We implore you. This sophomoric
form of physical abuse must end.
Call or write now. Ask them to
include in the amendment jail time for photographers who take pictures of it and
television directors who show it.
Thank you.
And so the season no one will ever
forget was punctuated with LSU’s best effort, a total steamrolling of Miami 40-3
that left a nation of viewers more impressed with the Tigers’ Hester than the
Hurricanes.’
Who’da thunk it?
In the weeks leading up to the
Peach Bowl – may its name rest in peace, thanks to Chick-fil-A – the gloom and
doom surrounding the LSU football team’s followers was nothing short of morose.
Such was the reaction to the 34-14 defeat to Georgia in the
SEC Championship Game that dropped LSU to 10-2.
10 and 2!
You can slice and dice that
Georgia game all you want, but this
much is true:
LSU had a chance to rest for a few
weeks after playing 11 games in a row without a break. You can’t understate what
that meant, from healed running back Joseph Addai to an offensive line that was
dominant to a defense that was animalistic.
What’s more, any team that rips off
huge chunks of rushing yardage from the start of a game and then give its
quarterback –- and in this case, a first-time starter – the time he needs to
pass, you’ve won more than half the battle.
Joseph Addai, who simply was not
himself in November, was a running machine against Miami, rushing for 130
yards and a TD, while catching a pass for another.
Matt Flynn, who started the game by
throwing incompletions on 4 of his first 5 attempts, connected on 12 of his next
17. By game’s end, he looked like a talented veteran who would be more than
capable of taking over the job next year.
Speaking of which, in 21 years of
observing LSU athletics, from the basketball chicken pox to Brodhead and
Arnsparger at opposite ends of the table to the Title IX lawsuit defeat to
Curley Hallman to a football stadium looking like a war zone, nothing seems
weirder than coach Les Miles’ decision to leave JaMarcus Russell home for the
holidays.
Truly there must be more to that
story than we know.
Russell, LSU’s quarterback all
season, was injured against Georgia and couldn’t have played against
Miami.
But why was he not in Atlanta?
Why was he not with his team at the
ESPN Zone or the Martin Luther King National Historic Site or at the hospital to
cheer up patients or simply on the sidelines to be with his team?
Something’s completely out of
kilter here and LSU would be well served to tell us what’s really going on, not
simply that Russell stayed home so he could rehabilitate his
injuries.
It all adds up to a very
interesting quarterback situation. Russell had a great year. Flynn had a great
game. Redshirt Ryan Perrilloux is reputed to be a great player. All three will
want to start next year and the ones who don’t, well, we’ll be curious to see
how they react.
In the meantime, LSU should bask in
the season of all seasons, one we’ll never forget because of the hurricanes,
because of the Tigers’ resilience and because in the record books it was one
that will go down in school history as one of the greatest ever.
---
Lee
Feinswog
is the author of “Tales From The LSU Sidelines,” a Baton Rouge sportswriter
and host of the television show Sports Monday. Reach him at (225) 926-3256 or lee@sportsbatonrouge.com. His newest
book, “HoopDaddy” is available at www.HoopDaddy.net.