, and according to some folks, quit on their coach. They had to battle back from a huge deficit to defeat an inferior Troy team, & then stumbled through losses to the Rebels & Arkansas to finish the year. Miles was able to rally the troops & lay a beatdown on the flavor of the month that was Georgia Tech in the Chik-Fil-A Bowl, however. This year, after losing to the Crimson Tide, LSU's coaching staff was again faced with losing the goal of Atlanta. The three game finish against LaTech, Ole Miss, & Arkansas quickly became the litmus test of LSU Head Coach Les Miles & his staff. Win out, & LSU could finish 11-2, & Miles could silence the doubters that inferred the prior year was the start of a trend, & not an anomaly. Finish strong, & the Tigers could lay the foundation for another run to Atlanta, &-perhaps-something much bigger. Instead, in Vaught Hemingway Stadium on Saturday afternoon, the entire nation saw what could very well be a program in decline. A team with 6 Louisiana players who didn't even get offered by their in-state flagship University lucked out in spite of their own absolute ignoramus of a coach in Houston Nutt, & beat the Tigers 25-23 in one of the ugliest, gut-wrenching, inept, pathetic coaching performances of all time. Uninspiring performances out of elite-level athletes, an absolutely abhorrent gameplan, executed with the intensity of a Jeffrey Lebowski rug-shopping spree, somehow lead to LSU, down by 2 points, recovering an onside kick & being in field goal position with less than a minute to play. After 5th year senior Wideout Brandon LaFell caught a 20 yard catch & run, breaking tackles along the way, LSU-in what can only be described in a lapse of sanity-called two straight deep drop passing plays in a game with an obviously hobbled quarterback, whom had been sacked 4 times prior to the last drive. The results? An incompletion, & a mind-blowing sack. On 3rd down, LSU's Offensive Staff set down their MENSA applications in order to dial up a Screen to tailback Steven Ridley. Which promptly lost another 7 yards. From this point, obviously most of you have seen the Irrefutable Video Evidence of LSU Head Coach Les Miles' complete idiocy, coupled with him needing to be reminded that in the age of Mass Communication, you can't exactly fib your way out of screwing up. Yes, unfortunately, the Hat looked as lost in the immediate aftermath on national television as well. I have thought long & hard about how to address this issue. As all of you who frequent this site know, I have been a huge Les Miles fan, both here & elsewhere. I have defended him with good reason against the ill-informed, dolts, internet-keyboard-commandos, & even the feeble-minded souls like Bleed Crimson. As I typed this post out, this paragraph & all that follows were the hardest to write since I've been here. I am no longer a Les Miles Fan. I can no longer ignore the objective-and even the subjective-criticism aimed at the man. To whit, I will debunk a few popular notions held by folks, such as myself, who were-prior to Saturday-solidly Les Miles fans. LSU is 23-0 against non-conference competition. Awesome. Really. Except for the fact that LSU has achieved that record against a plethora of in-state bums like LaTech, ULM, UL-L, & Tulame University. The better stat to pay attention to is LSU's conference record. Including last year, it's a disturbing 7-8. For you Alabama graduates, that's less than .500 (47%, to be exact) over the last two years (with the aforementioned game against Arkansas ahead). With narrow escapes against the likes of Mississippi State in both 2008 & 2009, as well as Georgia, this record could very easily be much worse. Les Miles has victories against Nick Saban, Tommy Tuberville, Larry Coker, Jim Tressel, Mark Richt, Steve Spurrier, Paul Johnson, Charlie Weis (Does "Mayor McCheese" Charlie Weis count, anymore?), & Urban Meyer. Seriously, that's a great stat, as well. I really do mean this. But, the simple retort here is, "Name the last time he beat one in a game that mattered?" Other than his big victory over a disappointing Georgia team this year, or the W over Johnson in the Chicken Bowl last year, he hasn't done it since 2007. Then, one must point to 2 game losing streaks to Florida, Alabama, Ole Miss, & a pre-existing 2 game losing streak to Arkansas (who will be going for their 3rd straight over LSU on Saturday). Couple this with the absolute mind-numbing meely/mush-mouthed response mentioned earlier that almost makes one wonder if he took public speaking lessons from Loony Tunes Characters, if not drawing up his gameplans with them...and you have the recipe for mediocrity that has lead me to the point I'm at now. I am officially ambivalent about Les Miles as the head football coach at LSU. I cannot openly hope for & wish that they fail. While that would hasten his departure, which I am unfortunately now saying that I'm in favor of, I cannot say that I would wish a loss on any of our players. I love any kid that chooses to don the Purple & Gold, & I want them to achieve at a high level during their time in Tigertown. On the other hand, if Miles finishes 2-0 with a win over Arkansas & a bowl game victory, there is very, very little chance that LSU would axe a coach with four 10-win seasons in his first 5 years. Especially considering that this is the 2nd year that Ryan Perrilloux's absence is being felt in Baton Rouge. (The NFL's Next Pacman Jones is paying his debt to Football Society in the Siberian Gulag that is Jacksonville State...while leading FCS in passing efficiency...the prick) Especially considering that LSU has lost 3 of its top 5 tailbacks to season ending injuries. However, I can't honestly say that I expect a victory against Arkansas. With a demoralized team, a coach that can't be counted on to string three coherent sentences together, much less effectively coach a 2-minute end-game scenario in order to steal a game from an inferior opponent that outcoached your ass up and down the field all game, as well as an entire football staff whose living environment in Baton Rouge can charitably be described as crucible-like in appearance & temperature, a victory isn't exactly something I'd bet the farm on at this point. My personal opinion on the future of this LSU program is thus: Miles has a 1 game season starting Saturday. Win there against the Hogs in Tiger Stadium, & its Bowl Prep, & a chance to prove your mettle in a bowl game. Win there, & you get one more year, but you'll be told in no uncertain terms that your entire offensive staff must be scrapped & replaced (with good reason). If he stumbles, no matter where, Miles will find his future in the hands of LSU Athletics Director Joe Alleva, who has fielded angry phone calls from lots of Tiger Fans (including some who have donated an awfully large amount of money to LSU over the course of the past few years). If he stops getting his ear bent, & starts getting it twisted, things could start moving very fast in Baton Rouge. It breaks my heart, truly, to say these things. To even have to think about them, really. Les Miles is an extremely good man, with great character & a good heart. He loves his family, & has created a chemistry on his staff that anyone whose a member of it and coached elsewhere will tell you is unparalleled in College Football. He's also won a heckuva lot of football games for the University I love. There is also the concern of whether or not I am overblowing this situation in the immediate aftermath. Am I being a little too Cornhusker-like? I know most Nebraska fans are in love with former LSU Defensive Coordinator Bo Pelini, but, most of them will agree that their decision to fire Frank Solich was a huge mistake on their part. Am I the spoiled child who doesn't realize what he has while it's here? Have I been raised for the past 5 years with a silver spoon in my mouth, just taking it for granted? Or am I staring Ron Zook & Larry Coker made-over, right in the face? It's a tough situation to wrestle with, to be sure. But, there is a point in time where one must draw a line. Where one must think critically, objectively, & dispassionately. Is Les Miles the right man for LSU? After Saturday, I'm not sure I can answer that question, anymore...