NCAA Football Lsu Football

Remember last season when Georgia was ranked fourth, above 2-loss LSU, but were then jumped by the Tigers after LSU beat Tennessee in the SEC Championship game?

That win propelled the Tigers to their second national championship of the 2-aughts, and they became the first team with more than one loss to win a BCS title. At the time, Mark Richt was a ball of title-campaignin' energy, telling each and every reporter he could drag into earshot that Georgia deserved a bid because of their BCS ranking.

As an SEC fan, I always felt Richt's argument was facetious at best. Georgia ended the year playing their best football in recent memory, but to take a 2-loss team who hadn't even won their division over the SEC champion (with one additional win on their record) was never going to fly.

I'm not a huge fan of the BCS, but they got it right last year.

Ridiculous. I realize Vandy is a private school and they provide a valuable service to the SEC in helping with the conference graduations rates. Still, if they aren't going to actually pay their football coach over $1 million dollars, there's a problem. Sylvester Croom just got his pay pushed into the seven figure zone. Now Bobby Johnson is the only SEC coach still earning a paltry 6 figure salary. Keep up.

Les Miles, LSU, $3,750,000
Nick Saban, Alabama, $3,750,000
Urban Meyer, Florida, $3,250,000
Bobby Petrino, Arkansas, $2,850,000
Mark Richt, Georgia, $2,800,000
Tommy Tuberville, Auburn, $2,800,000
Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee, $2,050,000
Steve Spurrier, South Carolina, $1,750,000
Sylvester Croom, Mississippi State, $1,700,000
Houston Nutt, Ole Miss, $1,700,000
Rich Brooks, Kentucky, $1,600,000
Bobby Johnson, Vanderbilt, $950,000

Then again, Johnson is the only SEC coach not to be automatically placed on a hot seat after a losing season.

Via Sports by Brooks, word out of LSU is that junior wide receiver Trindon Holliday is the fastest college football player...ever. When you consider the speed guys that have come out of college football like Deion Sanders, Willie Gault, Hershel Walker, etc., that's quite a statement!

No doubt, speed kills. But in the world of football, it isn't everything. I would argue that speed on the track is secondary to football speed. It's truly the gifted athlete that has track speed and football speed, like Deion and Hershel. Because then you have a weapon.

The man you see at right is James Jett, former West Virginia and Oakland Raider wide receiver. If the name doesn't ring a bell, don't feel bad. He was never an all-pro caliber wide receiver. But he was the definition of fast. He was a member of the 1992 USA 4 x 100 gold medal relay team, and actually beat out Carl Lewis at the trials while he was still playing for West Virginia. Don't get me wrong, he was a good wide receiver. But he was never great.

Back to Holliday. He might be the fastest college football player ever. But at the end of the day it doesn't really mean anything. Much like Spinal Tap being the worlds loudest rock band, they still never sold any records. For all his speed, Holiday really hasn't done anything on the field. Particularly when you look at his stats as a receiver. And that's how he should be judged. But you go ahead and have that "fastest college football player ever" plaque made, LSU. I'll be looking for it on Ebay real soon.

FanHouse is counting down the ten best, ten worst, and ten weirdest moments in Big Ten football history.

Yes, here's another moment you just knew was coming.

Anything I can possibly say about how awful it is that Ohio State lost back-to-back BCS Title Games must, of course, be tempered by the mandatory statement about how unbelievably hard it is to make it to one such game, let alone making it to two in a row. Thus if we're going to hail on the Buckeyes for giving a new layer of meaning to the term "epic fail," we owe them ... well, we owe them 50% of the respect we give to the early-90s Buffalo Bills. Or the same amount of respect we give to Bob Stoops' Oklahoma Sooners, who have the same resume (one title, back-to-back title game losses).

So you can't say the Buckeyes are bad, not even if you're an SEC fan, and you can't say that Jim Tressel isn't a very good coach. You can, however, wonder what went wrong. The answer: Lots. In both 2007 and 2008, the Buckeyes were undone by a combination of bad execution (which was within their control) and an imploding hype machine (which wasn't).

LSU's fantastic quarterback talent, Ryan Perilloux, has finally been dismissed from the team:

Head coach Les Miles says that Perrilloux "didn't fulfill his obligation as an LSU student-athlete." He is declining additional comment.

LSU said Friday that Perrilloux is expected to finish out the spring semester at the school.

Thus ends a tumultuous, occasionally brilliant, and often frustrating tour in the bayou for Perilloux, who led LSU to a victory over Tennessee in last year's SEC title game. Perilloux was slated to start in 2008.

What did Perrilloux in? Simply put, it was his nose for trouble. Perrilloux was suspended no less than three times in the past 12 months, and was becoming a major distraction for the team even in the off-season when he was late for team practice, suspended, and then reinstated.

Despite his talent, Perrilloux would have been a poor senior leader for LSU. FanHouse is pleased with Les Miles' decision: despite forcing Tiger fans to endure a season without one of their key playmakers, Miles is sending a signal that LSU football is more important than one player.

As for Perrilloux? He will probably land on his feet. Any number of college programs will be anxious to acquire the dual-threat quarterback's services despite his off-field transgressions. After transferring and sitting out a year, expect to see Perilloux pop up at another Div-IA (excuse me, FBS) program.

Before the start of last season, I argued that Ryan Perrilloux was nothing but trouble.

I realize that this kid was seen as something of a catch when he was signed, but he really is nothing but trouble. No matter where he is on the depth chart, he's already causing a headache and the season hasn't even gotten started yet. Miles should just cut the kid loose. He hasn't learned his lesson

I was chastised by the commenters, though, for trying to keep a black man down, and admonished to "wait and see" (because two different fake-ID incidents isn't enough).

But after all of the trouble lately, and all of the extra chances, he's still just running around, acting like a thug.

A server at Kona Grill in Perkins Rowe told The Daily Reveille late Tuesday night that Perrilloux arrived at the restaurant 30 minutes after it closed Friday.

Perrilloux entered the bar and attempted to order drinks. After he was denied service, Perrilloux began to curse and use racial slurs, the server said.

A Kona Grill manager approached Perrilloux, who then cursed the manager. The server said Perrilloux was asked to leave. And the police were called to the restaurant, but Perrilloux had left by the time any officers arrived.

The server said LSU coach Les Miles called the restaurant Saturday to apologize for Perrilloux.

Um, yeah. Class act, that Perrilloux. That Miles has allowed Perrilloux to stay on the roster says something about him. Are there any fans (LSU or otherwise) left defending this now?

Interesting find in Olin Buchanan's Mailbag this week at Rivals.com: a trend has emerged in college football whereby teams winning a title ending in any year ending in an 8 experience a long, painful championship drought.

Recent victims: Notre Dame has not won a title since 1988. USC waited until 2003 after claiming the 1978 crown. Ohio State endured a more than 30-year wait between their 1968 and 2002 crowns. Scary stuff here.

Everyone wants a championship, but maybe it's a devil's bargain in reaching for this year's title?

Other victims of years ending in "8":

TCU was named the Associated Press national champion in 1938 – the third year of the poll – and even though players such as Bob Lilly and LaDainian Tomlinson have since come through Fort Worth, the Horned Frogs have not won another crown.

Michigan won in 1948 and did not win another national title until 1997, and that one was split with Nebraska. The '58 champion was LSU, which waited 45 years before celebrating another national championship.

Ok so maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing for TCU to win a championship this year. They've waited long enough, maybe another drought is worth the price of ending the current agony.

This is a good week for LSU coach Les Miles. He's certainly basking in LSU's BCS National Championship. He's miraculously not at beloved alma mater Michigan while they endure bad press for questionable academic practices within the athletic department.

And he got a big raise.

So big, in fact, that it makes him the highest-paid coach in the SEC by $1,000 over rival and former LSU coach Nick Saban.

Saban, who is guaranteed $3.75 million, was the SEC's highest-paid coach. Miles' new contract states he will be paid no less than the highest-paid coach at a public university in the conference, plus $1,000.

Sometimes in the SEC there's no need to be sneaky when it feels so good to be obvious. This is one bold, blunt example. I guess it pays to not be able to pronounce the word Arkansas so long as you are holding that glass football.

Side note for LSU fans: that's an AP National Championship Trophy in the picture. USC won one in 2004, you won one in 2008. Just so you know that we know that your coach knows it counts. That is all.

Score one for the internets.

LSU is out one starting quarterback, from the looks of it:

LSU quarterback Ryan Perrilloux was suspended indefinitely for an unspecified violation of team rules, leaving his status unclear for the start of spring practice Feb. 29.

Coach Les Miles did not elaborate on the violation in his statement Monday or how the suspension would affect Perrilloux's future with the national champions.

The rumor has it that the "violation of team rules" in this instance is Not Being On The Team Anymore, which includes not going to meetings or class and, if you believe the truly tinfoil-hat version of events, shaking down LSU for money before returning.

Which is completely insane and would be unbelievable if we were talking about anyone other than Ryan Perrilloux, who had a now-you-see-me-now-you-don't commitment to Texas, somehow got involved in a countefeiting investigation, and has already been suspended twice by LSU. Ryan Perrilloux could announce he is the reincarnated David Bowie, and not even David Bowie would be that shocked.

Even so, both sides have to come to their senses here, don't they? Perrilloux has two years to start at an elite program, which can be a ticket to NFL riches. LSU has a guy who used to play for Harvard and a freshman backing Perrilloux up. Both parties have a huge incentive to work things out. If they don't, LSU's title defense is over before it starts. Sorry, No Photos

Yeah, we run with the good stuff here at FanHouse. Intense message-board hand-wringing and rumormongering has produced this morsel (c/o our good friend Kevin Donahue at Fanblogs.com):

Due to an ongoing dispute between Perrilloux's mother and LSU -- potentially stemming from Ryan's mother trying to shake down the school -- the projected starting quarterback has cleaned out his locker and left the team. Perrilloux reportedly missed a team meeting this week, but his absence is clouded by reports that Perrilloux was attending his father's funeral.

The only aspect that does not seem to be in dispute is that Ryan Perrilloux has cleaned out his locker.

WDSU-TV in New Orleans is reporting the rumors that Perrilloux quit the team, but -- so far -- there's no comment from Perrilloux or the Tigers.

This could be devastating news for LSU. Perillioux is a great talent and his services will be sorely needed by a defending national champion which has been depleted by graduation and early defection to the NFL.

On the flip side, however, "character issues" seem to come up all too frequently for the talented dual-threat quarterback. Perillioux has had a number of run-ins with the coaching staff and seems to have a hard time following the rules. Kevin posted a followup to better explain what's happening:

It is believed that one of the issues was class attendance, missing a team appointment and the other was related to him going somewhere he wasn't supposed to be. So... the coaches met with Perrilloux and the suspension talk came up. This conversation apparently led to Perrilloux's mother threatening to pull the QB off the team

When Mama gets involved, things are going in the wrong direction. Losing Perillioux might severely wound LSU's 2008 campaign, but in the long-term, it might be for the best.