bayoumatch

When LSU plays Alabama this year it is going to be a war. The fact that the tigers have not defeated the tide in years makes this game very special. Every year the LSU team does not need motivation for playing Saban and his dynasty football program. In the past the tigers have placed a defense on the field that has at times gave it a chance to win but the year to year unimagitive scheme on offense could not place the needed points on the board. This year may be one of the tigers best defenses in a while and the offense should be one that is unpredictable and may be improved drastically in passing the ball. Alabama will be favored but I doubt that it will be as much as 17 points. GO TIGERS!!!

Outside of Alabama and Georgia, LSU is perhaps either the third or fourth most talented team in the SEC. In the past the key opposition to the tigers success has been the failure to place an offensive scheme on the field that can compete with teams that are equivalent or slightly more talented than their football program. Ensminger very impressively showed success two years ago with adding a few wrinkles in the offense and still using those same predictable offensive plays of years past. Steve did an outstanding job and the installment of his new offense should perform even better. This addition of a very successful and unpredictable offense along with Arand's very stingy defense could surprise many fans this year. GO TIGERS!!!!

Whats missing from the old Arden Key that we use to know? Does he still have the enthusiasm for playing the game as he did a couple of years ago? He was at one time a sure prospect for the first round in the NFL draft. Now? Maybe there is a team out there willing to take a risk but the way I see it, he is no better than late second round or early third.

Fisher is an outstanding recruiter but he is going to need lots of help.

Alabama and Georgia is widening the gap as far as talent in the SEC. Until other teams match what they have, this will be a Alabama and Georgia competition in the SEC for the next couple of years. Right now the only way you can defeat these two teams is to out coach them in games. Otherwise it is not going to happen any time soon.

This is LSU's opportunity to play two quarterbacks in games. Brennan no doubt has a strong and accurate arm but Narcisse not only can throw the ball but when he is in the backfield as the quarterback, he could very well be your best back. The way I look at it, you either find a way to give each adequate time in games or the tigers will lose one after this season. It makes absolutely no sense to sit either one of these quarterbacks on the bench for several years.

This player just wants to enjoy the recruiting experience instead of committing early and having second thoughts of what would it have been like to visit other schools. I am sure that this happens often but the tigers will continue to move forward to recruit others. It is probably not a good idea to recruit these younger athletes several years before finishing high school.

OFFENSE! It is simple. LSU does not have enough sense to know that you not only must have great defenses but you have got to place offenses on the field that can hang against teams with not only very good defenses but adequate offenses as well. Time to go to work and make the changes in an offensive culture that will continue to cost the tigers super players that wish to go to schools that gives them an opportunity to compete for championships.

Surtrains tough decision: Most super talented players want not only a chance to go to the NFL early but also an opportunity to play for a National Championship. If Surtrain is bases his thoughts on the school that gives him the better chance to participate in a NC, it is a no brainer. LSU due to its inconsistent and incompetent offense each year cannot accommodate that wish. However what it may come down to is Corey Raymonds hard work in recruiting Surtrain and just how much he likes Raymond as his position coach. Hope the tigers sign this player but I now see it 50%-50% Alabama or LSU. I can just see Saban showing off those NC rings as he does most players that he really needs to sign.

As long as LSU does not change its culture on offense,the scheme will always be an issue. Running on 1st, 2nd and pass on third and long is a culture issue that must be changed. The Orgeron attitude that states, "we will always be a run first team" is a very simple and easily defended type of offense. It does not matter how good the talent may be, this strategy will not get you wins against the better teams that are equivalent to your talent or exceeds it. Therefore a 6-6 regular season is possible and a bowl game could very well place LSU at 6-7. About mid-season the empty seats in tiger stadium will see Orgerons clock begin to slowly but steadily tick away. DISCOURAGED!!

Little Nicky thinks that some of the football talent leaves to early for the draft. Who does this benefit, Alabama or the athlete? A coach that makes over 11 million a year has a lot of nerve telling one of his players to hang around, risking injury and a opportunity to perhaps support and change his families financial environment. What a scumbag!

It is still a mystery as to why Arden Key dropped out for a period of time at LSU to later show up once again later in the year. Key is an outstanding player but will he be an asset to a NFL team that is willing to risk wasting a very important first round draft choice. In my opinion there are to many other players out there that show more consistency in their college careers than Arden Key. He would be a better risk in the third round and much cheaper.

Unless you are willing to share or agree to allow the head coach the capacity to give instructions for game day strategics, call plays, etc., what is the reason for even hiring an OC? To take away these responsibilities from a coach hired to come in and develop a new offensive scheme is totally unreasonable. Orgeron wanted to be pacified and Canada had no time to put up with the foolishness. Canada that had no trouble at Pittsburg because Varduzzi allowed him to do his job and the results were spectacular. Not so at LSU with Orgeron that cannot seem to learn from his past mistakes by allowing his coaches to teach players parts of the game where he has a very limited knowledge on offense. This head coach should have let Canada do his job and offer his expertise on the defensive line. This is Orgeron's strength along with recruiting. "I'm the coach and we are going to do what I want to do." Well we will see just how far this attitude gets him about middle of the season when large numbers of fans began to disappear on game day. When this happens, the clock will begin to slowly tick away.

Every college football program in America wants that very exciting offense. Les Miles has a solid record for one of the most boring offenses in modern day football. What a shame because Miles is and has proven to be one of the better recruiting head coaches in the nation. He knows how to hire excellent defensive coordinators and his history at LSU is consistent with the likes of Pellini, Chavis, Kevin Steele and Dave Aranda. Boy oh boy that offense at LSU is what continues to hold him back from getting another major head coaching job. Thats a shame.

According to Steve Ensminger, Canada did not make the coaches feel like they were a part of the offense. He stated that he has a different attitude and will make sure that the coaches feel that they are a big part of the offense. Canada did not have time to pacify a bunch of over paid and under achieving coaches that are suppose to be professionals. You should not have to convince them that they are part of an offense when their jobs regardless is to coach offensive positions. PATHETIC!

Since we now have a new OC, as fans we will have to wait until this Fall and see what happens. Do we actually have a choice in the matter? All I have to say, this change had be a good one but when you look at an offense that has no star running back, will have a quarterback with very little game experience and an offensive line that again will be questionable, it does not look like LSU will have much of an offense. The tigers have trouble defeating teams that have equal talent or above and they play Auburn, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. That is at least 4 losses. Texas A&M has Jimbo Fisher now and if he can put a good defense on the field that is yet another loss and when you add Miami to the loss column, you are looking at 6 probable losses. Even after this type of season you may give Orgeron another year but I do not think the fans in the stands tolerates another year.

LSU has won three National Championships with quarterbacks that were not 5 star talents. Your chances do become better but it is not a requirement. Matt Mauck and Matt Flynn were good quarterbacks. There are other factors on a team that determines whether they can win it all and that 5 star quarterback is absolutely not needed.

A Les Miles and Freeze package would be spectacular if only Miles will let Freeze come in to run his type of offense. Miles would still be the LSU coach had he hired a legitimate OC like Freeze to come in and change the tigers offensive culture. He could not do that so this is why he finds himself trying to get back into coaching. Miles has to pretty much convince a school that his attitude on offense is no longer what it was while at LSU.

Aranda will continue to be instrumental in maintaining LSU's football tradition of excellence on defense. A great day for the LSU football program.

Miles deserves another chance at coaching but I would have the questions ready in the interview process as to what his plans would be on offense. Does he seek out an offensive coordinator that will be given the go ahead to put together his own offense? Does he bring someone in like he did at LSU and tell him what he wants to run on offense? Miles would still be at LSU had he hired legitimate OC's to run the tiger offense. As we all know now this move did not benefit his longevity or success at LSU.

I do believe that Dave Aranda feels the love, respect, trust and appreciation that LSU fans has for his energy, intelligence and the expertise he provides as the tigers defensive coordinator. Texas A&M hopefully now knows that it is going to take more than money to persuade Aranda to move to Texas A&M. If Dave Aranda goes anywhere his next stop will be as a DC with one of the NFL teams.

They say that Matt Canada may be on his way out at LSU and Rodriguez if he would be interested would be a great replacement. However Rich Rodriguez is not a type coach that is going to run another coach's offense. The year that Tommy Bowden coached at Tulane, Rodriguez was his OC in a year that the greenies won 12 regular season games. He would be quite a difference from Eddie Gran which I am hearing that Orgeron would like to hire because he coached with him while at Tennessee. A hire like Rich Rodriguez would be job security for Orgeron. A hire of Gran or Ensminger or equivalent will result in a search for another head coach as soon as next year. This will not be good for the LSU football program.

OFFENSE! Coach Kelly's expertise on offense has now defeated the tigers two times against Miles and Orgeron where each one of these coach's have no expertise in either facet of the game. That is why Notre Dame won at the Music City Bowl two years ago and once more at the Citrus bowl this afternoon. When most programs are hiring coach's that have an expertise in one or the other, LSU continues to employ coaches that cannot adequately provide guidance in either facet of the game. Not good for LSU football.

You think it is bad that programs are going after LSU coaches, just wait next year as Louisiana once again will have an abundance of talent. What LSU does after this game will certainly dictate what will happen in recruiting for 2018. Alabama is already trying to pull away Sustrain from LSU and already telling him that they have a need at the position he plays and as "little" Nicky shows those NC rings, well that is hard to resist. Again the future success is in Orgeron's hands and he can be a hero or just another unsuccessful LSU coach that let his big ego get in the way.

Enjoy this offense while you can in this bowl game because next year after several games the tigers are going to have a good number of empty seats in Tiger Stadium if Canada is fired. The offense for what ever reason has been a problem at LSU decades upon decades. We have had only two outstanding offensive coordinators at LSU the last 35-40 years. Both later in their careers won national championships. Mack Brown and Jimbo Fisher. Before these two, inbetween and after the LSU offense has very seldom dominated on that side of the ball. The LSU defense has just about always held up its end to keep LSU from drowning in its stupidity on offense. GO TIGERS!!

The media does not always get the full story, so by getting parts of it creates chaos. Up until today it almost sounded as if Canada's departure would be his decision. This report almost seems as though he may be fired. If so, this is very disappointing for the LSU football program. As to Orgeron many fans have believed for months now that he actually learned from his mistakes at Ole Miss. I guess not because he must be able to continue to feed that ego. Well if my observation is right, then I see his demise taking place in his third year as head coach. Unfortunately by that time the tiger football program may be at the level it was before Coach Saban. How can you convince Louisiana talent at that point that you have a stable successful program that will compete at the higher levels of college football? Very disappointed!

LSU has experienced the same problems in its past programs where the head coach could not bring someone in to fully take over the offense because he to had an agenda offensively. LSU will never move forward and defeat teams with equivalent talent until they change its culture offensively. Ensminger who I think performed very well as OC last year is not the answer to the tigers year to year problems on offense. This is not good for the LSU program. If you cannot maintain your coaches, you lose the stability that it needs to be successful. As far as Coach Orgeron when he hired Canada last year, he should have already known what he was getting in a OC. You will not find one coach out there that is going to take on a oc job without being able to put his own offense on the field.

You gotta love Coach Orgeron but he is wrong by not allowing Coach Canada to materialize his own offensive scheme. Sure Coach Orgeron is the coach and he should create what he likes to see happen offensively and defensively. This has been the problem in the past with head coaches having a certain offense he would like to run and most of your very aggressive and ambitious coordinators want to come in and run their own shows. Obviously Coach Orgeron did not make this clear with Canada before he accepted the job at LSU. Not good! LSU has lost many games over the years because they cannot seem to develop the passing game. This requires changing the culture at LSU by balancing off its ratio of run and pass. Over many decades it has been near 70% run and 30% pass. This does not give the offense the opportunity to be successful because all defenses finds it easy to predict the plays. The tigers need to work towards a 55% run and 45% pass. However you have got to give a coordinator full responsibility and not interfere with his changes he wishes to make to be able to improve. GO TIGERS!!

A year to year consistent offense is exactly what LSU has always needed. Traditionally the tigers have been consistently very good at defense. Developing a modern day offense at LSU requires changing a culture of rushing the ball most years at a tune of 70% of the time. When you run the ball that much it gives the offense a disadvantage and is very predictable to defenses. A 55% to 45% should be LSU's goal and with their abundance of great backs in the past can still maintain dominance but it will allow them to become more unpredictable. This year the yards rushing to yards passing was about 51% yards running the ball and 49 yardage on passing. Outstanding! However this does not do anything for improving unpredictability of plays. It takes time to change a culture and will take a lot of patience not only from our fans but the head coach as well. Hopefully the tiger coaching learned something after this season, that you cannot simplify a new offensive scheme after several games into the season just because of certain problems. GO TIGERS!!

LOYALTY. We can learn a lot from coaches like Jeff Grimes. Grimes could have easily left early for Brigham Young University but he has stayed on not only to recruit for LSU but to be a part of the tigers bowl game against Notre Dame. This coach is a strong role model for his players and in this day and time we have few that can match this characteristic. I am sure that his players not only learned very valuable offensive line skills but more important has learned even more about life. We wish Coach Grimes the best of luck in his next job as the offensive coordinator at Brigham Young.