It was very unfair to Flynn to put him in that situation without significant playing time all year. No matter if he had a great week of practice, it still isn't the same thing as actually playing in a real time situation. I expect great things from both quaterbacks next year. As for spiking the ball, it was both the coaches and Russell's fault. Russell should of had the presence of mind to realize the clock and that spiking the ball would give Iowa more time for their drive. And the coaches should have yelled at him to run a play.
The first and most crucial mistake was calling the timeout at 1:02 left in the game at the 10 yard line. I know they wanted to talk things over with Russell. But you let the play clock run all the way down to 1 or 2 seconds left, then call the timeout. And then the spiked ball was just another botched call from the sideline. There is no way all of that was done by Russell. He was told to do this. It was ridiculous that a coach as well versed in clock management as Saban would choke in this manner. But it did happen, and LSU pretty much got what they deserved in the end. A pitiful way to end the Nick Saban era.
Wait, the timeout with 1:02 was because an OL was missing I thought.....they even showed a assitant coach yelling at the OL....am I thinking of a time later/earlier in the game?
The spike was a very good thing to do. The last thing we wanted was a redshirt freshman calling his own plays on the opponents goal line with 50 seconds left in the game. We spiked the ball, got the right players on the field, ran the right play and scored. Letting the clock run down is not something any coach would consider when you need a TD to win the game. If JR calls a running play on in that situation and the refs take a long time to set the ball the clock could very easily run out w/o us scoring. Anyone remeber the 1974 LSU/Tulane game. Foley completes a pass at the 2 to his fullback, who gets tackled at the one and Tulane watches the clock run out while the refs are spotting the ball.
