I don't have to mention that competitive play and "run-ups" are subjective here at South Carolina. Florida's game verses USC last year was uh...performance...was decisive...and unending. Lou Holtz put the 2001 Florida game in perspective: Paraphrasing now: "Its the offensive team's job to score touchdowns and the defensive team's job to stop them." But I think its safe to say Florida is not nor ever will be pitied when they get beat no matter how bad the final score. Comes with being champions.
Our first team units were in the game b/c Florida's first team units were still in the game. This is not against the gator fans on this board, but it is funny that a Florida gator fan is complaining about another team possibly running up the score or leaving starters in too late. I believe LSU's "finger pointing moment" was the fake FG . . . after that all the plays called by Saban were above the board. Spurrier was the King of the 4 quarter blow out and he always kept his starting unit in the game (until the other coach changed out his guys, and sometimes even then Spurrier would leave them in). The funny thing is, the Florida broadcast on Sunshine was debating in the 4th quarter if the LSU tigers were trying to pad stats . . . talk about calling the kettle black. Is there any other team in the SEC that tried to pad stats more than the Florida Gators?
Umm I hope that you aren't implying that I am the gator fan complaining about Saban running up the score. I never once complained about anything. I'm a firm believer in "It's the offenses job to score and the defenses job to stop them from scoring." Everyone says Spurrier ran up the score and hated the gators for it. If you have followed the gators for very long (I know I know, LSU fans...but you've seen him do it to your old teams) you know that most games we won in a blowout didn't even have our starting QB in the game come 4th quarter. Take the Vandy game last year. We were up by 60 and our backup QB was already in the game. Spurrier yanked the backup QB and put in the 3rd string guy. He still scores TD's. He's throwing to 3rd string receivers and running 3rd string tailbacks and we still score. People were moaning that SOS was running up the score but what should he have done? Had the gators take a knee for every play of the second half? He did not run trick plays at the end of the game when we were up big, he just ran our offense. I will never complain about a team running up the score. As far as first team vs. first team goes, I think that if your 1st team has whipped the first team D, you give your second team offense a chance to try their stuff against the other team's starting D. I understand this is what Saban did. Classy coach, no doubt. You said: "Spurrier was the King of the 4 quarter blow out and he always kept his starting unit in the game (until the other coach changed out his guys, and sometimes even then Spurrier would leave them in)." Just flat out wrong. You said: "The funny thing is, the Florida broadcast on Sunshine was debating in the 4th quarter if the LSU tigers were trying to pad stats . . . talk about calling the kettle black. " I watched the replay on Sunshine. What they were talking about was the tough situation Saban was in. The subject was whether or not to kick the field goals in the 4th quarter or go for it. They said, "on one hand if you kick the field goal it's kind of insulting to the other team, on the other hand if you score a touchdown people say you're running up the score." To which the other announcer responded by saying, "It always makes you feel worse when they kick. " Then they BOTH commented on how Saban made the right choice to keep running the ball and playing straight up. As for padding the stats, that was merely a comment about how LSU's offense in the 4th quarter was simply padding their stats and the game was already finished. There was no debate or complaint about this fact, only that their stats were getting better and better. Try and remember that the fans and announcers from your opponent's school are not all a**holes and not always out to prove your win was a fluke. Actually Mick complimented the tigers during the game and congratulated them on the butt whipping. Go Gators
Islandgator, I didn't mean you (I am reading both the boards today; this one and swamp gas, favorite thread is the "theories about the Gator meltdown it is like 6 pages), so I should have been more clear. I don't know which Gator team you were watching the last 12 years, but the ole ball coach loved to run up the score. I will give you that he might not have been as pass happy with a 40 point lead in the 4th (but he did run several plays to score more points, not just up the middle time runners). I was personally at FL/LSU games and saw the score tally run up in the 4th quater. It is not a big deal, but let's not act as if Florida never ran up the score or allowed the first string to play longer than they should have. I do want to say I agree with you and that it is the Os job to score and Ds job to defend, and the score shouldn't have any bearing on the those purposes. I didn't just watch the Forida broadcast (on Sunshine Sunday Morning), but I taped it. You are correct in what you post, but I am not talking about the 4th down "should they go for it" conversation the announcer had . . . but before that at the end of the 2nd quarter when they did mention stat padding, and after the FG when one of the announcers complained about LSU's first team in the game . . . which was corrected by the other announceer who said that Florida still had their first unit in. I will say this, the announcers were very gracious after defeat, but you only have to watch the tape to hear what was said at the start of the game . . . and their opinions about LSU. The best thing they said at the end of the game was that LSU's D really was tough (earlier in the broadcast they put down LSU's D as weak due to easy games . . . hell they even put up a graphic to back their claims). I'm sorry to upset any Gator fans. If you, like me, have been going to Swamp gas all week to read the post and such you have to agree that the Gator fans were very confident about whipping the lowly Tigers (even having us ranked 9th to 10th in the SEC). All fans can be good or bad, and of course the fans here from other teams are very good fans. I don't care for all the crap and bull with teasing fans and such. The same can happen next year at Tiger Stadium. But from a Tiger fan that saw Florida run up the score on us in the past, it felt good to see the Tigers whip the Gators. And I am not sorry for it, but I also don't want to rub it in. In the SEC you are only as good as your last game and I am much more concerned about the Gamecocks game this weekend than the Gators and our victory. All in all, I am sorry that my post was mistaken as bashing the Florida faithful. It was a good game from an LSU perspective, something to build on for the SEC remaining schedule. But I will not back down and say that Florida never ran up the score, left players in to pad stats in the past, and that the Florida broadcast was fair to the Tigers early in the game by questioning their D and other opp.
Actually the BCS could work either for or against us depending on how things fall into place. With a real playoff system a team that wins enough would have a shot at the National Title even if that team was the lowest seed in the playoffs. I worry about every team left on the schedule, not just Bama, Ole Miss & Arkansas. South Carolina has the legendary Lou Holtz and I just hope that LSU dosen't have a letdown after the huge win at the Swamp and that Mauck is healthy enough to play. Kentucky always plays the Tigers tough no matter what the won loss record at gametime. For the past few years LSU has beaten Arkansas at home and lost on the road, and while the Razorbacks get no respect at the beginning of the season they usually are a lot better by the end of the season In the first 2 years Saban has been coach the Tigers have started off slow and by mid season been able to put it together as a team and come on strong. It is now mid season and we have only the one loss to V Tech in a lackluster first game performance. Despite the fact that the Hokies are ranked as the 3rd best team in the USA this week I really believe that if LSU and V Tech had played this past Saturday the Tigers would have won convincingly. The big question is will the team continue the high level of play they showed against Florida and continue to get better with each game or will they letdown after playing at an emotional level so high that the team doused Coach Saban with Gatoraid after the victory was sealed. In the 2000 season we lost to UAB and then beat Tennessee the next week, then got blown out by Florida the next week before putting together enough wins to get into the Peach Bowl. Last year things looked pretty dismal after the loss to the Rebels but the Tigers played each game for the rest of the year like they had their backs to the wall and we all know the results. If the Tigers can play every game for the rest of this season like there is no tommorrow we will win the SEC again. Any less and we will be in the Outback or Citrus Bowl Right now I see it as an 11-1 or 10-2 LSU in the Georgia Dome for the SEC Title against a 12-0 or 11-1 Georgia Bulldog team. Thats where the BCS comes in. If anybody thinks the BCS would choose a 12-1 LSU team to play Miami for the title in the Fiesta Bowl over an 11-1 Notre Dame or an 12-1 Oklahoma they they would still believe in the Tooth Fairy
I think Notre Damn could have 2 losses and they may still put them in the title game........the media loves ND for some reason.....it is really sickening........
You are right, but if it happens like this then LSU would not be getting the shaft, since both ND and OKla would've played a hard schedule. I don't think ORE got the shaft last year, b/c the PAC10 is weak conference and that hurt them. If ORE goes undefeated last year they are in the Title game. But I refuse to say the ORE played a harder schedule than NEB did last year. ORE (and many others) feel they were purposely left out of the NC. And they would be correct, ORE was left out of the NC simply b/c they played a much easier schedule and their wins were not against highly ranked teams. It was hard to see a NEB team that was destroyed by Colo in the Title game, but they deserved it much more than ORE. I don't believe in the Tooth Fairy, but I believe that the PAC 10 is a weak conference and that ND (no matter how much I hate them) plays a tough schedule year in and out. However all that said, if it is between a LSU one loss team, a ND one loss team, and PAC10 one loss team . . . I think LSU and ND would have the advantage (and then between them it all would come down to the computer stuff). There is a little media bias for ND, but when you look at the schedule they play this year if they can go undefeated then they would deserve to be in the Title game. What bothers me is that ORE fans seem to think since they beat MissST, that could easily beat our SEC bests. Which I think we all know is not true. I also believe that if we were to play Vtech now (rather than in the start) it would be much more closer match up. Anyway, good points everybody and I hope at the end of the year we are debating if the Tigers should be in thge Title game.
As much as I hate to admit it Notre Dame would be deserving of considerating due the the fact that they play a tough schedule. The whole point is that why can't they just do a 16 team playoff system just like they do in Division 1AA and every other level of college football. We can argue whether Nebraska was more deserving than Oregon last year and if you remember that before Oregon creamed Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl the Buffaloes were right up there having beaten the Cornhuskers and then Texas in the Big 12 title game. But they had 2 early season losses. LSU was playing as well as anybody at the end of the season but with 3 losses before the Tigers put it all together there was no chance under the Bullshit Championship System. With a playoff system LSU as the SEC Champ would at least been in the mix probably as a 9th or 10th seed but as they say "On Any Given Saturday" After the Curley (nyuck, nyuck, nyuck) and the Di Nardo years it sure is great to be still talking about National Championship posibilities at mid-season. Matt Mauck showed that he is growing into the role of QB and team leader in the Florida game. All of the posts on this board about Randall talk about LSU not missing a step if Mauck is not able to play Saturday but the fact is that Randall has almost no experience whatsoever We can only keep our fingers crossed and hope that Randall can come through the way that Mauck did in the SEC Title game last year
