Rybal

Unfortunately, it was inevitable as soon as he broke his arm right before the season started. I sure wanted to see what he was capable of.

LSU had all of those returning starters because everyone left after the championship. With 2 seasons that could be described as mediocre at best, it's unlikely that there will be a ton of early departures (always some, though).

Nah - Peterson just got dragged 10 yards while trying to tackle a QB. Granted, that QB was Cam Newton, but still ...

Instead of doing 2 from each and playing them every other year, the SEC could do a bit more to preserve existing rivalries by having a permanent opponent in the other pods and rotating between the remaining 3. You'd still play every team in the league every 3 years, which is the minimum time that non-transfer players would be in, anyway. Alternatively, they could have the annual opponent in each pod and situate it so that the pods are paired against each other and select your championship teams from the best of each pair of pods. (9 games either way)

Personally, I like the pod system, but I'd stabilize it just a little more. (I'd still call them divisions, but will use "pod" here to distinguish them from the current divisions.) First, you definitely play the other 3 teams in your own pod every year. Next, you have an annual opponent from each of the other pods - this would allow for some of those existing rivalry games to keep going. LSU, for instance, could have Arkansas, Bama (or Auburn), and Florida as annual opponents. After that, there are two ways that you could go about it. You could rotate by teams or by pod. Option 1: You play 2 teams in each of the other pods each year - your annual opponent and one more. Option 2: Two pods are paired against each other each year (and you'd still have your annual opponents in the other two pods). In either case, every team would play every other team in the conference at least once every 3 years, so every player that comes through will have a chance to play everyone. The trickiest part is determining who plays in the Conference Championship game. Option 2 makes that simple - you treat the paired pods in the same manner that the current divisions are treated. Option 1 gives the chance to choose the two teams with the best conference ranking. I would also consider weighing the win-loss record of pod play more heavily than inter-pod play. Of course, there would also be an option to consider having an internal playoff for the conference title but I'd be hesitant to add even more games, especially with playoff expansion looming.

To be fair, this afternoon at about 4 or 5 Eastern, LSU was at 3 and UGA was at 4 after Sage Ryan signed with LSU. LSU dropped slightly when Armoni Goodwin (the #5 RB in the class) signed just after 7.

Better than last week, but Brennan was definitely overthrowing his receivers constantly. I suspect that's largely because they haven't fully developed their chemistry. The third down conversion rate was atrocious, but at the same time, LSU either didn't get to third down, or it was third and long. On defense, LSU gave up a bunch of yards rushing - or at least it felt that way. Still room for improvement, so here's hoping.

The second paragraph could be applied to every team in the SEC, but especially the SEC West. LSU was an aberration last year and I say that as someone who will follow the team no matter what. Even that took an impressive confluence of events to even happen (in the Bama game alone, who could have predicted that Tua would just drop the ball inside the 10). I'm jealous of Bama's sustained success under Saban. He has a strong argument for being the greatest college football coach of all time and could coach for several more years - much to the chagrin of everyone else in the conference. When there's an absolute behemoth standing in your way, it's hard to get past it. I find it interesting that the coach that is most frequently labeled as being on the hot seat is also the one that has beaten Saban the most frequently (Malzahn).

Looking at this, I think LSU's #1s being really good, with the biggest potential weakness being D-line at this moment (mostly due to experience). My biggest concern is overall depth. Even if the team isn't impacted by COVID during the season and players don't get injured, just general exhaustion could play a factor. Fingers crossed.

Definitely Skalski at the end of the first half of the National Championship. The other hits, he basically shook off. That one lasted - he still felt it even 20 minutes later.

Nice to revisit this a year later

Agreed, especially since so many pundits seem to act as though LSU's offense is going back to pre-2019. Brennan's odds are way too high. I don't expect the offense to fall off a cliff, but there's bound to be some dropoff. He also has to follow the greatest QB in LSU history (and certainly one of the top 10 all time), so there would certainly be comparisons. If Brennan ultimately wins the Heisman, he'll have earned it. Among other things, that would pretty much require LSU to win the SEC again (which would be difficult due to the personnel losses).

My two cents (and worth about as much) LSU couldn't have asked for a much better 3-game start to the season than Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Missouri. Not to mention that there isn't really a 2-game stretch that they have any realistic chance of losing. Bama's comparable, but they've got A&M in week 2. UGA having a 4-week stretch of Auburn, Tennessee, Bama, and Kentucky is rough, even though they should be better than Tennessee and Kentucky at the very least. Then they get a bye before Florida. Kentucky having Tennessee-UGA and then Bama-Florida in separate back-to-back weeks is going to hurt. A&M also has Bama-Florida back-to-back and ends the year with LSU-Auburn. Auburn ends the season with Tennessee, Bama, and A&M. Week 4 is going to be really interesting - with Bama-UGA and LSU-UF.

I think the expectation is that students would not lose their eligibility if they choose to sit out or if the season is cancelled, so he probably would have been back this year.

A case could be made that Tennessee got the hardest draw in the East when you factor in the original opponents.

But I'll agree that LSU got the easiest draw

Don't forget Tennessee - they've got Bama, Auburn, and A&M (and Arkansas)

Yeah - it sucks for Mizzou, Arkansas, and Tennessee especially. For Mizzou and Arkansas, it all comes down to the fact that they've got the top 2 teams in the other divisions, but someone had to be in that position. As an LSU fan, I'll agree that we got the best overall draw (not intended as a knock against Mizzou). Bama also ended up doing pretty decently. I would argue that all of the East teams were going to get rougher cross-divisional games because of the strength disparity of the divisions.

UGA - Auburn, Bama, Miss St, Ark UF - Ark, A&M, LSU, Ole Miss Seems pretty comparable if you look at all four cross-divisional opponents.

Looking at it a bit further, it looks almost like they started with the West when determining schedules, likely because the top 2 teams in the East have distanced themselves from the rest. So it looks like they started by making sure that every team in the West played either UGA or UF as one of the 4 cross-division opponents. Arkansas drew the short straw in getting both of them. It almost looks like they did the same thing with the East in trying to keep teams from getting both of the top teams. Unfortunately for Mizzou, they drew the short straw, but they started with 2 of the weakest teams in the conference (over the past several years). I haven't decided whether I think that Arkansas or Tennessee got the worst end of it. On the other end, LSU clearly had the best draw.

Tennessee's got it kind of rough, too, given that they now have Bama, Auburn, and A&M (so only miss LSU out of the top 4 on that side). LSU ended up with the best draw - Arkansas clearly had the worst in the West (although their initial two were on the weaker end) In the East, no one seems to benefit greatly. After Tennessee, Mizzou (Bama/LSU) and UGA (Bama/Auburn) have the second and third most difficult draws overall.

In context, it doesn't look quite as bad. Here is the list of cross-divisional opponents on the schedule. Bama - UK, Mizzou, UGA, Tenn LSU - UF, SC, Mizzou, Vandy Auburn - Tenn, SC, UK, UGA A&M - UF, Tenn, SC, Vandy Ole Miss - Vandy, UF, SC, UK Miss St - Vandy, UGA, Mizzou, UK Ark - UGA, UF, Tenn, Mizzou UGA - Auburn, Bama, Miss St, Ark UF - Ark, A&M, LSU, Ole Miss Tenn - A&M, Auburn, Bama, Ark UK - Ole Miss, Bama, Auburn, Miss St Mizzou - Bama, LSU, Miss St, Ark SC - Auburn, Ole Miss, A&M, LSU Vandy - LSU, Miss St, Ole Miss, A&M LSU still got a great draw, but the only one in the west that looks particularly bad is Arkansas. In the East, Tennessee is screwed. UGA and Mizzou are right behind them, but the others don't look like there are massive differences in the overall strength of the cross-divisional opponents.

In context, it doesn't look quite as bad. Here is the list of cross-divisional opponents on the schedule. Bama - UK, Mizzou, UGA, Tenn LSU - UF, SC, Mizzou, Vandy Auburn - Tenn, SC, UK, UGA A&M - UF, Tenn, SC, Vandy Ole Miss - Vandy, UF, SC, UK Miss St - Vandy, UGA, Mizzou, UK Ark - UGA, UF, Tenn, Mizzou UGA - Auburn, Bama, Miss St, Ark UF - Ark, A&M, LSU, Ole Miss Tenn - A&M, Auburn, Bama, Ark UK - Ole Miss, Bama, Auburn, Miss St Mizzou - Bama, LSU, Miss St, Ark SC - Auburn, Ole Miss, A&M, LSU Vandy - LSU, Miss St, Ole Miss, A&M LSU still got a great draw, but the only one in the west that looks particularly bad is Arkansas. In the East, Tennessee is screwed. UGA and Mizzou are right behind them, but the others don't look like there are massive differences in the overall strength of the cross-divisional opponents.

Auburn's right in that same category if you look at the entire cross-divisional opponents. Auburn - Tenn, SC, UK, UGA LSU - UF, SC, Mizzou, Vandy Bama - UK, Mizzou, UGA, Tenn UGA - Auburn, Bama, Miss St, Ark UF - Ark, A&M, LSU, Ole Miss

Eh - as far as SEC-W opponents, this seems reasonable: UF - Arkansas, A&M, LSU, Ole Miss UGA - Auburn, Bama, Miss St, Ark

The Clemson @ Notre Dame game was scheduled for 7 November all the way back in 2017. That one wasn't new to the schedule