I agree with everything you have commented on. I was part of the Hallman era. I was a graduate assistant strength coach and athletic trainer for those team teams and those were awful years. I believe that Miles has been living on borrowed time….coaching with Saban’s recruits. It’s been a very tough year….losing Ryan Perilloux and Bo Pellini. This next year will be a defining moment for Miles. Maybe we would have been better off if he had gone on to Michigan.

You are right in saying our team quit. I have not seen an LSU team act like this team did. They quit in all aspects as the season went on….especially after losing the Alabama game. The season ended there as far as the players were concerned. Our team has no excuses for the way they played as the season went on. We had the most experienced defensive and offensive lines in the SEC. Our defense didn’t change much from a year ago and to say the least our defense was pretty ugly. There needs to be some serious coaching and leadership take place in the off-season.

The co-defensive coordinator thing has got to go. We need to bring in a defensive coordinator like Muschamp….our defense was agressive, fearless and ranked #1 during those Saban years. We also need a strong QB coach for the off-season to work with these guys and start preparing for next year. Jaret Lee has strong potential. He reminds me of the way Stafford played in his first year at Georgia. Jordan Jefferson showed signs of potential as well.

Miles needs to shake things up if he wants to have a year like he did in 2007. I am an LSU Tiger through and through but I was embarassed by our performances this past year.

and I agree with all of it. The team did quit, every one of them and there was nobody there to hold them accountable. If a team has no leadership it doesn’t matter how much talent they have, they will never succeed and this year’s team is a perfect example of that.

I don’t know what the team’s attitude was like during the offseason, in the weight room or on the practice field. But considering what was shown on the field time and time again I doubt behind the scenes the team’s energy was any good. I mean if they won’t even try when 90,000+ fans are screaming and a national audience is watching I have no hope that practices went well.

Looking back at last year’s team which I certainly don’t believe was that much more talented than this year’s, it’s amazing how much we miss someone like Jacob Hester. He put that team on his back time and time again when the game was on the line. All that talk about Les Miles being such a genius because of his 4th down conversions in the Florida game? That was just Hester refusing to lose. And that’s what every team needs and what this one lacked. Again, I don’t have access to LSU’s practice or weight training sessions, but you can bet that someone who clearly wanted to win as badly as Hester, or even Matt Flynn allowed any slacking or screwing around which unfortunately I fear wasn’t that out of the ordinary this year.

So what do I think this team needs? A leader. That could be a coach. Honestly I don’t think Les Miles is that guy. But that’s okay. There are plenty of very successful coaches that are much better at gameplanning, recruiting, whatever but aren’t great leaders. But an assisstant coach with that ability would really help this team out. But really it’s going to have to be a player. Someone has got to step up or this team is going to continue to lose games it should win. Defensive players will continue to make dumb plays when the game is on the line (Arkansas). The team will come out flat and get in such a hole we can’t win (Florida, Georgia and almost Troy). The defense will continue to miss tackles in crucial short yardage situations, and the receivers will continue to drop passes.

Everyone always talks about how a bad attitude spreads like cancer. But so does a good attitude. All it takes is one vocal, competitive player who just refuses to lose. That’s true in pretty much all walks of life, not just on the football field. When you see someone give their all, do exactly what they’re asked of and more and not accept no, it’s inspiring and the whole team starts to follow that attitude. Once someone at LSU decides they’re going to do that, there’s no way with the talent and resources we have that we can’t contend for an SEC title and national championship every year. If no one steps up then we will continue to be mediocre, coming out flat, quitting during the game and losing games we should win.

As a Texas fan I think I can offer you guys some encouragement. There was a great sense of entitlement and excessive complacency after our Championship in 2005. The talent was outstanding and the players seemed to feel they could coast. The 2007 of season produced a horrendous barage of disciplinary problems. Our highly regarded defensive co-ordinator had frankly lost some of his luster prior to moving on to a head coaching gig. Similarly your defense under Pellini was anything but special the second half of last year. We (partially) promoted from within, underutilized and misused the talent and had a horrendous D all of last year. Our offense needed epic performances to pull out wins after D was obiterated against Nebraska and OSU. Conscuitve losses to the despised and frankly pathetic Aggies brought a low unimaginble even 2 month before. The team seemd softer than a marsmallow.

Then Mack got back to business. The disciplinary issues have almost disappered. We came out firing on all cylinders in the Holliday Bowl and destroyed ASU. Mack brought in Muschamps who reinvigorated the defense, started taking advantage of all the talent (exhibit A – Sergio Kindle – high 5 star bust to Top 10 draft pick in about a year) and borugh a remrkable toughness and energy to the entire team. Right now, exceedingly POed as I may be about the BCS mess, we can look to the future with great optimism.

To be sure, Mack has a longer and more distinguished record than Miles who still has a lot to prove. Frankly I think he deserves more credit than he gets for his first years in Baton Rouge as well as much of the blame for this year (bad quarterback situation or not). Further, while Lee and Jefferson have a lot of potential, neither has shown the leadership or guts of a Colt McCoy. Still, you guys have plenty of talent and are, as has been said aboe, one or two good hires and some tough love away from the apex of College Football that you ascended less than 11 months ago.

Wish you guys luck and hope to see you in Pasadena next year (for your proper punishment) and in similar venues in the years to come.

one pretty important conclusion was missed.

This Les Miles team lacks discipline.

I’m not talking about the discipline to throw Perrilloux off the team, as was mentioned. I mean game discipline. We have a very talented team that lacks the discipline to win tough games. It’s evident in the stupid penalties that give our opponent life, as we saw against Arkansas. It’s evident in the way we only play well for part of a game, not the whole game. If you play half-assed for 20 minutes and then play good or great for 40, you can still lose. Sometimes we got away with it (Troy, USC), and sometimes we didn’t (Arkansas, Alabama). When Byrd plays like a quitter, that’s a lack of discipline.

There are lots of components to having a well-disciplined team. It starts with the head coach. It involves the character of the coaching staff and players. It also involves leadership from upperclassmen. And everyone looks to the QB. It is no coincidence that the 3 best LSU football teams I have ever seen (2006, 2003, and 2007—and that’s ordered from best to least awesome) all had an upperclassman that the players trusted and respected at QB. That’s not really a knock on Jefferson, Lee, and Hatch—they can’t be what they aren’t. But they can get there.

Oh, and as for Miles being some fluke who lucked into winning with Saban’s recruits…that’s nonsense. It’s the sort of thing people say when they get disgruntled and have to come up with any explanation for the grass being greener on the other side. If you believe that argument then prove it to me by saying Nick Saban is just some lucky guy who only wins with talent recruited by Gerry Dinardo and Mike Shula.

The team definitely lacks discipline but I don’t think you can put that on Les. I mean, none of us were talking about discipline problems last year and I don’t think his coaching has changed in the past year. There’s all of this talk about coaching issues but I think that just perpetuates the problem of the players not being held accountable.

Miles showed he’s not just a pushover and that he will discipline players when he kicked Perrilloux off the team. Just because none of the current players have displayed the same antics he did means they deserve a pass though. I’d rather have players with off the field issues than ones who quit or don’t try on the field. (Not suggesting Perriloux should not have been removed from the team).

I’m just saying that players who quit on their team are about the worst kind of teammates you can have. As a current student, I see everyday the privileges and benefits these athletes enjoy. Each has been given a great opportunity and I don’t think it’s too much to ask that they give everything they’ve got in return.

But back to discipline. The players who don’t play 100% shouldn’t ever see the field. If that means putting seniors on the bench and less talented underclassmen on the field, so be it. I doubt that will ever happen, and I’m sure it would result in a few more in the loss column but that’s fine by me. I can respect a team that gives everything they’ve got and loses a lot more than the team with all the talent in the world who loses because they just don’t care.

Didn’t Miles get his contrract rewritten so that he has to be the highest paid coach in the conference. If, for example, Notre Dame makes a run at Meyer or Saban, only to have Florida or Bama match or beat their offer, does Miles also get an automatic raise? That changes the dynamics of your question even more.

What if the LSU administration has to pay $5,000,000 to Miles next year? What should they do…pay him or fire him? Seriously.

I think that honest expectations for LSU, Auburn, and Alabama fans are to be in the SECCG one year out of every three. That’s par…and only par. Miss. State, Ole Miss, and Arkansas should never be there. Sure, they may slip up and get there once in ten years. Hopefully it’s not one of your years. And for what Saban and Miles are making, you want them to shoot better than par.

Same thing for Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee. One trip to Atlanta out of every three is par. South Carolina, Kentucky, and Vandy should never go…come to think of it, they never have.

Par again is to win one SECCG out of every two times you go. That’s one out of every six years…and again, that’s only par. That’s the minimum. When you are making Meyer, Saban, and Miles money, you should do better than par.

…the problem LSU fans have with Saban being at Alabama. All along, I tried to compare it to Spurrier going to South Carolina.

That’s not it.

For us it would be as if Saban left Alabama and went to Auburn two years later.

See, LSU is a big rival to us. Huge. But it’s not Auburn. But I guess to LSU fans, Alabama is to you like Auburn is to us.

I got it now. I’m slow, but I finally got it.