LSU football is good for 9 wins every season as long as Les Miles is the coach. Unfortunately for the Mad Hatter, it’s SEC Championship or Bust in 2016.
We all know the story. Les Miles cannot beat Alabama. The Tide even held Leonard Fournette to 31 yards in their 2015 meeting. That won’t cut it for LSU football.
We also know another story. Les Miles can’t develop a quarterback. Zac Mettenberger has been the best quarterback under Miles — but he was developed at Georgia under the tutelage of Mark Richt. Not having a quarterback means not winning inevitable shoot outs in today’s SEC — that also won’t cut it for LSU football.
We know what those two stories add up to. Les Miles can’t cut it as the LSU football coach. Maybe if he won the SEC (crazy that’s third, right?), he’d have a fighting chance. But he hasn’t done that since 2011, and that’s a lifetime for LSU football fans.
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Now the media hype train has hyped up the 2016 LSU football team beyond measure. Bayou Bengals fans are only concerned with three things: beating Bama, winning the SEC West, and brining home an SEC Championship. Les Miles will likely have to accomplish two of those three to remain at LSU in 2017 and I’ve got news for you: it ain’t happening.
Sure, LSU’s roster is stocked with talent. Almost every position on the roster has a guy that could be playing on Sunday in the next 2-3 years. One key position and one key coach will keep that from amounting to much, however.
LSU football is known for their hard-nosed defense and grind-it-out rushing attack. That WAS SEC football in the first decade of the 21st century. Today’s game has changed so much that even Nick Saban hired Lane Kiffin to incorporate spread schemes to the Bama offense — even though Saban is one of the biggest haters of the spread, hurry-up era we’re currently living in.
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Miles and Co. have persistently drug their feet and refused to evolved. It will cost one of the most talented teams in America in 2016.
Brandon Harris has completed less than 55% of his passes in his career. That isn’t going to change overnight. It especially isn’t going to change since Miles has kept the SAME offensive coordinator and SAME offensive game plan that Harris has struggled to master the past two seasons. Maybe I’d be a believer in the LSU football hype if a new offensive philosophy was coming to town, but it isn’t. And that is the bigger problem.
Les Miles has been loyal to Cam Cameron, his offensive coordinator the past 3 seasons. Things looked great when Mr. Mettenberger was playing quarterback. Since then? It’s all been downhill. It got so bad last year that the Tigers passing attack ranked 100th. 100th!
With college football’s 6th best rushing attack setting the offense up with 2nd and 5’s and 3rd and 3’s, Cameron STILL couldn’t muster up even a decent short yardage passing game. That isn’t going to change in 2016 and the Tigers will suffer for it.
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Sure, LSU football will still be good for 8 or 9 wins because many teams cannot stop their superior rushing attack. But teams that have an above average front 7 will have a suprisingly easy time shutting down the Tiger’s attack inside the red zone, leaving a lot of Tigers fans wondering ‘what if…’ after this season has concluded.