Last season, LSU found itself in a bind trying to find able bodies to fill the WR depth chart. De-commitments from Justin Hunter and Mike Davis left LSU digging deep into the WR pool looking for players who could contribute immediately in 2010. Those spots were filled with Kadron Boone, James Wright, Jarrett Fobbs and Armand Williams. Boone and Wright each made contributions this season, while Fobbs and Williams took redshirts. Fobbs is a versatile threat that could wind up at corner in the future. Williams is more of a project WR with great physical tools.

The TE situation was less uncertain.  Nick Jacobs and Travis Dickson fill the two roles Miles seems to love in TEs: one blocking, one receiving. Jacobs took a redshirt in 2010 while Dickson played sparingly (perhaps he redshirted as well, but I vaguely remember him being on the field a few times). These additions leave the TE depth chart pretty full with no additions in 2011.

However, LSU is still looking to re-stock the WR depth chart and has found multiple outstanding candidates in 2011. The 2011 WR haul leaves LSU stocked full at the position and sets up the TIger's offense for a bright future to come.

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Wee and Pat talk about the coaching changes and the early thoughts on next season. Subscribe in iTunes or stream it live from the links below.

Their record may be as bad as Auburn's but they are a much better team. Last time out against Vandy, they actually had the lead with 6 to go before losing 74-84. It's a bit of a shame to seem them fall so hard, as they were the only SEC West team to make it out of Non-conf play with any dignity (worst loss was against a decent Dayton team).

Who am I kidding? Epic Rebel collapses are what I live for! Misery loves company and an LSU win today probably guarantees Ole Miss an NIT bid (bwahahaha!)

INJURIES

Ralston Turner : OUT

Storm Warren : Probable (he'll be coming off the bench for just a few minutes, as he has for the last few games)

In Louisiana, the game is on the following stations. No word yet if ZOMBIE DAVE NEAL is going to join us. Outside of LA, check your usual JP/LF/Raycom stations or hit up ESPN3.com

Alexandria - KLAX;

Baton Rouge - WAFB;

Lafayette - KADN;

Lake Charles - KVHP;

New Orleans - WUPL;

Shreveport - KMSS

Yes, it's that time again.

The Ladies kicked off the weekend right with a historic beatdown of the RebelCalamariBlackBears, 78-43. It was the largest home win over Ole Miss in the program's history.

There are tons of stories about this afternoon's game (12:30 tip, details to follow in the game thread) Aside from Malcolm White going against the team he transferred from and Ole Miss' surprising 0-4 conference start that last saw them lose a halftime lead to Vandy, the '81 and '86 Final Four teams are being honored. Rudy Macklin and Ricky Blanton were on hand at ths week's press conference to reminisce about the good times. Video is after the break (It's not very easy to hear, but you can see a full transcript HERE)

Les Miles had a sit down with the local media yesterday afternoon discussing a wide range of topics regarding Kragthorpe and his players. The Highlights:

• Kragthorpe was hired to improve QB and WR play
• on why the OC change "I think the reality of it is, I’m a guy who needs execution. I don’t want to say ‘Boy that was a good idea.’ "
• Starting QB spot: Miles "enjoys competition" makes it clear JJ is the favorite
  
• No problem with Spencer Ware playing baseball
  
• Ryan Baker a MLB candidate (non baseball)
  
• No discussions to move Alfred Blue to LB
  
• Richard Murphy will not seek 6th year

Let the "Who will wear #18?" discussion begin.

We may be taking a cautiously optimistic approach to the Kragthorpe hire, but boy does everyone else think this is a bad move. Varying degrees of negative opinion from Doc Saturday, EDSBS, our bosses at SBNation.com, Billy's colleagues at CFN, and scorned Louisville fans.

Also, I believe this is the first coordinator hired at LSU who came with his own fake twitter account.

Les Miles, making normal look crazy.

More great preseason baseball coverage from Yahoo!: P Kevin Gausman is an impact Freshman, The SEC East is expected to dominate this season, and our main competition in the West, Auburn comes in at #23. 

Also in baseball, ESPN has picked up an additional 11 SEC baseball games for live TV coverage on top of the Thursday night games already announced. So far LSU's TV schedule looks like this: (what Cox and other stations will pick up has not yet been announced)

Sat, Apr 9, 7 p.m., LSU at Arkansas, ESPNU

Sun, Apr 24, 2 p.m., LSU at Vanderbilt, ESPN2

Thu, Apr 28, 6:30 p.m., Kentucky at LSU, ESPNU

The Ducks think that because Chip Kelly is smarter than Les Miles, they will have a decided advantage. 

Despite a big crowd, GYM lost it's home opener to Florida to start the year 0-3 and break a 10-meet home winning streak.

Noted turkey enthusiast and former Vandy OL coach and head coach Robbie Caldwell will not be retiring, manning a tollbooth in Florida, or Head Coaching LSU as former Vandy coaches in the past have done. Instead, he's going back to what he does best and has taken the OL coach spot at Clemson. Their fans are noticeably excited about the hire.

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As the Steve Kragthorpe hire continues to be dissected, I decided to seek out the opinion of one of the interwebz' foremost X and O football minds, Chris Brown of Smart Football. He was nice enough to answer some questions for us:

*Ed. Note: Links included explaining some of the concepts to which Chris is referring.

1. You've often spoke about a team's "offense" being more than just a playbook, but an identity. A core group of plays or concepts that everything else stems from. Here at ATVS we've all been in agreement that such an identity has been missing from the LSU offense in recent years. Do you agree with that assessment?

Chris: I think that's probably right. Now, in his own mind, every man on earth is the best lover and playcaller on planet earth, and I'll let you guys figure out which one of those Crowton brings to mind. But I think it's accurate to say that LSU has been pretty "grab bag," in that the variety of looks, plays, and formations they use have tended to add up to less than the sum of their parts, especially once you factor in all the high profile recruits. Whether you can blame Crowton for this is an unanswerable question, but my personal preference has always been to have something to hang your hat on -- something you are good at and can go back to and run against anybody.

2. Do you think Steve Kragthorpe can fill that prescription?

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via johnclay.bloginky.com

First of all, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Les Miles is going to do things his way. Whether you like it or not, Les is going to make what he feels is the best decision and will not feel pressured by the often clamorous voices of the media/fanbase/message boards to make a decision. After Miles elected to spurn Michigan and stay at LSU, he delivered a self-assured press conference that I think genuinely excited a majority of the fanbase. For the (maybe) first time, it really seemed like Miles felt confident that this was his job... his program...

Days later, the program was purged of it's biggest oppressor, and Miles was charged with the duty of finding a suitable replacement. Names abounded, speculation persisted and today, we seem to have reached a conclusion that will likely leave most fans lukewarm at best. But, as my cohort Poseur often says, you don't need to win the press conference... win the hire. So is Kragthorpe a good hire? And what does this mean for the LSU offense? More after the jump...

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