NCAA Football

Spring Practice Questions: LSU Tigers

Posted Apr 02, 2007 9:03AM By Pete Holiday (RSS feed)

Filed Under: LSU Football, SEC

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Last Year: 11-2 (6-2 SEC)

Fans Are: Excited for another season, although probably a bit over-optimistic and unaware that LSU is not on the way up any more, even if they haven't started their descent.

Expectations: The Tigers will probably end up having a pretty good season. Four of their five away games are going to be walks in the park, and the fifth, at Tuscaloosa, the Tigers should have no problem getting tooled up for, given the breathless ranting about how Saban somehow screwed LSU by going to Alabama.

Questions:

1. Russell, Bowe, and David are gone... who fills those big shoes?

The QB race has been interesting this spring. Coach Miles doesn't seem to have made a decision yet as to who he thinks will start in the season opener. Flynn has done well in Spring practices and most seem to agree that he's got an early lead on Perrilloux. Flynn, however, is no Russell, but neither is Perrilloux so how things will go in the Post-Russell Era is still up in the air. As for fill-ins at wide receiver, Doucet is the only stand out so far and that could pose some problems as LSU hits the meat of the SEC schedule which is thick with secondaries capable of locking down single-receiver passing offenses. That, coupled with Les Miles' near psychotic obsession with running the ball, could cause some offensive difficulties this year.


2. Of the stable of tailbacks, who gets the starting nod in late August?

Last year's starter, Keiland Williams, is back again. Competing for his starting job, though, are Charles Scott, Jacob Hester, and a redshirt from last year Richard Murphy. Going out on a limb, here, I wouldn't be surprised to see Hester snatch that starting spot from Williams by the time the Tigers head to Starkville. As far as success goes, LSU lost a few big guys up front, so it'll be interesting to see how the fill-ins do. The O-Line looks good down the road, though, as Miles and company did a good job recruiting at those positions.

3. Speaking of Les Miles... why isn't he getting the respect he deserves around the SEC?

Outside of LSU Fans, most of whom have been made True Believers, there's a notion that Les Miles is publishing someone else's ghost-written novel. For the past few seasons he's been coaching Saban's players with Saban's coaching staff, and generally having a pretty good run at it. Some would say, however, that a wet paper bag could've gotten the same results. The most cynical of the critics don't even credit the fairly successful recruiting classes to Miles. This season will go a long way toward earning Miles a reputation among the elite coaches in the SEC or, if things fall apart, confirming the suspicions of the critics that Miles is sitting in front of a player piano and pretending to be a virtuoso. That all said, you can expect this year to be a little more difficult than last year, but the self-destruction that most of Miles' harshest critics have been calling for simply won't materialize.

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