Just an example…I think is relevant to the discussion. I remember it being a pretty big deal prior to the injury and blew up after. In no circumstance should he have been in at that point while others with less injury concerns were out of the game at that point. I know he was our most reliable center but I will remember seeing that coming before it happened.
On another note this occurred close to the phase where the LSU staff of Saban and Fischer were under some scrutiny because of the way we finished games. We would take command and then focus on field position and this lead to many close games and worry when there shouldn't have been any. Maybe keeping key players in at goalie opportunities played into Ben being in but can't say that with any confidence.
Playing starters late being a big deal at the time? I was around here at that time but don't recall that discussed much (certainly not saying it wasn't...chances are good I've just forgotten.) I do recall a lot of complaints and criticisms during that season. It was getting pretty heated around the mid-point of that season with wins, close wins, against SEC teams where the offense wasn't putting the numbers on the board in had in 2003. Now that I'm thinking about this...that Vandy game was a week or two after the game against Troy. I recall people being ticked off about how close that game was despite the fact Troy had beaten a ranked Mizzou that year. (There was another SEC team they played well that season but can't recall who it was...)
Heck, here's even more context to memories of that season. If there were complaints about Ben being hurt, I likely read them and thought "you're lucky." Bama was on their 3rd string QB and 4th string RB by that time.
