Quick Hits: Wednesday Edition

by Richard Pittman on Apr 21, 2009 9:20 PM CDT in News Comment 5 comments

The poster Drake870 on Tigerbait is claiming that this is a picture of Demetrius Byrd's crashed car. There's a lot of contradictory information coming out about his wreck. His agent claims his injuries are limited to bumps and bruises. Yet, he is definitely in intensive care. Les Miles' statement was, "This tragic accident puts in perspective just how fragile life can be." That hardly says to me "bumps and bruises". We'll know more when we know more.
For the life of me I cannot gin up any motivation to write about the upcoming draft. LSU has several players likely to be drafted. Tyson Jackson is a likely first round pick. Darry Beckwith may be drafted in the second round, or may slip a little further. Herman Johnson figures to be picked in the middle rounds. Demetrius Byrd.. was expected to be a mid- to late-round pick, and may yet be if his health can be verified.
Mrs. ATVS, Little Miss ATVS, Mrs. ATVS's family, and myself all made it to the Bama A-Day game. After sitting through one half of an intrasquad scrimmage, I can understand why LSU fans don't really show up for them. News flash: football is boring when the game doesn't matter, and it's confusing to watch football when you can read every single play as good or as bad depending on whether you choose to root for the defense this play or for the offense.
Spring games are pointless. We should either hype it up and get ESPN to cover it or we should just do away with it and have a practice. The middle road we take seems to combine the worst of all worlds. We get the recruits into the stadium and then bore them to tears with a disinterested fan base. Not that I'm blaming the fans. The whole exercise is snooze-inducing and honestly I'd rather not ever go to another Spring Game.
No news in basketball recruiting with the spring signing period in full swing. We've added no one yet.
I went an entire college football season without watching College Football Gameday a couple years ago. I think I might do the same with the NFL Draft. It's losing its spark, in part because there's no excitement to having a high draft pick. In any salary-capped environment, the biggest sin you can commit is to overpay someone. The top 5 or top 10 picks get so much money that they're only worth it IF THEY PAN OUT, which is only about half the time. So every time you get a pick in that range, you have about a 50/50 shot of it becoming an albatross that sets your program back years. With the top picks becoming near-toxic, it has cast a pall over the whole pageant. The NFL needs to reign in draft pick salaries to make top picks actually a nice bonus for a team rather than a detriment.
Some position battles that are going to continue into the Summer and Fall: the battle to be 3rd, 4th, and 5th wide receiver behind Toliver and Lafell; the battle for linebacker duties between Riley, Sheppard, Cutrera, Harry Coleman, and Ryan Baker (though people seem to think Baker is on the outside looking in right now); the battle to be in the two-deep on the defensive line; cornerback opposite Patrick Peterson.

That's about it for now. I know this was kind of a hit-and-run thing. These are just topics I wanted to touch on but didn't think warranted a full post.

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Good stuff.

I hope that isn’t the actual car D Byrd was driving though. That’s crazy.

by Mikeno on Apr 22, 2009 1:57 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Seems like it would be a perfect opportunity for LSU to hold some kind of Alumni Crawfish boil out on the parade grounds. You could even do it up “groovin’ on the gounds” style and have a one day outdoor concert deal. Charge $20-$35 which gets you all you can eat crawfish, jambalaya, free admission to every sporting event on campus that day (first come first served for the baseball tickets).

by LSU Jonno on Apr 22, 2009 8:30 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Now you're talkin'

That would certainly get me on campus. I think the players probably get up for the game, but having the extracurricular activity would be nice for the rest of us.

by artiger on Apr 22, 2009 11:02 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Wow..

“Charge $20-$35 which gets you all you can eat crawfish, jambalaya, free admission to every sporting event on campus that day”

That sounds like more than a deal. Me by myself I should be able to set the Athletic Department back several years in funds. lmao.

by Mikeno on Apr 22, 2009 11:27 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well the spring game is basically free anyway.

You’d be paying say $30 bucks for all you can eat crawfish plus a live concert. The only other sporting event that would be “free” is baseball which is mostly sold out as it is. I don’t think it is that far of a stretch really.

We are having our Alumni crawfish boil in Bham in a couple of weeks and that is $30 for all you can eat, and it includes BEER!

The Athletic Department doesn’t necessarily need to make much money off of this. If it fires up the players, fans and helps recruiting (for all sports) it is worth it.

by LSU Jonno on Apr 22, 2009 12:29 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs