POST GAME THOUGHTS: LSU HAS A TON OF POINTS AND WE DON’T HAVE MANY AT ALL

I was waiting on the first drive in the second half to write this to see if A&M was going to come out with anything different, but we didn’t and it was more of the same. So there’s no point in prolonging this. Let’s just get it over with.

LET’S TALK ABOUT THEM

All the credit in the world to LSU. They were pissed off about last year and said they were going to come out and kick our ass and that’s exactly what they did. They dominated us from start to finish and didn’t let up at all. Joe Burreaux deserves to win the Heisman and go #1 overall. His development has been remarkable. Ed Orgeron deserves a ton of respect for channeling his team’s emotions into an absolute obliteration of your Fightin’ (kind of) Texas Aggies.

LETS TALK ABOUT US

I don’t know how good this team is. I don’t know how bad we might be. This season was trash as far as being able to evaluate the team because we either played playoff contenders/elite teams or teams that struggled to do anything productive. Maybe the bowl will tell us a lot.

There were no positives out of this game. We got a couple of stops in the second half and got that one score on a good sustained drive, but all of that is window dressing. An ass kicking like this is not just about one team beating another team on the field—it’s about preparation, scheme, etc. Talent wise we’re not [insert number of points lsu has] points behind LSU. I dont buy that. We’ve got a ton of issues that have been lurking all season long, and tonight they showed up in a big way, mostly because LSUs coordinators made it their mission to exploit them. Let’s talk about them one by one:

• We’re slow in every way possible. Both on the field and in our scheme. I know that our plan is ball control and what not, but it bleeds over to every part of our team. Substitutions are slow and LSU took advantage of them. Our WR routes are slow and it leads to our QB getting pressured. Kellen, who I love dearly, is slow seeing the field. Our corners are slow. We’re just slow slow slow.
• Our offensive line is bad. -1 yards rushing last week, and at the time I write this we’ve got 14 yards rushing. On a team that we put 234 on last year. That’s not just regression. That’s something bigger than that. And I don’t know how we fix it. That’s way more concerning than anything else that’s happened this year.
• Our offensive scheme is predicated on being more talented than the other team and just wearing them out. But what about those in between years where we’re not more talented? How can we speed up our development?
• I believe in Kellen. But we all know he’s got his limitations. How do you adjust scheme to help him at all? And if you cant, are you doing enough to find someone who can run the scheme you want to?

WHAT LIES IN FRONT OF US

I will give Jimbo credit on two counts. 1) We’re recruiting really well. That cant be denied. Perhaps we can recruit our way out of this mess that we found ourselves in this game. 2) He’s demonstrated the ability to adjust as demonstrated by the fact that we started running Kellen more.

We are young. We’ve got 6 seniors total. and have and excellent recruiting class coming through. We’ve played something like 22 true freshman this year. Elko, despite what he showed early by inexplicably rushing 3 guys and letting Burrow carve us up is an elite coordinator. We’ve got a decent foundation.

But we also lost this game in a tremendously bad manner.

This loss will force him to reevaluate everything he’s done to this point. We can talk all day about intangibles like toughness, effort, discipline, pride and grit—but it’s the tangible things like play calling and scheme and OL execution that need more work than the culture. I still believe in what he’s building here, but man...hard not to be a little shook after what we saw on the field tonight.

OVERALL

7-5. I guess its where we thought we’d be. We were competitive in some of our big games, but all of that was burned to the ground with this game. I was really hoping that we’d steal one of the big 4 but we didn’t. And that sucks. I can point to injuries to Cupp and Corbin and losing Elam early, but none of that matters. We didn’t overachieve a single bit. We barely achieved.

I don’t really give a shit how much Jimbo makes. 7.5 million is a stupid argument. We could be paying him 20k and I’d still expect more out of him than what was shown tonight. Lots of room, opportunity, and desperate need for growth.

BTHO whomever we play in our bowl.