Sports

LSU Guts Out the Win Against Auburn

There’s no conference like the SEC. If Ohio State had to play the SEC schedule that LSU plays, they would already have lost two or more games. It is tough to win games in the SEC. Nearly every matchup is a hit-you-in-the-mouth street fight. Very few teams can run the gauntlet of the SEC and make it through without losing a game. The contest tonight between LSU and Auburn just goes to show how tough it is. But even though it was close, LSU still pulled out the win.

One observation coming out of tonight’s game: the two quarterback game-plan is not working anymore, and with Matt Flynn back in shape it’s also no longer necessary. Ryan Perrilloux pretty much stunk up the field tonight when he was in as QB. I think he’ll be a good starter for LSU next year. For now, my vote is to let Matt Flynn be the guy.

Geaux Tigers!

18 Comments

  • faimon

    No doubt the luckiest. I can’t remember ever seeing a coach consistently make decisions that any sane person would call crazy, and then having them work out for him. It’s great for LSU, but bad for my heart, I won’t make it past 45 now.

  • Jeff

    If Ohio State played the same schedule that LSU plays they would be in the SEC. . .come on surely you can do better than that!

    Geaux Bucks!

  • micah

    if i’m reading this correctly, and i’d like to think that i am, the SEC has a pretty good record against non-SEC teams:

    usc 3-0
    fla 3-0
    ga 3-0
    ken 4-0
    ten 2-1
    van 2-0
    east 17-1

    lsu 3-0
    ala 2-1
    aub 2-1
    ark 3-0
    msu 3-1
    mis 2-1
    west 15-3

    total 32-4

    but is that really a fair judge of toughness or mediocrity? (link)

  • Jason

    USC-LA Lafayette, South Carolina State (who?), North Carolina (by 6 pts)
    FLA (2-0)-Western Kentucky, Troy
    GA (2-0) – Okie State (quality), Western Carolina (who?)
    KEN – Eastern Kentucky (who?), Kent (?), Louisville (quality), Florida Atlantic (?)
    TEN – Southern Miss, Arkansas State, Cal (quality loss)
    VAN – Richmond (who?), Eastern Michigan (not so much)

    East (15-1 actually)

    LSU – VT (quality), Middle Tennessee (yeah right), Tulane (not supposed to be close, but was)
    ALA – Western Carolina (who again?), Fla State (quality), Houston (um, no)
    AUB – Kansas State (quality), South Florida (quality loss), New Mexico State (come on)
    ARK – Troy, North Texas (yeah right), Chattanooga (are you serious?)
    MSU – Tulane, Gardner-Webb (huh?), UAB (not sure about this one), WVU (quality loss)
    MISS- Memphis (border-line), Missouri (quality loss), La Tech (doesn’t cut it)

    West (15-3)

    Wins that actually matter (Quality Wins) = 8 (that’s being generous and giving Tulane & NC as a quality wins, 5 is more realistic)
    Losses to real teams (Quality Losses) = 4 (these are teams that could be bragged about beating, if successful).

    Before we present overwhelming numbers for non-conference schedules, its probably prudent to look at who those wins were against.
    It’s also important to actually post the right non-conf records for FLA & GA (2-0 not 3-0).

    BCS 6-4
    IA 23-4
    IAA 7-0

  • D.J. Williams

    Nice breakdown, Jason. Way to let the numbers do the talking. Yes, the SEC is a good football conference. But are they that much better than everybody else? Hardly. The deck in college football is less stacked than ever before, which is why picking just two teams (based on the opinions of sportswriters and computer programs) to get a shot at the national championship seems sillier every day. It wouldn’t suprise me for nobody to go undefeated, which would be great. That would do nothing but publicize the futility of the BCS as the pundits scramble to declare which one-loss teams are “deserving.” In college basketball (and every other sport on the planet) even little SW Rhode Island A&M Tech starts the season with the dream that they could make the tournament and from there, who knows? In football, an amazing kid like Colt Brennan and Hawaii open this season knowing they could be good, they could go undefeated, but they have absolutly no chance at a national championship. It is impossible. Give us a playoff, and give ’em a chance. Until then, go anybody who makes the BCS look silly!

  • Billy

    Does anybody else realize the BCS has gotten it right the past few years? The controversy last year was over Florida being selected into the National Championship Game instead of Michigan. Florida destroys Ohio St. and Michigan gets spanked by USC. In 04-05 the controversy was over Texas getting an at-large selection and California being left out. Texas beats Michigan in the Rose Bowl and California get blown out by a mediocre Texas Tech team!

  • micah

    my mistake on misreading the florida and georgia records. i stand corrected that the sec has fared 30-4 against non-conference opponents. and i like the analysis, but i’m still not convinced that the sec is not tough nor anything near mediocre. a few thoughts and then i’ll shut up.

    1. total record is meaningless because it incorporates intraconference records (which can only be even).

    2. non-conference records appear unreliable because they don’t take into account the opponent played? i can’t really argue for or against that, but it’s not an entirely useless measure. hawaii and usc have faced any team rated top-50 by jeff sagarin but they still rest quite high in the bcs. boston college and kansas must prove their mettle, but 7 wins each is nothing laughable.

    3. it should be noted that 6-4 against quality opponents, despite being a short-term trend, is not a poor result. that trend translates to 97 wins in baseball, 49 in basketball or hockey (though the hockey number is unnatural), and nigh 10 in the nfl. all of those figures are significant and likely to yield a playoff appearance. 6-4 is a small sample but not an insignificant difference.

    4. of the games mentioned above only one (fsu beating alabama) has a lower-ranked team winning. the polls are a sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy, but this consistency (9 of 10 times the higher-ranked team prevails) seems to indicate that the current poll rankings aren’t wholly inaccurate.

    5. of the 25 ranked teams 7 are from the sec in both the ap and coaches’ poll. at least one more team received votes in each poll. that’s 58% of the league top-25 ranked.

    6. if you don’t like the human factor, jeff sagarin ranks the teams similarly and ranks the sec as the top conference.

    7. if you don’t like either system, you probably would prefer a playoff system. the bcs, with some tweaking, has produced good championship matchups. but have these been the best? or toughest? or just mediocre bcs matchups? who’s to say that usc wouldn’t have defeated florida last year? or at least they may have been a better match than ohio state? in any case, playing an entire season (which for many teams is a mere 12 games or 10% of the total field) to gain a spot in the top-12 is much more reasonable than playing an entire season to gain a spot in the top 2. hawaii could go undefeated by playing no single team ranked in the top half of the field. does that team deserve one of two chances to win the championship? not at all. that’s not fair. but i’d easily give them one of the 12 playoff spots.

    but calling the sec mediocre? if that’s founded on anything at all, it’s pure emotion or bias. reason can only lead you to reject that notion.

  • Jason

    I don’t think anyone has called the SEC mediocre, yet. I posed it as a question. I was just making the point that you can’t throw up non-conference record as an indication of strength, when 72% of the nonconference schedule are non-BCS league schools.

    But in this day’s college football (or NFL even), being the strongest conference still might translate to mediocrity.

  • Michael

    to people who do not think the SEC is the best conference in football, please do not make any more comments out of your ignorance. It is the depth of the conference that makes it so strong. Not just one or two teams. I hate to say this but the closest conference to the SEC is the Pac 10 because at least they have some depth now. 2 Big 10 teams lost home games to Division 1-AA schools.

    SEC schools are built on speed and defense. The one team that has not played well out of conference this year Tennessee has a suspect Defense (exposed by Alabama, Florida and California)

    Sure Alabama lost to FSU and Auburn lost to S. Fla. (but both were narrow wins for the other schools and far from blow outs) and Auburn was missing one of their top players in the game.

    I hope Ohio State wins out and BC drops a game so LSU can repeat the beating that the Florida Gators but on OSU last year.

    SEC stands for Secures Every Championship.

  • D.J. Williams

    Micah,

    Comment #7 was perfect (7…perfect…coincidence? Yes, probably). I’m not saying Hawaii deserves to be #1 or #2, but I am saying we need a system where they’re not mathematically eliminated from contention before they report to training camp.

    Billy,

    Has the BCS gotten decent championship matchups the last couple years? Perhaps. Has it improved on the old setup? Certainly. Is breaking my finger better than getting shot in the kneecap? You bet. Doesn’t mean its a good thing. Look at every other college and professional (even other divisions of college football) sports championship formula on the planet. One of these things is not like the other…

  • micah

    DJ, I wish I were that clever. Denny, no passion? Well, I like to keep my passion checked by reason, but reason alone wouldn’t have me still a Saints fan so passion must be hidden somewhere in the deep, dark, recesses of my cold, calculating soul.

Leave a Reply to Denny BurkCancel reply