As an LSU fan living in the middle of gump territory I would say that Jess Nicholas is one of the most objective writers to ever grace the pages of sports reporting. Anything he says is clearly from a non-biased perspective.
Do you realize how many teams you could say that about? The road to the NC is often paved with luck, especially in The Conference. UF had some pretty close calls to some underachievers last year. Conversely, we didn't need it against those kinds of teams, yet were completely devoid of it in our two biggest showdowns.
Winning Championships isn't just about "Having" talent, it's about having that lil rabbit's foot too. On any given year there are teams who "Have" the talent........all levels, all sports, you have to be good.......AND lucky. Calls, injuries, mistakes- they will happen, just have to hope not at critical times in critical games- which today, means dam near every game. You can also turn that around and say though he didn't play for a MNC, his two loses a year also points to the fact that he shouldn't be under the microscope either........especially considering the circumstances around his first year. :thumb:
History shows that NO TEAM has ever avoided the cyclical nature of college football. Great talent is hard to come by and when you have it you better make the best of it because as hard as it might be to believe great recruiting classes aren't a guarantee. Most teams that experience a period of great success usually also have the period end and have to create another. It's just the nature of the beast we call college football. So when you have the talent in hand you want to achieve the highest success you can with it because the road back is hard. LSU is no different. You definitely are experiencing a very successful period in LSU football right now. But this period will come to an end and you'll have to work back to create another. That's just a fact. Every program experiences this pattern.
I would venture to say that though the "lil rabbit's foot" plays it's part it doesn't carry the same weight as having the great talent on the field. When you start weighing the luck factor as much as you do the talent factor then your talent really ain't talented. And that definitely isn't the case with LSU. Just look at the NFL draft of 2007. :thumb:
How lucky was Florida when we fumbled on their one yard line?? Or when they escaped South Carolina by three in the swamp?? To even get into the NC game?? You can count it....the rabitt's foot.
You can count that one as "luck" or bad execution and concentration on y'alls part. The other five turnovers didn't help either. I don't believe luck plays a bigger factor than preparation and talent. It has it's place but most things we call "luck" is really just one team benefiting from a mistake made by another team.
And I would venture to say that when you disregard the very big factor that luck plays in winning the MNC and focus solely on "talent" in order to jamarcus the idea that LSU has underacheived the last two years despite winning more games than predicted by experts, finishing each season ranked both in the top five and higher than than the one before, and fielding back-to-back 11-win seasons for the first time in LSU history under circumstances never faced before in the history of the program then maybe you're trying to convince yourself that the coach you just paid an arm, leg, and left nut for was worth the price :thumb:.
