More photos » Phil Coale - AP

6 months ago: Miami coach Randy Shannon talks via his headset during the second quarter of an NCAA college football game against Florida State, Monday, Sept. 7, 2009, in Tallahassee, Fla. (AP Photo/Phil Coale)

Browse more photos »

I'm in a good mood today, and it's football's off-season, so I feel like making a toast to college football's good guys.  Time and time again I mention that I'm proud of LSU's recent lack of thuggishness (Toliver's incident notwithstanding) and I want to praise other programs and coaches for doing the same.  This week, I'm proud to point out a coach that doesn't get enough due for choosing the high road- Miami's Randy Shannon.

Randy Shannon has obliterated the thug from Thug U.  In 2006, Miami was involved in the most embarrassing moment ever in college football history- the brawl versus Florida International.  Larry Coker was fired because he couldn't control his players.  Randy Shannon had a tough job on his hands.

The U's return to prominence has been slower than most Miami fans would like, but Shannon is rebuilding it on a foundation of great character.  Miami players are given strict regulations, and the results are stunning.  When's the last time you remember a Miami player getting arrested?  Maybe many times in the past, but not recently.

Miami is not the greatest city in the world.  The area is dense with crime, and much of Miami area's football talent comes from these areas.  If the football coach doesn't turn these young men into great people, who will?  Remember, only a small portion of the football players go to the NFL even at a program like Miami.  Most of them go straight from the football field to the community, and the U owes it to Miami that they make sure they return as great people, not just great athletes.

So a toast to Randy Shannon, one of football's good guys.  I'll take him over Urban Meyer any day, and I mean it.

LINK

One thing that has gone unnoticed these past two years has been that the football team hasn't had a big transgression since Perrilloux's exit.  LSU is nowhere to be found on EDSBS's Fulmer Cup rankings, and that's a great thing.  It helps that Coach Miles is bringing in players with resumés like this:

Eric Reid, Baton Rouge, LA  -  Eric is the 2010 Student of the Year, Mentor to 6 Freshman, Member of Mt. Gillion Baptist Church, Voted the Most Intelligent Male, Assistant in the LSU Chemistry Lab, Gatorade Player of the Year, US Army All American, #1 Player in Louisiana, 1st Team All District/All Metro/&All Parish, and District MVP. Participates in basketball and football while maintaining a 4.7 GPA at Dutchtown High School.

Reid was the winner of the Watkins Award, which is awarded to the nation's top African-American student-athlete.  Evan Washington, currently on campus, was a finalist.

Evan Washington, Dallas, TX – Evan is member of the DeSoto Student Council, a Volunteer for The Bridge Homeless Shelter, Volunteer for the Ellis Hobbs Special Olympics,  Basketball First Team Academic, Basketball First Team All Region/All District, Football First Team All District, Max Prep All American, Offensive Player of the Year, Under Armour All American.  Participates in Basketball and Football while maintaining a 3.9 GPA at DeSoto High School.

I think the important thing to remember is that we're raising young men, not football players.  Even at a program like LSU, only about a quarter of our scholarship football players ever set foot on an NFL roster, and the others return to being ordinary citizens like you and me.  And whether they're NFL pros or regular joes, we owe it to Louisiana and elsewhere that they leave LSU and enter their lives as great people, not just great athletes.  The last two years have not been perfect, but the fact that our football players haven't been getting into trouble is something we should all be proud of.  This is the foundation I believe Miles should build the program upon.

Link to award site

I didn't really want to step on the celebration of the Tiger basketball team winning its first SEC game, but Les Miles dropped the bombshell that everyone honestly expect yesterday when he announced a few positional changes to the media.

Can you believe it?  Jai Eugene being moved to safety?  Is this a move that shows that Miles has lost faith in Eugene's cover skills?  Does this block Craig Loston from starting?  Or will Eugene capably fill the rather large shoes to fill left by Chad Jones? 

OK, no one really cares about those issues right now.  We have all summer to worry about the secondary and how Miles and Chavis will organize the defense.  Now is the time to completely over-react to our five-star recruit moving from quarterback to wide receiver.   

There is simply no other way for me to say this more clearly: this move is so obvious that it shocks me that it has raised an eyebrow.  Russell Shepard is an immensely talented prospect, but he's also incredibly raw, and small, prospect.  Every time he took he hit, I winced, fearing for the kid's safety.  If it were not for his immense recruiting hype, there is no way Shep sees the field as a freshmen.  He is listed as 188 pounds but that looked like an extreme exaggeration because he looked like a kid. 

Shepard's closest comp in the public's mind is Terrelle Pryor, another immensely talented dual threat recruit who arrived with immense hype.  Pryor's just coming into his own as a player, right at the end of his sophomore year.  He's also listed at 6'6" and 235#.  Pryor is a great runner with questionable quarterback skills, just like Shep.  He's also built like a tank, completely unlike Shep.  Pryor could get by as nothing but a runner because, well, he has the build to do so.  If Shepard tried to be an every down running quarterback in the SEC, he'd get killed.  Not metaphorically, literally.  He would get killed.  Shep ain't Pryor.  And would you really want the second Pryor anyway?

Continue reading this post »

via a.espncdn.com

View full size photo »

I was just about ready to write up a nice summary of the SEC coaching changes for the year (seriously, it was nearly ready. I even had this great joke about running away, screaming, from the undead visage of Mike DuBose) Even the internet-famous LSUFreek had prepared a eulogy for those we have lost this year.

Then some fool at Oak Ridge takes a crow bar to a crate marked "Failed Experiment: DO NOT AGITATE" and the tear gas falls in Knoxville. Watching some College B-ball last night, the crawl on ESPN seemed like a practical joke. Then they break in with the news and suddenly the world seems giddy. The news is so absurd, it takes 6 years of stress off of Urban Meyer. Then the details pour in. It's not just Lane, but Monte and YAWYAW too. There are even talks of him getting Norm Chow to bolt from UCLA.

It's all so surreal, but then it would be. After last year's off season filled with fiascoes we should have seen this coming. Lane Kiffin exits the SEC the same way he entered it; Backwards, On Fire, in a Lambo.

Of course, now this puts every other fanbase in the SEC (with the exception of Kentucky, who seems to be enjoying the Rich Brooks retirement party/OMGJOHNWALL, and Vandy, you know why) into panic mode about their staff getting poached. As well they should be. After letting the flashy yet inexperienced mercenary run the show, Tennessee will likely be very conservative in it's next HC choice(they may even go hyper-conservative and try to mend things with Fulmer) and pick someone with proven wining experience in the SEC. I wonder if the ink is dry on Tuberville's contract at Texas Tech. Add to this UGA's continuing difficulties of replacing the deposed Willie Martinez and friends, there are now 2 upper echelon D-1 programs looking for a defensive staff. We nearly lost Chavis to UGA, but unless The Great Pumpkin returns or they offer an insane amount of money, he has even less reason to make a lateral move back to Rocky Top.

And UT will have to act very fast. It's only 3 weeks till signing day and COACHO was poaching players just minutes after the press conference. Their current Interim Coach is Kippy Brown, a former Fulmer assistant who they brought in after we brought Frank Wilson back home to Louisiana. He has only been at UT for just over a month.

Joe Alleva just sent the Tiger faithful a letter about this season and the future of the football program.  As always, as a public service, I translate it from AD-speak to plain English.  You're welcome.

WHAT HE SAID: The end of the college football season always generates fervid conversation. We look back at the past year and reflect on both the highlights and the "what-could-have beens." Schools like LSU that play at the elite level of college football generate even more debate about what went right and what went wrong.

WHAT HE MEANT: Stop sending me letters and email.  I don't want to get fired.  Jeez, I thought the lacrosse scandal was bad at Duke, but you people are insane.  We went 9-4!  Isn't that good?  I don't want to get fired for going 9-4.  I didn't think that was possible. 

WHAT HE SAID:  Let me open this letter by emphasizing that I share the passion for winning that is the hallmark of LSU's faithful. I want to make it clear that LSU is committed to having a football program that regularly plays for championships.

WHAT HE MEANT: Nine and four!  We went to a January 1^st bowl!  Come on, people!  Work with me!  I really don't want to move.

WHAT HE SAID:  LSU did not win a football championship in 2009, so there is room for improvement. It is hard to be too critical of a season in which three of the four losses came against teams that won 11, 13 and 14 games, including the No. 1 and No. 3 teams in America. LSU led both Alabama and Penn State in the fourth quarter and, with a few breaks, could have challenged Florida. Very few teams in the country can make that claim.

WHAT HE MEANT: How can I put a positive spin on things?  Hey, we lost to good teams!  Pay no attention to the Ole Miss game.  If we were just lucky like those bastards in Tuscaloosa, we'd have another crystal football.  Yeah!  Les tells me we're winning the title next year.  Because if we don't, we're both getting canned.

9-4!  How is that not good enough for you unreasonable bastards?  I came here from Duke.  Hell, it took Duke football three seasons to win nine games.  Do you know how good you have it?  Don't you people remember Curly Hallman?  How am I on the hot seat? 

Continue reading this post »

Recorded a mere 30 minutes after the conclusion of the Capital One Bowl, on a driveway in Ponchatoula; Wee, Pat, and the rest of the crew express their anger and disappointment over a game that was the season in a nutshell and the death of a BR legend. It's a beer-fueled, hour-long rant of frustration that isn't work safe.

Say goodbye to the 2009 season for LSU.  It is over, and I feel like it never really began. 

It just seems like this team never rounded into mid-season form.  It looked like we were playing the college equivalent of NFL preseason exhibition games all season.  By this I mean we seemed to be forever trying to figure out how to get lined up properly, how to get playcalls in, how to get the snap off, how to get our personnel to mesh, etc.

I hate to use this term pejoratively, but the 2009 LSU football team looked amateurish.  I don't mean this as a knock against the players, and in particular I do not mean it as a knock against the seniors.  If there is one man who looked nothing like an amateur all season, it was Brandon Lafell.  Yesterday he again did not look like an amateur, and he will make a fine pro.

Yesterday's game was a microcosm of the season.  The offense spent long stretches being completely ineffective.  At one point I commented that the LSU offensive yardage when Brandon Lafell made a great play was 54 yards, and when he did not make a great play, it was 15 yards.  That was 15 yards in about 15 plays.  The offensive line reverted back to its mid-season form of completely failing to open up holes for the running backs.  Jordan Jefferson's throws were not bad, but were just off-target enough to be difficult for receivers to handle on slick turf with a wet ball.  And when Jefferson delivered a long strike to Terrance Toliver and a second to Rueben Randle, they dropped sure touchdown passes.

An offense I was hoping would be able to show competence in something (anything) did nothing right in the first half.  Meanwhile the defense was doing pretty much the same thing it did all season:  allow several long drives that consume time but only end up with field goals, keeping the team in the game.  It was the Florida game all over again.

The second half was a different story.  After a couple of wasted possessions, including a nearly disastrous turnover that would have clinched the game for Penn State had they been able to convert it to a touchdown from the LSU 22 yard line (but were fortunately held to a field goal), the LSU offense suddenly came alive.  On two straight possessions, we scored touchdowns on impressive looking drives and took the lead 17-16.

Again, the defense gave up a long, time-consuming drive towards the end of the game, allowing Penn State to convert two 3rd downs of 3 and 4 yards and eating up about 6 minutes of the play clock, but again holding Penn State to a field goal.  But this time it was a field goal to take the lead, giving us less than a minute to get into field goal territory to try a game-winner.

Like I said, it became the Ole Miss game.  Our final possession started out promisingly, with Trindon Holliday giving us a nice return to the 41 yard line with 48 seconds remaining. Having used two timeouts to save time on Penn State's final possession, and having wasted a timeout to challenge Stevan Ridley's fumble that was obviously called correctly, we were left with no timeouts. Had we been able to use all 3 of our timeouts on Penn State's last possession, we would have had about 1:25 or so.  Still, 48 seconds is time enough for about 7 plays if you hurry.  With the extremely sloppy field conditions, I estimate we would have needed to get to about the 20 yard line to have a real shot at a field goal, meaning we needed to get about 40 yards. 

On the first play, Jefferson scrambled out of pressure and got 10 yards and out of bounds, taking off 9 seconds.  It took more time than we would have liked, but it was a positive result. 

Then the time-management issues reared their heads again as Jefferson was called upon to throw an inside slip-screen to Brandon Lafell.  This play had worked well twice earlier in the game, each time netting a nice gain.  This time, Lafell found the middle of the field very crowded and was tackled in-bounds after a 4 yard gain, not close to a 1st down needed to stop the clock, and he never had a prayer of getting out of bounds. Enough electrons have given their lives on the internet to describe the sheer folly of this play call, and there is no need to rehash it here.

From that point, the disaster continued as offensive guard Lyle Hitt was called for a personal foul while trying to get a Penn State player off the pile so the refs could get the ball reset and we could continue the game.  The clock was running, and the Penn State player had wisely decided to take his time clearing the pile so the refs could re-set.  After the penalty was stepped off, putting us right back where the drive started, the clock started running again and our players were not in position to run the next play.  Several more seconds ran off the clock while our players got into proper formation and Jefferson waited several more after that to call for the snap.  The slip-screen started with 39 seconds on the clock, and we did not get the next snap off until the clock read :08.  Thirty-one seconds had run.  Jefferson threw an incomplete pass and we were left with 2 seconds on the clock and time to run one more play, needing 60 yards to get to the end zone.  A desperation hook and ladder to Rueben Randle did not succeed and the game ended.  48 seconds, 4 plays.

And Russell Shepard does not appear in the box score.

So, that game had it all:  incompetent offense, incomprehensible play calling, problems getting a play into the game at a crucial time, formation issues, long drives by the opposing team, dynamic players resting on the bench, and no blocking.  There's your 2009 LSU football team in a nutshell.

The only things different were the shamefully bad field and the Big 10 opponent.

To be precise, the end of the game was actually fundamentally different from the Ole Miss game in the details.  Against Ole Miss, the end of the game was marred by a combination of abysmal execution by the execution (poor blocking on the screen to Ridley leading to a 10 yard loss and a poor decision by Jefferson to scramble rather than throw the ball away, leading to another 10 yard loss) combined with an inexplicable passage of time before calling our final timeout ended the game without us running all the plays we could have.  This time, it was purely bad coaching decisions that robbed us of opportunities at the end of the game.  Whoever decided to call an inside screen simply set our team up for disaster.  If the play had worked, it would have been fine, but unlike a play to the sidelines or a play down the field (which would result in a stopped clock if they are unsuccessful), an inside screen in that situation is a catastophe if it fails. 

But in the sense that both games were marred by coaches and players being unable to get out of each other's way and the game ending with us having wasted precious time on poor coaching decisions, it was similar to the Ole Miss game.

via assets.nydailynews.com

Today, LSU plays Penn State, a rare occurrence in the college football universe.  Darn it, I am looking forward to it.  Joe Paterno is one of those names that will forever be associated with college football.  I don't mean, "when you think of Joe Paterno, you think of college football."  I mean it the other way around.  "When you think of college football, you think of Joe Paterno."  OK, that's not ALL you think about.  You think about Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson, Bear Bryant, Bobby Bowden, Bobby Dodd, and about 500 other names that are part of the pantheon of college football.  Paterno is part of that pantheon.  Maybe not Zeus, the head of the Pantheon, but perhaps as important a part of his pantheon as, say, Athena was to her pantheon.

I have a lot of respect for Paterno, and while like most non-Penn State fans, I always hated Penn State, especially when they were winning a lot in my youth, I cannot help but respect their program now that I am past the rash emotional judgments of my youth.  (Woo!  Chad Jones!). 

Anyway, while I am excited about the matchup, I don't know jack about Penn State's football team.  I just know I like that we're playing them.  And I really want to beat them, but I won't be devastated if we don't. 

If I'm looking for anything in particular, I am looking for the offense to do something, anything, well.  I don't mean a nice play or two.  I mean I want our offense to be consistently successful at something.  I almost don't care what it is.