NCAA Football Week 8 Running Thread: The Brian Greasy Edition

It's bad enough to get shithoused on National TV like this, but to get in a brawl with :04 left in the half?

Bye Rick.

 

Missed the brawl. Damn.

So have I missed the Pirate-to-Westwood talk?

 

Gholston suspended for Wisconsin game, and every Michigan fan can now stop whining.

 

Damn, why couldn't they have played this badly two weeks ago? My Cougs lost to THIS team? Oy vey.

 

Figure ticket sales will be the final straw. When people stop coming out to watch, you pretty much have to make a change.
The problem is that anybody worth a damn who could actually turn the program around won't want anything to do with UCLA, though I could see Bellotti ending up there.

 

My bad -- Palmer tossed out Leach's name for the Arizona full-time gig. Not a peep was heard from Craig James.

Edit to reflect comment was for Arizona job, not UCLA.

 

LSU's secondary is absolutely absurd, even without Tyrann Mathieu and elite nickelback Tharold Simon. Morris Claiborne is actually LSU's top cover corner. Strong safety Brandon Taylor is the best run-stuffer on the team, making up for a (relatively) weak linebacking corps. Free safety Eric Reid may be the most underrated player on a team loaded with them; I wouldn't be surprised if he eventually became the best pro on the team. It will hurt to lose Mathieu and Simon, but Auburn won't be doing a lot of throwing even with two top cornerbacks out.

Spencer Ware will be a bigger loss than Mathieu, even if Mathieu is the most dynamic player in the country. Michael Ford and Alfred Blue are good players, but they're not as reliable as Ware. And if LSU jumps out to an early lead, which should happen against an overmatched Auburn team, it will look to pound the ball. Maybe they turn to their two blocking fullbacks, James Stampley and J.C. Copeland.

Regardless, LSU should be able to completely overpower Auburn. The point of intrigue is in the quarterback matchup: Jordan Jefferson has looked excellent in very limited playing time, but clearly Les Miles prefers to keep with what's working now. Still, Jefferson beat out Jarrett Lee three years ago and held onto the starting job in three successive preseason camps. I have a hard time believing Jefferson isn't the better option as starting quarterback if this team wants to leave Bryant-Denny Stadium with a win on Nov. 5.

 

Versatile, I think LSU's secondary loses its identity. Their best unit is when Mathieu is at nickel (his best position) and Simon comes in at corner. To me, Simon's a better pure cover corner than Mathieu and may be a better prospect as a cover guy than Claiborne because Simon is a long-armed 6-foot-3 and still has loose enough hips to turn and run (and he runs well too).

LSU's at its best when teams try to spread them out and they are in their nickel package and they have Simon, Claborne and Mathieu playing up in receivers' faces. When Mathieu is doing this on a slot receiver, he's at an angle where he can instead come on a blitz and he's so dangerous at that.

Anyway, LSU's ability to play across-the-board press man is compromised. Brooks, the fourth corner in the rotation who will start for Mathieu, is a notch below the top three. I don't even know who the next corner would be so in a nickel they might bring in a safety as the third cover guy and that's a clear drop off from having Mathieu at the nickel.

At RB, Ford and Blue are good but they don't quite have the power element that Ware brings. Their third fullback, Hilliard, is also a power TB, so he might get some carries. Copeland and Stampley are strictly blockers (Copeland was a defensive lineman) and I would be surprised if either get a touch.

 

This could be a great last month of the season......

Oregon @ Stanford
LSU @ Alabama
Oklahoma @ Oklahoma St.

 

I don't think Oregon will have a chance without James being healthy.

 

I agree, to a degree. If they don't have those three back against Alabama, that's a killer. Maybe I underestimate Auburn, but I can't imagine how it will be a huge problem in this game.

Auburn is weak across the board on defense and can't pass. If Stephen Garcia doesn't play for South Carolina and John Brantley had been healthy for Florida, Auburn would be 2-4 right now. Michael Dyer and Onterio McCalebb are a great pair of running backs, but neither Mathieu nor Simon (aside: when I called Simon a nickelback, I meant he came in on nickelback packages, if there was confusion) was essential to LSU's run defense.

LSU -- not just its secondary -- does lose its identity to a degree. Mathieu, Simon and Ware are three of the team's six best players. (My rankings: 1. Mathieu, 2. Claiborne, 3. Rueben Randle, 4. Ware, 5. Reid, 6. Simon.) But it's a one-game thing, it seems. Synthetic pot shouldn't lead to any more of a suspension.

My guess: LSU wins easily, albeit not by 30 points as it might have with Mathieu, Simon and Ware. Then those come back, and we have the Game of the Year.

 

Times-Picayune reporting Mathieu, Ware and Simon will all be back for the Bama game:

http://www.nola.com/lsu/index.ssf/2011/10/source_suspended_lsu_football.html