How would you feel about our season if Saban was the coach?

I was wondering about this today.

Much of the disdain for Miles is based on the uncertainty surrounding whether he can maintain an elite program. With Saban, we knew what we had - a very good coach that was going to keep LSU near the top. So, what if we had Saban as the coach & had the exact same season - same close calls, same losses... everything. How would you feel?

(Obviously, Miles is not Saban & we have no way of knowing what would have happened with Saban here - so try & stick to the question at hand.)

If we were to go 10-2 this season having a team that never quite "put it together" under Saban, we wouldn't hear that Nick was a terrible coach. It is my opinion that instead, we'd hear about how much losing our star running back hurt our team, about how much the hurricanes threw off the season, about how we need to get a new WR coach, and about how 10 (or was it 11?) weeks straight really wore this team down.

How would you feel about the season if it was under Saban? Would you be more willing to excuse the sloppy play? Would you see the positives more than you do right now?

 

I would still be wishing for Jimbo to get a HC job somewhere.

 

Cool. I wouldn't be upset if he left either. So, what would you think about the season?

 

utter failure. I would seriously wonder about the future of LSU football......

 

Exceeded expectations. We're a school accustomed to eight wins a year.

 

I would have been disappointed. I dunno if that's good or bad, but that's where i'm at. I felt like we were going to be dominating before he left.

 

I'd be pretty frustrated that Saban's offense is so conservative. I'd be annoyed that we didn't play dominantly all year. Like Miles, I would give him some slack for dealing with the hurricanes and having such a long stretch of games without a break. I'd be super pissed about Arizona St and Tennessee because Saban would have instituted some other defense completely out of character. I wouldn't give him slack for having a new coaching staff, so Miles actually comes out ahead in that regard. But I'd also feel a little better that things weren't falling apart and that Saban was working towards another good season (he had at least two less than impressive seasons, and he actually finished his run here at LSU with a ho-hum season). I just can't feel that way about Miles until he gives us something on the field to believe in.

 

I think everyone would probably be feeling the same, but with a little more comfort for the future because we all know Saban would not feel like he had a good season, and would be vocal about it.

Miles' comes off a little to content with winning ugly for me, and others it seems. Saban would be full of piss and vinegar at every media event after this season. I cannot see on game that I think he would have been happy with. Hell I don;t remember him being completely happy with very many games when we were dominating people on defense and winning a National Championship.

 

I think you summed it up best with the word in your second sentence: uncertainty.

Saban ultimately allowed LSU fans to cast aside that defensive posture we had all decended into in the 12 years of failure that preceded him; that awful gnawing fear - nay, knowledge - that any success was fleeting. Saints fans know this feeling. Tiger fans knew it as well.

As such, we are perhaps too quick to embrace it again. That is a yoke Miles will have to cast aside by his actions.

But to your question. Saban earned our trust. Even the most calloused of Tiger fans allowed themselves to release their doubts. Oh, he could do wrong, but any objective betting man would be a fool to wager against him too many times.

How many times have you read on this board ~ "don't look at the stars by our recruits' names. Nobody spots a diamond in the rough and develops them like Saban". And you believed it. And he did it, again and again, while picking up a few crown jewels to boot.

And I never recall feeling that he had anything but complete awareness of the moment in football time. No inappropriate timeouts. No indecision in the red zone as the clock ran out before the half. No sitting on a tie with over 2 minutes left in the game. Sure as hell no passive defense for an entire half (in Pelini's defense, he sure turned things around after that, and Saban's DB's got burned for a few memorable late losses)

So yeah, Saban would be getting a hell of a lot more slack from me for the same performance. Bottom line is I had developed complete faith in his football savy. And it's not so much that I don't trust Miles, as that he hasn't seized a single opportunity to demonstrate he is worthy of similiar faith.

Somewhere in my gut is the return of a gnawing, despite the record, and I hate Miles for giving it to me, and Saban for leaving, and Myself for caring enough about a stupid game to let it bother me as much as it does. Miles will have won me over when that gnawing is gone. Stay tuned. . .

 

That's during even-yeared seasons. Expectations were considerably higher for this season & our record over the past few indicates reason for it.

PS: Ya'll catch that? I'm disagreeing with a "Miles supporter"...