Certainly, you wouldn’t say there’s anything wrong with LSU.

If you look at the the last four seasons, you see 9-3, 8-5, 10-3 and 10-3. Not bad stuff by most barometers.

But when you consider the previous five years were 13-1 (national runner-up), 11-2, 9-4, 8-5 and 12-2 (national champion), then you might start to understand how head coach Les Miles found himself on the hot seat at the end of last season.

LSU is good, yes. But great?

Well, let’s talk about ways the Tigers can get back there.

Throw the ball

Outside of one big year from Zach Mettenberger, LSU hasn’t had much of a passing game since Matt Flynn led the Tigers to that last national championship in 2007.

But before that, the Tigers chunked the ball around just fine. Remember JaMarcus Russell (if you’re a Raiders fan, you may be trying to forget)? Matt Mauck?

It’s not a given that LSU has to be mediocre or bad throwing the football. The Tigers have just put themselves in a rut. It started when there was some attrition at quarterback — remember Ryan Perrilloux? — and some youngsters that had to play too early (Jarrett Lee and Jordan Jefferson), and the Tigers have never quite been able to piece it back together.

It’s Year 3 of Brandon Harris. The Tigers have some good, young quarterbacks in the program, and they never stopped getting wide receivers. Why shouldn’t they be able to get in the top half of the league in passing again?

Fix the holes in “The Fence”

If there is a state where you can win primarily with in-state players, it’s Louisiana, the state that, per capita, produces more NFL players than any other state.

However, there has been a trickle of pretty good players getting away. Cam Robinson and Tim Williams to Alabama. Speedy Noil to Texas A&M. Gerald Willis to Florida, then Miami.

Look, let’s not make this out like the best players are abandoning Louisiana. Miles still gets the bulk of them. But how much better would the Tigers be with Cam Robinson at left tackle?

Make it “DBU” again

Maybe it was just a one-year glitch, but the Tigers weren’t very good on defense last year, particularly against the pass.

The talent is still there. Players like Tre’Davious White and Jamal Adams are considered among the nation’s best at their positions.

But the Tigers were in the middle of the pack in pass defense and 11th in pass efficiency defense last year. Maybe they never embraced Kevin Steele’s scheme, and maybe his scheme wasn’t the right fit for these Tigers (but maybe for the Auburn Tigers?).

Whatever the case, it’s up to Dave Aranda to bring the swagger back.

Bring the “special” back to the team

Remember when Brad Wing would Aussie punt the ball inside the 10 at will? Or when Odell Beckham Jr. would return a punt for a touchdown to beat Ole Miss?

Bradley Dale Peveto’s special teams haven’t had that magic in the last couple of years. Last year, LSU was 13th in the SEC in punting, 12th in kickoff coverage and only in the top half of the SEC in one statistical category: field goal percentage.

Let’s face it, LSU’s going to run the ball, and it’s going to try to beat people with a defense that it’s going to bet is more physical and athletic than your offense. If you do that, you have to have special teams that can play the field position game. That’s been missing.

Beat Alabama

Pretty simple here. In those four years we mentioned, the Tigers are 0-4 against the Crimson Tide and 0-5 dating back to the 21-0 loss in the 2011 BCS National Championship Game.

Wanna be elite? Beat the best.

And here’s the raw fact: All the problems listed above would not have haunted Miles last season if he, in that stretch, could have managed a couple of wins over the now-hated Nick Saban. It’s this factor, more than any other, that put him on the hot seat to begin with.

Beat Alabama and LSU will be back.