Final Thoughts on Bama vs. lsu

I have always liked lsu.  It is my favorite place to go on the road.  If you haven't gone to a game in Baton Rouge, you should, it is great.  It is something every football fan should experience.  Are some of their fans outrageous?  Absolutely, but that is what makes them so fun.  I have never had a problem with lsu fans. Sure I get some trash talk, but that is part of it.  I love their passion towards their team and life in general.  They support their team without pretense or a chip on their shoulder (learn a lesson, aubies).  They are my second favorite team in the SEC.  And I think purple and gold is a great color scheme to top it off.  No orange anywhere!

Yesterday's game of course was not played in Baton Rouge, but the setting in Tuscaloosa was what makes college football a spectacle worthy of an afternoon or evening. Congrats go to the tigers.  It was a heartbreaking loss,if you wore crimson, but if you had on an old game jersey, a yellow wig, purple and gold beads and four teeth in your head, you deserve the congrats.  The best team won, it is simple as that. 

Trying to be as objective as possible and having no credentials other than seeing hundreds of games. There is no doubt about which team had the most talent, in fact, it was as talented a team top to bottom in every position as I have witnessed in a long time.  But my friends from Louisiana, while the best team won, the best coached team did not.  And I hate to say that, because there was way too much hype about the coaching, but you have to state the facts. 

• Well coached teams get 2 penalties for 15 yards, poorly coached and undisciplined teams get 14 penalties for 130 yards.  lsu is the most penalized team in the SEC.  They win with talent, they will eventually lose because of coaching.
• Good coaches are secure with themselves and don't have to feel the need to be cute. They know that when it is 3rd and 2 on your opponent's 23 yard line with 1:21 until halftime, that they have the talent to man up and get the first down with their super tailback who can't fumble and gets almost four yards even when you hit him in the backfield.  They know that by making that right call and in the unlikely event that they fail to make the first down, they will kick a field goal with little, if any, time left on the clock, to extend their lead and take momentum back into the locker room. Insecure coaches, however, call a timeout, run play action (trying to be cute) and end up throwing an interception which gives the inferior team the momentum and the halftime lead.
• Good coaches know that there are times to use gimmick plays and there are times when you don't.  Good coaches also know that when you have better talent you don't have to run your only experienced quarterback out into the open field where he will get hit, hurt, and be rattled for the better part of two more quarters.  It doesn't matter if the play works or not, good coaches don't put their most valuable asset at risk.
• Good coaches, if they wear a hat, pull the hat down onto their head instead of resting on top of their head.
• Good coaches don't put their friggin' finger in their ear so they can hear their headset, they are smart enough to know that if they can't hear they make headsets with two earpieces.
• Good coaches will still be at their respective schools, unless they have better opportunities elsewhere, because good coaches will not be fired.  Assuming that lsu's coach doesn't go north, he will be fired within five years. Why?  Because he is winning with talent and that talent is so good that it masks the coaching.  Ask Jimbo Fisher.  He didn't want to work with Saban again, because Saban is difficult to work with to say the least, but he stayed with Saban at lsu, because he respected Saban.  He left lsu for florida state (a lateral move in my opinion, if not a slight step down) because he didn't respect Miles. 

So, I offer congrats to lsu because they are an impressive collection of incredible college talent.  I feel bad that they continually have to fight for their lives against inferior opponents because of the coaching.  I would like to see lsu bring home a title, but to do so, they will have most likely have to play against the Buckeyes, who have talent and a coach.  And when you put talent together with coaching you get championships, and if Saban stays put for a while (yet to be seen), Alabama will enjoy another championship.  It will be interesting to see if that championship comes before or after lsu realizes that best coached team last night lost a great college football game.

Comments

[Ike]

You left out a really big one.

Good coaches who are confident in their team will run a play on 4th and TWO INCHES, instead of getting cute with an offensive line shuffle. That backfires.

And well-coached teams don't have offensive linemen who remove their helmets in a hissy-fit because they didn't get their way.

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