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bein all smart and whatnot… i still say i should get props for halfway making a point and for getting 80% of the spelling correct.

well, it seems a bit ridiculous to be doing resume rankings at this point so i’m assuming we are all talking projections. a lot of the ole miss hype seems to be from their hot streak at the end of last year.

but, yes, lsu isn’t “green” by any stretch. inexperience at the QB slot may have cost you a few games last year but that certainly isn’t indicative of the team across the board.

as for projections… steele has also put together his ranking of win/loss percentage for each team using last year’s records and this year’s schedules. another yardstick that you can debate but as a general measure it seems valid. a few of the more interesting items:

No. 1 Fla. St.
No. 2 Okla. St
No. 3 Texas Tech
No. 4 South Carolina
No. 6 Auburn
No. 8 Miss. St.
No. 14 Va. Tech
No. 18 Florida
No. 30 Georgia
No. 35 Texas
No. 42 Tenn.
No. 50 LSU
No. 56 USC
No. 64 Ohio St.
No. 92 Alabama

taking this as a general measure for what the perception will be come september, it seems to suggest that even if we do beat the tarnation out of everyone we face, the likelihood of getting into the MNC hunt is low. losing to VT and it’s almost certainly out the window. LSU isn’t in quite as bad a pickle but not exactly enjoying much of a margin of error either. no matter how you slice it, that’s asking a lot of two green quarterbacks.

Not that I disagree with what you are saying, but come on. How muych of a homer can you get.

And going after our QB for what reason?

i think both the O line and the QB will be decent. but it might take a few games to gel and we are starting out vs one of the best teams in the country. i’m much much more concerned about VT than i was about clemson going into last season. i think orson nailed it when he observed a stumble on our part is very possible but “Alabama will improve three thousand times from game one to game six after breaking in a new qb, and will likely look at their worst in game one.”

“McElroy is good enough to not lose us games. " no, no, no that’s JPW talk… Greg McElroy is 10x more talented than JPW. after the first couple of games of the season I bet people will be saying… why didn’t we play this guy sooner?!! JPW won the QB role by default because brodie got hurt mid-season… and don’t go quoting his records… they weren’t that hard for a 3 year starter to beat. we have an EXCELLENT QB this year!

well, a defensive overhaul suggests a ramping up period as well. and keep in mind, when you say opposing offenses figured us out you mean florida and utah. that’s a significant amount of offensive firepower and one of the key weaknesses they were exploiting was our depth, not our scheme.

Entirely new coaching staff? Saban runs the defense. Hello.

We need a shut down corner, which I belieev we have. Linebackers will be improved. D line will be among the best in the country. Secondary will lose a great player, for sure, but overall improved with depth and more quality players.

was a good hire. even with the cho-mo stach.

for starters. Defense will be better than yours. Offense? Not sure, depends on how our line gels but I think we will be fine. We have some offensive players with Julio, McCoy (senior), Ingram and Richardson coming in.

georgia tech, florida, ol miss, alabama.

who won that game again?

nov. 7 isn’t going to be exactly a “day of rest” in the kleph household.

I was too busy looking at the final score.

last time I checked… out gaining on the score board is what counts

Do you know Clint Waggoner?

i think it’s a lot less hasty than declaring ole mill will be a sure thing in 2009.

Just as talented as previous teams. First, I think you’re overrating Helms, Jean-Francois and Johnson. There probably hasn’t been a recent LSU player with as disappointing a career as Ricky Jean-Francois. He came in as a highly touted freshman, redshirted, played one year as a reserve, then was academically ineligible for all but two games of his sophomore year. Those two games were good enough for us to hype him up as an All-American candidate for the 2008 season, in which he proceeded to do jack and squat except or block a field goal against y’all. Then he left with a year of eligibility remaining. I would say the sum total of his career was two outstanding games, one blocked field goal, and a whole lot of nothing in between.

Herman Johnson was a fine player, but not great. He’ll be missed, but if his replacement at left guard is good, he won’t be missed that much. Helms was a plugger. A really good plugger, but a plugger nonetheless. He was not drafted into the NFL and was not considered a reasonable probability of being drafted. His experience will be missed, but we have 3 returning starters on the line. It’s not like we’re the only team in the country that has to replace a couple starters on the offensive line.

The other guys, I grant you, were outstanding players, but keep in mind what we have coming back. Brandon Lafell is as good as any of those receivers you mention, with the possible exception of post-Lasik Dewayne Bowe. In case you missed it, Lafell led the SEC in receptions and touchdown catches in 2008. Rahim Alem was 1st team All-SEC at defensive end despite being a backup (one of the criminally negligent decisions of the prior defensive coaching staff was not to start him). Chad Jones may be the best athlete ever to come through LSU. He’s 6’3" 230# with the speed of a cornerback. He ran down Darren McFadden from behind in 30 yards as a freshman. I’m sure you remember him:

He was terribly misused as a “rover” last year, moving from safety to nickel to linebacker. He will have one position this year and he will excel. He’s also our best left handed pitcher on our baseball team. We also have Patrick Peterson, who we expect to be one of the two or three best cornerbacks in the conference. We have Richard Dickson, who is the best receiving tight end at LSU in recent memory. We have Charles Scott, whose 2008 season was the best statistically for an LSU running back in more than a decade. Left tackle Ciron Black could well tie an NCAA record for most career starts if LSU ends up in the SECCG and if he stays healthy, and would likely have been drafted on the first day had he gone to the NFL draft this year. Joseph Barksdale has NFL potential at right tackle. Jordan Jefferson’s potential at quarterback is probably greater than anyone’s we’ve had except for Jamarcus Russell’s.

This team will NOT suffer from a deficiency in talent in this year or in any year in the foreseeable future. Last year, we had problems with our defensive scheme and in getting the right players in the right position, plus we were green in the defensive backfield, where it matters most. We aren’t green there anymore. We also had problems with quarterbacking, but we never had problems moving the ball. We had problems with turnovers, specifically interceptions, but we ALWAYS moved the ball, and all of our skill position players return except for Demetrius Byrd, who made 30-something catches.

wasn’t comparing Saban to Miles. I was comparing LSU to the rest of the CFB in relation to talent to make the point that LSU was pretty damn talented when they won 2 national titles in 4 years. So I ask you again, do you think you will be more talented than those teams?

as in suspects