Whatchamacallit’s were some delicious candybars.

… won’t be their every-down quarterback next year, in any other year. He’s a truly elite athlete, but he’s a poor passer even by high school standards, and he won’t get that job. They may run him some sort of special package where he gets the ball, but the every-down QB will be either Hatch, Lee, or Jefferson.

And I think LaFell returns. I’m pretty sure he is a junior, so he is returning unless he goes pro early, though that might happen too. There’s a good chance, as you mentioned, that they lose RJF and Black too.

They’ve got a fair number of losses, as I expected.

The biggest losses come in the defensive front seven. Gone are Darry Beckwith, Tyson Jackson, Kirston Pittman, Marlon Favorite, and Charles Alexander, plus they lose Curtis Taylor out of the defensive backfield. Offensively, Quinn Johnson (starting fullback) is gone, as is Demetrius Byrd, and they’ll have to replace a couple of key linemen in Herman Johnson and Brett Helms (LG and C, respectively). Moreover, they do lose both the kicker and the punter, which are pretty big losses in their case because those guys were pretty productive. Colt David is the leading scorer in LSU history, and Brady Dalfrey was one of the best punters in the conference last year. By my count, that’s having to replace somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 12 out of the 24 total starting jobs.

The big concern with them is going to be the draft. Ciron Black could be a high pick, same goes for Francois, and even LaFell could be an option. They lose a pretty good number of starters anyway, and if the draft hits them hard, that’s going to much it tough in 2009.

Either way, looking at the roster, 2009 is a pretty big year for them because they will lose even more then than they will this season. Current juniors on the roster include (1) Charles Scott, (2) Keiland Williams, (3) Brandon LaFell, (4) Ciron Black, (5) Lyle Hitt, (6) Richard Dickson, (7) Trindon Holliday, (8) Chris Mitchell, (9) Harry Coleman, (10) Rahim Alem, (11) Jacob Cutrera, (12) Ricky-Jean Francois, (13) Al Woods, (14) Perry Riley, (15) Danny McCray, and (16) Chris Hawkins. All 16 of those guys are players who have started a lot the past year or so, or guys who should start as seniors in 2009, and of course all of them will not return for 2010.

When you put it all together, 2009 is looking to need to be a pretty big year for them. 2008 was a bad year at 7-5, and 2010 is probably going to be a pretty lean year yet again because they are going to lose a ton of quality seniors. As a result, you need 2009 to be a pretty big year to help bridge the gap. Otherwise, it’s three not-so-good years back-to-back-to-back.

We do have three cupcakes on the OOC schedule, no doubt about that, but Virginia Tech is back-to-back ACC champs, and they’ll probably be the favorite to win it again next year. Just having them on the schedule, in and of itself, makes it a harder OOC schedule than most of the rest of the teams in the conference.

The only two team in the conference that clearly has a tougher OOC schedule than us is Georgia, as they draw @ Oklahoma State, Arizona State, and @ Georgia Tech. You could arguably make a case for South Carolina, too, but that’s debatable. As for the rest of the conference, we have an OOC schedule just as tough, if not tougher.

Moreover, with regard to 1-AA teams, right now there are only two teams in the conference that don’t look to have a 1-AA opponent., and those are LSU and Tennessee. However, it should be noted that even so LSU still has the easiest OOC schedule in the conference — they beefed up the schedule with vaunted 0-12 Washington, plus they are playing for the Louisiana state championship against Tulane, ULL, and Louisiana Tech — and Tennessee has a game with Western Kentucky, who will be in their first full year of 1-A football.

the Bryant-esque Option Ambush. That would make for a very very retro game!