Sunday Hangover

Wow.  What a game.  The Tiger Bowl was another classic, this time on the Plains and for the first time in a good long time, LSU won in JHS.  There are a lot of things about this game to get to, so let me get started.

• Les Miles image should no longer be questioned.  He is one of the best coaches in the land.  No other coach–except for perhaps Pete Carroll–routinely dials up a special play when his team needs it.  Tonight we saw a onside kick and a halfback pass.  Both were successful, the latter for a touchdown.  In a game where both teams needed to let it all hang out, one team did.  Auburn, coached by the supposed “Riverboat Gambler” took few chances and showed little ability to adjust or change what he was doing.
• On that note, Auburn took a timeout when LSU was lined up for a field goal.  Why?  I believe that TO was a direct result of the unpredictability that Les has shown in his tenure.  Tommy had to tell his team to prepare for a fake, a la South Carolina last year, and was forced to burn a timeout.  That TO didn’t end up mattering much, but in another game, it might.  And that is a direct result of coaching.  Of Les’s genius.  Feels weird to write that, but it’s true.
• Brandon Lafell is the best receiver on this team.  Demetrius Byrd is the speed merchant, big play maker, but I think when the team needs a play in the passing game, they look to Lafell, who appears to excel at catching the ball deep over the middle.  I don’t mean to demean Byrd, because he is a very good player as well.
• And that brings me to the quarterbacks.  Contrary to many, now I think the qb controversy begins.  I don’t think it’s over.  Yes, Jarrett Lee looked great in the second half.  But he looked bloody awful in the first.  In fact, I wrote in my notes “Can we stop the talk of Jarrett Lee being ready to start for this team?”
• That leads me to another question.  Hatch may not have the strongest arm, but playcalling didn’t help him at all.  Early in the game,  LSU refused to go down the field at all with the ball.  Admittedly that might be because the coaches didn’t have faith in Hatch to make the throws, but I doubt that.  Even a ‘weak-armed’ quarterback still has enough arm to throw a  20 yard in, which Lafell is good at running (see above).
• Of course, we saw no Jordan Jefferson.
• The sum of this is that it will be interesting to see who gets the start next week, and what Miles has to say about it.  I will not be surprised if we see a good bit more of Andrew Hatch this year.  As I said, I think the qb controversy may just be beginning for this team.
• After the NT game, I was worried about Trindon Holliday receiving punts.  Tonight is why.  Even if you watch the ones during the NT game, he went inside his 10-yard line to receive at least one, maybe two punts.  Sure he got big returns, but we saw the downside of that sort of aggressiveness tonight.  He’s dangerous, but to both teams on the field.
• I would have like to have seen him on offense, at least once or twice.
• Charles Scott is just a stud.  He runs hard like Jacob Hester, with better breakaway potential.  I am loving this guy as a starting rb.
• I thought Chris Hawkins had a good game, and not just because he got two picks–one of which he should have just knocked down, by the way.  But several times he had good coverage on routes that I saw.  Danny McRae was victimized, as was Curtis Taylor once or twice.
• BTW, I thought the hit that put Hatch out was a totally clean one, and a very hard one.
• Rahim Alem was called for an iffy but inexcusable roughing the passer penalty on the last Auburn drive, but atoned for his mistake with a huge sack on the very next play.
• The TV announcers (Patrick and Blackledge) said on several occaisions that LSU’s D line depth would have an impact on the game, and I thought they were absolutely right.  LSU was able to get pressure late in the game with just its down four.
• What a huge defensive stop on Auburn’s first drive of the second half.  Auburn drives and appears to be stopped, but a late hit penalty gave them a 1st-and-10 at the LSU 19 yard line.  The D bone up, though, and Auburn ended up having to punt.  A huge sequence.  HUGE.
• Are there still questions about LSU’s punting and kickoff games?  Dalfrey was huge in the punting game.

Ok, I think that’s all my thoughts for the moment on the LSU game.  I watched the UF-Tennessee game earlier in the day, and UT is bad bad bad bad.  Thoughts on that one follow.

• Tennessee is not good.  Mentally.  To look at them, they have a good level of talent, but mentally they are a wreck when it comes to Florida.  From the top down, too.  Phil Fulmer looked flummoxed by the play of his players and by the play of the Gators.  Florida plays as it always does: cocky and extremely athletic.  Some Vol issues that I noticed:
  • This offense and team are so, well, conventional.  You know what formations they are going to use, you know what they are going to run out of them.  When they run a play, you never say, “Man, that was well designed!”  They only succeed when they out-execute the defense, which is difficult when you play someone as athletic and well-coached as Florida.
  • Fulmer just looks like he is totally at his wit’s end.  He gets frustrated, and his teams make terrible mistakes at crucial times.  Some of that is players’ fault, but a lot has got to be on Fulmer.
  • Johnathan Crompton is not very good, and he is not being helped by the play-calling and especially the formations.
  • Worst of all, the team just plays tight.  The look tentative, afraid to make a mistake, which they do at an ever-increasing rate.
  • Can they rebound from this?  I don’t think so.  Two crippling losses–one in conference, one out–make any home Tennessee has of reaching a BCS bowl almost impossible.  Once again, Vol fans are going to be forced to enjoy a lesser bowl game–if they get to one at all.