Our DLine loves to get up and knock down passes, especially big Marcus Spears who was a bigtime basketball recruit out of high school, so we could really affect Tate's ability to pass while standing in the pocket because of his small size.
RB- What was considered a strength at the start of the season quickly became a joke as our top three went down to ACLs the first three games. Number four went out the next game with an ankle and has just returned last week. In the meantime we had Slammin' Sammy Brownlee, a soph. walkon from Emmetsburg, IA (class 2A powerhouse). He's gritty and tough, but not a D1 tailback. We also lost 2 FBs but have gotten one of them back. If Simmons (4th string) can be entirely healthy by gametime, which is likely, we should be just fine at this position and will probably exhibit much more of a run game than what we've had all year (which isn't saying much) W/all those injuries to the RB's, your OL must suck. I would call two guys going down bad luck but it looks like 6 players got hurt for the year. I hope your QB has a golden arm b/c I can't see you guys rushing for more then 65 yards total. Didn't the Saints draft a RB one year from you guys?
All but one of the ACLs were non-contact injuries, consistent with the way that most ACL tears happen. Don't worry about our run game. Marques Simmons will be back at full strength and we will not resemble #117 as our stats show, unless your defense is THAT good (distinct possibility). LSU will not be able to ignore the running game only because we won't go away from it. There have been several games, as evidenced by our massive statistics, where we continued to pound it up the middle for 1-2 yard gains. Funny thing is that you still have to respect it and it still sets up play action, which has helped Drew be so effective. BTW, saw both Spears and your other DE bite really hard on waggle plays against the Hogs. You'll see a lot of that from the Hawks, as well as the jail-break screen to WRs. Get used to the WR screen, we run it 3-4 times a game, usually even more than our fans would care to see, but it works really well against a team with a good pass rush. I think you're thinking of Troy Davis from iowa state. The Redskins drafted Ladell Betts 2-3 years ago, and Fred Russell from last year is on the Bears practice squad. Other RB of note is Tavian Banks, '97 grad drafted by the Jags, but tore up his knee. He may have been with the Saints for a bit earlier on this year?
Better duck your head when you use that phrase around here... :hihi: Is this Roth guy related to a guy named Pollack??? Because all LSU fans know that Pollack has a blank that never blanks (the blanks were inserted to insure that I will not be banned from this board) :lol:
yeah, sorry about that I've realized the feelings you have for him and that expression after reading things here the past week or two...my bad. Actually the expression for Roth started more because of stupid after the whistle mistakes rather than being relentless, although he is relentless as well. Probably not near as much as Georgia fans think Pollack is, but plays hard nontheless. :thumb: I'll stick with Roth is a beast and leave it at that. We love the guy.
I was very impressed watching Iowa paste Florida in the Outback last year, which kind of put the lie to the "but SEC players are warp-speed faster than Big Ten guys" myth (Purdue also gave Georgia all they could handle, too). (I'll be kind and not linger on your 2002 Orange Bowl performance, but only if you do the same for our 2002 Cotton...LOL). That said, I expect a hard-fought game b/w two excellent teams. Saban is an excellent bowl game coach, so I expect Marcus Randall (our QB) to be just fine. If that's the case, the offense should be one of the best you've faced all year, since the wideouts are talented and an active passing game opens up an already solid running game. A good matchup all around, which is more than I can say about other big bowl stinkers out there (Texas A&M and Tenn, anyone? How's about Utah and Pitt. Yuck!)
