2004 - A Review of Les Miles First Season (Hypothetical)

FightinTIGER, do you honestly believe your statement that the coaching was "substandard?" I would be interested in hearing what brought you to that determination?

Is it your opinion that if the coaching had been "standard," the season outcome would have been different? If that's your position, I would have to disagree. I think the coaching staff did a good job. I believe the main determining factor this season was the inconsistent QB play and I wouldn't put the blame on the coaching staff. They tried everything conceivable to solidify that position. There's only so much a coach can do with the talent he's got. Now if you're going to say it's his talent then you're right. But every major school in the south wanted Jamarcus Russell so I have to say that the talent evaluation wasn't the problem. Besides, I believe he will turn out to be an excellent QB.

I don't think any team can lose a Mauck, Clayton, Hill, Henderson, etc. and have the same expectations as the previous season. Combine that with a pretty difficult away schedule and I'm okay with the outcome. Could USC lose a Leinhart(sp), bush, etc and finish like they did....not likely and would that make Pete Carroll's staff "substandard?"

 

New coach.... 9-3 season with Questionable QBs.. I'd be happy... One loss that was definitive... Two losses that could be changed by a single call or play (the call in the AU game is the INT that was called out of bounds... stupid ref...).... :bncry:

Good year to me....

 

There were a few decisions throughout this season that I thought were questionable. Our punt protection scared me all year long (started in last year's Sugar Bowl when OU blocked the punt) and over-all, I think we never found our groove on special teams. The return game was almost non-existant at times.

Offensively, I dunno, can't get too specific, but I thought Jimbo tried to run too many "gimick" plays with Skyler. Too many end-arounds on 3 and 2's, and perhaps not enought bubble screens on 1st and 10. Skyler is one of our "go-to" guys. That's not up for debate. I know he was slowed by injury for MUCH of the season, but if we're going to get him the ball in crucial situations, Jimbo needed to come up with something a little different than what he was doing. But that's not THAT big a deal....

Defensively, we just didn't attack more. Just like you guys said. I don't knwo why, by Saban, I felt, held back.

 

I think the reason that we won some of the games we did this year was do to having better than average coaches. I seriously doubt that under any of our last four head coaches that all of those close games would have went our way. But, then you have to ask yourselves, could it have been the coaches' fault that we were so close in some of those games i.e. OSU, AU, Troy, Alabama, Ole' Miss........ ? It all goes back to lack of performance on the offense. Defense did outstanding job all year, except for the Ga. game that is. Any D is going to give up a big play from time to time. We just seemed to have had bad timing this year with ours.

The point of my rant is that I believe the crux of our team this year was offense, and not so much the players. Granted QB left alot to be desired but who is really making the calls?

Jimbo Fisher... I will not be sorry to see him go. My opinion.

 

For some reason all season long I kept having this nagging suspicion that LSU's illustrious two quarterback fiasco this season was deliberately engineered by Saban for one reason: Landing Ryan Perrilloux.

 

JMO but, I don't believe this at all. Saban would have loved to see JR come out and light it up from the Beavers game all through the season.

 

JMO, if your opinion was correct then Saban would have made JR the starter since in the spring and JR would have gotten all the snaps with the starters and Jimbo's undivided attention through both the spring and fall practice sessions to get him up to speed for the upcoming season. JR didn't even split the snaps with the first team until after MR's very dismal performance in the first game against OSU. Thereafter, both shared snaps with the first team at practive and playing time in the games for most of the remainder of the season, although one or the other should have gotten all the snaps because one was very mediocre at best and the other was very talented but extremely inexperienced. They both needed all the snaps with the first team they each could get and coach Jimbo's undivided attention if they were to develop and play effectively in the games which neither (for some unexplained reason) ever got. That part is very obvious which also explains why LSU's offense so underperformed the whole season despite the exceptional quantity of depth and talent.

 

Could it be they weren't as aggressive defensively because they didn't jump on teams offensively like they did in the 2003 season and have the three touchdown leads like they had early in the games in 2003. Instead, because the offense stunk so bad this season LSU was always fighting for their lives and trying to make those last minute comebacks! I'm saying 2003's good offense had a lot to do with the success of 2003's defense. Success breeds success! Because LSU's offense in 2004 was so mediocre opponents were able to capture much more momemtum than they were capable of doing in 2003.

 

I thought it was a picture of Wanstadt.

 

The bottom line is Saban wanted one of the QB's to take over the team and seperate themselves from the pack and that did'nt happen. To think a coach would throw a season in hopes of landing a high school recruit is ridiculous.