ATVS Roundtable: Reacting to the Music City Bowl Selection

dr.awesome504

Woohoo Nashville. Time to beat the fuck out of Notre Dame.

Paul Crewe

Good marks from me for finding us a fresh, new location in a cool city. Now... time to complain.

We played Notre Dame not too long ago. It's nice to have a big-time #brand war, but I can't hardly get excited about playing them, especially this incarnation of them, which isn't particularly good. But that's really just more of a thing where I'd like to see us play someone we haven't in a while, and an opponent where we won't be a roundly picked favorite.

But my major complaint is this time slot is absolutely god awful. 2 p.m. on a Tuesday? Woof. The first day game we play all year... so I guess we were due.

cdub71323

I can complain about the time too because that's just awful.  I don't understand why you have to play a day game during the week when you have so many days to get in all these bowl games.  I could understand a day game during the weekend, but you've got nearly a whole month to get them all in.  I think it's okay if they overlap at night, even during the week.

Opponent wise, I love it.  Then again, I hate Notre Dame with a passion so the opportunity to kick their ass once again excites me.  I just hope we do it.

Cody Bellaire

I love the opponent and I'm okay with the bowl I guess. I just hope all our banged up seniors can get healthy and see some playing time. I want my boy Kenny Hilliard to get himself a TD in his last game behind Elliot Porter.

bradyball2000

I was really hoping LSU would go to the Texas Bowl to avenge the loss to UT in the 2003 Cotton Bowl when Roy Williams torched us in the second half. But we're headed to the Athens of the West to face a Notre Dame team that we are quite familiar with in bowl games. You don't have to look far for the most recent encounter which came in the 2007 Sugar Bowl. That night the JaMarcus Russell led Tigers bested the Irish and their two-headed air attack of Brady Quinn and Jeff Samardzjia. (P.S. I didn't have to google his name to know how to spell it because I typed it enough when I was ranting about him pitching for the Cubs.) The encounter before that was 10 years prior in the Poulan Bowl and was a rematch of a game the Irish won in Tiger Stadium earlier in the season. Kevin Faulk ran against the Irish on that cold Shreveport night just as he did that same year against the then number-1 Florida Gators. So expect story lines aplenty as the two teams encounter each other down on music row.

Jake Nazar

It's a new location, a cool location for the fans to travel too, and we get to beat up on the Domers. Fun!

Billy Gomila

There was bound to be some disappointment here no matter what. Overall, I'm good with this among this tier of bowls. Yeah, the Texas Bowl had a better time slot, and was more convenient for a lot of people, but the thought of going back to Houston was kind of meh for me. I imagine ditto the coaches/players.

If I were going to make a trip this bowl season, the Music City Bowl is more attractive to me. Nashville's a cool town with a fun scene to check out in terms of bars, restaurants, clubs, etc...The game's played in an NFL Stadium, and of course, you get a much more attractive opponent than "insert random B1G team" in Notre Dame. I think that particular angle will play well in terms of helping the team focus a little bit as well.

I get the complaints about the 2 p.m. afternoon start, but there were going to be trade-offs with whatever bowl LSU pulled.

Poseur

Hey, we got Notre Dame, so that's good. Bowl games are just exhibitions, so really all you want is a good opponent and a cool city. We got both. I know that very few LSU fans live anywhere near Nashville, and Tennessee in late December can get nippy, but this is about as good as things get for teams that go 4-4 in conference. The SEC did not deign to send us to the way station to hell in Jacksonville or made us play against some low rent ACC team that no one gives a damn about (really, aside from Florida St, Clemson, and Georgia Tech, every other ACC team is precisely the same - it's the same pool of kids and they just swap uniforms at random each week and hope we don't notice - and no one has).

Rooting against Notre Dame is always fun, and we have a good chance of winning, which is nice. It's also nice playing a less successful yet more evil version of Nick Saban. Yeah, hating Brian Kelly is remarkably easy. Also, I cannot stress again how much fun Nashville is. It's a terrific city and if you've never been, this is as good as an excuse as any. You can visit one of the more fun small cities in the nation without having to see any bro-country act. Look, it ain't the Sugar Bowl, but we didn't earn the sugar Bowl. As far as consolation prizes go, this is a pretty good one.

Paul

Admittedly, I also would have made the Houston trip so not having that shades it for me.

What's with the systemic hatred of Notre Dame from LSU fans? I get we all generally hate them, but many hold a special type of disdain that should be reserved for the likes of Bama and Auburn.

That said, a win does provide us with a winning record vs Notre Dame, something few can lay claim to, even if they've been a shell of their historic selves for about 3 decades now.

cdub71323

I think it's just a general hatred of Notre Dame from everyone.  Their resiliency to still not join a major conference and hold onto that precious NBC deal that no one cares to tune into unless you're a Notre Dame or their opponent's fan.  The allure of that school is beginning to falter and I love every second of it.

Poseur

Hating Notre Dame is not LSU-specific, it is the right of every college football fan. This is a team with its own TV network and who practically defined arrogance. I don't hate Notre Dame because of anything regarding LSU, I hate them because they are the ultimate blue blood program, which has accomplished squat in two decades.

Billy

They are the king of bullshit college football haughtiness, built on...what exactly? Having more money than everybody else and a made-up "speech" from a ringer their coach pulled out of a pool hall to help them win games? Notre Dame gets compared to the New York Yankees, but that's not really fair, because the Yankees have actually won in the last 20 years.

dr.awesome504

Touchdown Jesus has forsaken them.

Poseur

They are the Montreal Canadians of college football. Haughty as hell, living in the past, and still looking for the first title in this millennium.

Paul

From a football perspective, Notre Dame's defense will be the the third worst (only counting teams with a pulse) we've played all year. Their pass D, particularly is bad. 84th in passing S&P. 67th in Pass Downs S&P. That should give our lifeless passing game some opportunity to build toward 2015.

And hell, I'll just put this out there right now: If Brandon Harris doesn't play a snap, then I don't want to hear the "oh I meant to get him in the game, oopsy!" line from Miles again.

Billy

When has Les ever said he doesn't want to get a player in?

That said, this is the time to sit both Jennings and Harris down, wipe the slate clean and tell 'em to race to the starting job. Whomever prepares the best over the next two weeks gets it.

Poseur

You misread Paul's point. He said that Harris doesn't play and then in the postgame press conference, Les will talk about how he meant to play him but never found the right time. I'm sick of that as well. I mean, lie to me with the dignity I deserve.

Billy

And y'all misread my point. Les literally tells that lie about every player he's ever been asked about. He said it about Russell Shepard after every game.

Paul

The main difference is that we had guys producing at receiver when Shepard was around. So, sure, it'd have been nice to see him more, but it's not like we had no receiving threats.

Jake

If you have the time (it's fine if you don't)......

I think it's pretty hard to get new opponents in these games. When you're 8-4 or 9-3 it's usually *insert B1G team here* and they're all the same really. And we saw Iowa last year. So Notre Dame is better from that perspective.

And while I don't hate Notre Dame any more than any other blueblood really......the hate of ND is universal in every sense. Everyone hates Notre Dame, everywhere. Whether it's the Catholic thing, they're arrogance, the "brand".....everyone hates Notre Dame.

Pod Katt

Beating up the Irish will always, ALWAYS, be fun, but the fact that I'm leaning toward LSU as a heavy favorite in this game is probably a sign that I need to be ready for a heart attack. The last thing we need the Peach Bowl vs Clemson again where the team is mentally checked out two weeks before the game.

As for the QB situation, I really don't see how Harris gets any playing time (barring an injury or early blowout, of course) Miles can say what he wants, but we all know it isn't happening. If we're lucky, Miles and Cam are going to go into this giving Jennings just enough leeway to get himself in trouble. Either he improves and locks down his position or he falters and a true retooling of the position can happen in the offseason. It's not something you do with two weeks of bowl practice. Speaking of, I'd really like to see some of the younger offensive line guys get some rotation in this game if possible. After what happened at ARK, this unit needs to learn to start gelling without some stalwarts and there's no time like the present.

You know, Notre Dame ain't too fond of Golson either, maybe both coaching staffs will ring up that "Guru" George Whitfield and ask him what the hell these QBs were doing all summer at his expensive beach camp.