Link Gumbo: That Escalated Quickly

For 17 years in a row, LSU did not lose a regular season non conference game. It was a truly historic run. 49 straight wins at home, and somewhere in the 50s all together. Huge games against VT, UNC, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon (still my fav), Wisconsin and West Virginia.

It started in 2000 after a stunning UAB loss and ended with a dud against Troy. Folks, the timing of that streak played a major role in creating the bad boy on the block reputation of the SEC as the premiere conference. Bama wasn’t winning those games in the early 2000s, Florida really wasn’t outside of the Tebow years and UGA wouldn’t even play them. LSU was doubling the scalp count each year with a killer opener and a beat down in the bowl game when it came to out of conference. We used to look unbeatable if you gave us more than 3 weeks.

Winning natties during that run always kept us in the pantheon of the top tier, gave us major respect even if we didn’t earn it, and allowed us to jump teams in rankings when the rubber met the road.

I don’t want to stop playing these games because I take MASSIVE pride in our team carrying the flag and heading west of the Mississippi. The Rose Bowl was beautiful, Tempe has an In N Out burger, West Virginia is for beer lovers.

But when you lose them, and when you lose 4 openers in a row, you start to really damage that reputation. It’s funny, we looked so much worse last year in the game in terms of cohesion but came out of this game looking worse as a brand. It gives the same vibe of that Peach Bowl where Clemson rode the momentum to join the pantheon we were in. Now FSU can stake a claim.

But I’m not going to over react to a week one game against a top 10 team. All summer, mainly to piss off my Bama friends, I continuously repeated this is the best team we will face in the regular season. They had the best QB, best DL, best WR group and most tenured O Line we will see. I was hoping to see a mirror of that from our end, that is why this game was so well touted, but my goodness did that mirror break last night.

Folks, if we can’t run the ball then we are in a heap of trouble. We have some get right games to heal up and bolster up, and I think we will.

Kudos to FSU, they were the better team and absolutely outplayed LSU in the critical moments of that game. I didn’t expect them to separate themselves like they did in the second half, but ball games can go like that, especially when you don’t capitalize like we could have early on.

We lost to a team with a high blue chip ratio who had a much better hit rate in the transfer portal to get to that ratio and has a Heisman contender with national title aspirations. This wasn’t Troy or MTSU.

Football Drops Season Opener to Florida State, 45-24 – LSU (lsusports.net)

I agree with this man unless we can’t run the ball against Grambling State

I don’t think I’m totally in on Kelly’s message after the game

Monday Down South: LSU goes down hard vs. surging Noles, but not out (saturdaydownsouth.com)

“Then again, if you were all-in on the Tigers as heavyweights, watching them unravel in the second half of their first big measuring-stick game — a game they were narrowly favored to win — hardly inspired confidence. Brian Kelly was certainly not sanguine in defeat, describing his team’s effort as “a total failure from a coaching standpoint and a player standpoint.” It’s the kind of loss that, if they let it, threatens to derail the season. (It’s not for nothing that the next game is against Grambling.)”

I thought we looked so much more cohesive starting the year than we did last year for this game. But I know a thoroughbred when I see one, and we don’t have any at RB or CB. And if we really have to scheme around those on both sides of the ball then we are in the muck.

Getting back to elite starts with winning players like these in this state

Keon Coleman is latest star in FSU’s road back from sideshow to contention - The Athletic

There are only so many areas in the country that produce WR, DL, and DBs at the level of Louisiana. And we are winning 90% of the top recruits in the state. He was spectacular in this game, tip my hat to that.