Good...Bad

Good...UAB, I like that little dragon on the helmet

Bad…LSU

Good…South Carolina, Pittsburgh and North Carolina State are a combined 12-0

Bad…Alabama and Penn State are a combined 2-7

Good…Melissa Stark

Even Better…Jill Arrington

Good…Jeff Smoker, 4^th and 10, game on the line, no problem. The freshman quarterback threw a 68-yard game winning touchdown pass to Herb Haygood with only 1:48 left.

Bad…Josh Booty, 1^st and 10 with a chance to win the game. Let me throw another interception.

Good…Michigan State gets a gutsy 27-21 victory over Notre Dame.

Bad…Penn State stinks. I think even LSU could give them a run for their money.

Good…Still in the hunt, Nebraska, FSU, K-State, Clemson, Florida, Ohio State, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Virginia Tech, Washington, Auburn and USC (both of them)

Bad…Poser material, UCLA and Wisconsin.

Good…the e-mails on the Jim Rome show. Very funny stuff.

Bad…the callers on the Jim Rome show. Very bad stuff.

Good…The Dolphins win again.

Bad…Da Saints.

Good…The Saint Louis Rams may be the most talented offensive team ever assembled. Those dudes are AWESOME.

Bad… Saints Special Teams are anything but special.

Good…Miller Lite

Bad…Schlitz

Good…Top QB’s, Woody Danzler (Clemson), Chris Weinke (FSU) and Michael Vick VaTech)

Also Good…Top RB’s, Michael Bennett (Wisconsin), the A-Train Anthony Thomas (Michigan) and LaDanian Tomlinson (TCU)

Good…Alice in Chains and 311

Bad…N’Sync and the Backstreet Boys

Good…Drew Brees, 409 yards passing and 88 yards rushing with 3 TD’s

Bad…Josh Booty, hell, I’ve cracked on that clown too much as it is…..

The Best…Tomorrow is always another day. No matter how bad yesterday was, today brings new hope. We can put the mistakes of the past behind us and move on to better days, hopefully so much the wiser. The sun still came up on Sunday; my paper was thrown in my carport and my dogs were barking as loud as ever. (Bad Maggie!!) The LSU football team, the LSU fans (especially) and everyone else need to keep that in mind. It’s only a game, a game LSU will eventually play well. Let’s just hope sooner rather than later. This goes for Josh Booty too. I mean, it can’t get worse…can it?

The Worst…Keyshawn Johnson, dude is a total loser. It’s one thing to run smack at someone, it’s another thing to make it a personal mission to insult another player and coach any chance you get. Just another example of a classless and immature NFL millionaire. Fortunately the Jets won he was shut down. Let’s hope he shuts up as well.

Push the Panic Button. NOW!!!

That’s right, push that panic button with all due haste. Shades of the worst of Curley Hallman and the death knell game of Gerry DiNardo come to mind when thinking of this past weekend. Let’s break it down. Not that it makes me feel any better to actually dig into that ugly game, but there were some positives.

The defense played well. They gave up only 13 points and 6 of those came off LSU turnovers. Given the offense turned it over SIX times, the defense was stout. UAB only gained 187 yards in total offense.

I thought the pass protection was decent for the most part. Booty was only sacked once.

However, the negatives heavily outweighed the positives.

Josh Booty continues to struggle. I really don’t see much improvement in his game from last year. Disregarding the first game against W. Carolina, his numbers are 40-88 (45%), 574 yards (191 yards/game), 4 TD’s and 7 Int.’s. He’s on pace to throw 21 Int’s this season. Nothing is more frustrating than watching true freshmen like Jeff Smoker at Michigan State or Philip Rivers at North Carolina State make game winning plays while watching Josh Booty throw the game away. Yes some guys dropped balls, but when crunch time comes, Booty is woefully incompetent. The problem is there is evidently no one else to run this offense. Get ready Tiger fans; you will probably be forced to sit through another long and painful season.

The receivers couldn’t catch a cold. I lost track of the number of dropped passes. When Booty was actually throwing to the correct team, LSU’s receivers couldn’t hang on.

Still can’t run block very well.

John Corbello can’t hit anything beyond 35 yards. He is struggling this year hitting only 3 of 7 FG’s.

I can’t believe some of the garbage I hear on talk radio. Jimmy Ott insists that Josh Booty is an NFL quarterback. Right. Unless this guy makes some miraculous transformation, he’ll be lucky to start next year. The guy is a bad football player. No other way around it. He can’t read a defense and it seems that he may be tough to coach. I don’t consider ad-libbing to a play only he knows good decision making. Just run the play genius. Don’t think, that’s when you get in trouble.

Where does LSU go from here? Hell if I know, I count beans and sue people for a living. But I think Craig Nall may be moving up the depth chart. Not because of anything he has done, but with Booty’s poor performances, you’ve got to wonder how patient the staff is going to be with him. The WR’s coach must be a little red faced. His crew was pretty pitiful this past week. The best thing to look at this year is the development of individual players who may be able to help LSU next year. It’s obvious the woes of last year were not all caused by poor coaching. This is a very talented staff working with very average talent. Jimbo Fisher is an up and coming coach who has tutored some fine quarterbacks. This loss is very disappointing, but everyone needs to be patient.

Nick Saban will start earning that paycheck in the off season when he starts getting some studs to sign with LSU. (It’s already begun by the way.) I’m buying into the philosophy of building a program, not a team. Look at the fine Michigan State team he left, plenty of blue chip players who know how to win. That’s where LSU will be. Just be patient.

Strike up the Band

I hit the Chimes after work on Tuesday and was fortunate enough to hear the band practicing. The bands are a critical part of what makes college football special. Although everyone loves the nan-na-nan-nant of LSU, I think USC has one of the best fight songs in America.

Here is the link to download it. Fanfare, Tribute to Troy and Fight On

Just a few comments on the depth chart, it looks like Darren Parquet may get red-shirted this year as he has not been listed on the RB chart. This will give him a year to get stronger and faster, similar to the situation with Rondel Mealy. I also noticed the staff moved Norman LeJeune to Free Safety. This guy was an excellent hitter last year so I look for him to possibly get more playing time as the nickel back. I think Saban wants a BIG hitter at Strong Safety so LeJeune got caught up in a size game. Abram Booty looks to be the 4th receiver, which is about where he should be. Demetrius Hookfin evidently impressed at CB and has bumped Robert Davis as starting Right Corner. Hookfin is young and presents a big upside to LSU, as he will grow into the position, hopefully. I was really surprise Dom Davis got bumped from starting RB. He was impressive last year in the limited duty he played. Toefield was not impressive last summer in the scrimmages I saw him. Obviously the knee is healed and he is ready to run over some folks this year. I still can’t get over his stats from his junior year in high school, 2,800 yards and 45 touchdowns. That is obscene.

Don’t expect to get much out of the first game. It will give the coaches an opportunity to look at everyone but that’s about it. It will be the most beneficial to the young guys as they can get some jitters out and find some sort of comfort zone playing to a big audience. I love a blowout as much as the next guy and this should be an offensive exhibition for the Tigers.

Good...Bad

Good…Only 6 days left until LSU kicks off the 2000 football season.

Bad…. 6 long and excruciating days until LSU kicks off the 2000 football season.

Good…Michigan State is 22 in the pre season coaches poll and 25 in the AP poll

Bad…. Is Michigan State an institute for higher learning or reformatory school for wayward youngsters?

Good…Tailgating at an LSU football game

Bad…Sweating like the proverbial “whore in church” while tailgating at an LSU football game

Good…The NFL exhibition season is over

Bad…. The NFL exhibition season is a joke. Someone get rid of this crap.

Good…Bruce Snyder, head coach at Arizona State, takes the high road and boots his
starting QB off the team after an off the field incident.

Bad… Jo Pa, how can you let Casey play? He beat up a cop.

Good…The bands at college football games.

Bad… The piped in music at most NFL games.

Good…Melissa Stark

Bad… Eric “the dick” Dickerson

The Best…All of the feelings, emotion and fun that comes with the college football season. Every year millions of fans get geared up to root for their alma mater, state school or favorite program. There’s no salary cap, your favorite player won’t get traded, your team won’t move and you don’t have to pay for pre-season games when buying season tickets. You gotta love it.

The Worst...I’m not even going there.

2000 SEC Preview

Welcome back everyone. It’s good to be talking about college football again. Thanks for visiting my page. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. As I said last year, I don’t pretend to have the inside skinny on any aspect of the program. You want game recaps and the “word on the street” you’ll have to look elsewhere. All I offer are my takes on LSU and other goings on in the world of sports. Feel free to write and contribute to my page. Remember to check back at the beginning of each week to see the weekly installment of the Good…Bad list.

This will be a very balanced year in both divisions of the SEC. I can’t remember a season in recent memory where there were so many questions to be answered in the East. Is this Georgia’s year? Will Tennessee be down? Will Jesse Palmer be the answer for the Gators? What about Louisiana product Brock Berlin, where does he fit in the mix?

Although the trendy pick is Georgia, I’m going with the Gators. Three defensive coordinators in three years does not create cohesion on the defensive side of the ball. The only reason Georgia will not have a meltdown (see LSU 1998) is Quincy Carter. Although my brother-in-law disagrees, I think he is a fabulous player who can literally do it all. He is the Michael Vick of the SEC. But Carter is a much more accomplished passer and thus brings more to the table. Florida’s defense returns ten starters with loads of talent. Spurrier will have the offense back on track so I look for more consistency and productivity from them. This is how I see the East stacking up.

1. Florida
2. Georgia
3. Tennessee
4. Kentucky
5. Vanderbilt
6. South Carolina

The West is wild once again. Alabama is strong but if but they lost two key ingredients to their offensive success, Shaun Alexander and Chris Samuels. The Crimson Tide secondary is also suspect. But I still think they will win the West. Ole Miss has a great backfield but until they beat the big boys, I’ll take a ‘show me’ attitude toward their chances this year. The rest of the teams are all close and could end up in any order. I think MSU and Arkansas will be down which will allow Auburn and LSU to step up and have winning records. This is how I see the West finishing.

1. Alabama
2. Ole Miss
3. LSU
4. Auburn
5. MSU
6. Arkansas

I see the Tigers winning 6 or 7 games this year. They have three rent-a-wins. Therefore you are looking at winning 3 or 4 conference games. LSU gets Kentucky and MSU at home this year. I think LSU can win both of these games. Then they only need to steal one more game from someone to get to 6 wins and a bowl birth. But where will it come? I love these idiots on talk radio. I really do. I’ve heard people state that a victory over Auburn is a foregone conclusion. Hello…this is a team that hung 41 on us in our own house. Now we have to visit them, which may actually be a blessing. The road team has won this game every year since 1996. I like our chances against Tennessee, if the game is played at night. A night game is good for at least four points to LSU. I liken the game to LSU’s 1995 victory over Auburn. It will be sold out and the place will be hyped, as LSU will be 3-1 or even 4-0 when the Vols visit Baton Rouge for the first time since 1989. LSU won’t win in the Swamp and Bama will not lose in Tiger Stadium. Alabama has not suffered a defeat in Baton Rouge since 1969. Ridiculous. That leaves tough road games against Ole Miss and Arkansas. Everyone needs to take a deep breath and be satisfied with a bowl game. Any bowl game. However, I do think a losing season would be a major disappointment. LSU has enough talent to win at least 3 conference games, especially after come close many times last year.

Anyone who read this page last year knows I can’t stand Josh Booty and the phenomenon I call “the Cult of Booty.” These were the nimrods saying the coaches didn’t call good plays for Booty in the Arkansas game, that’s why he struggled. Right, keep telling yourself that. But it looks like he gets the job by default. Possibly with better coaching he can avoid the mistakes of last year. But believe me, if Rohan were healthy, Booty would only see the field at garbage time. OK, enough negativism.

Geaux Tigers.

Can You Feel It?

It’s there. Imperceptibly at first, but as the dog days of August wind down, the feeling gets stronger. You know what I’m talking about.

Can you feel it?

Coon Asses from around the state are experiencing the excitement that is the beginning of another LSU football campaign. Hope abounds as new head coach Nick Saban leads LSU into what will hopefully be a rebirth of LSU football glory.

Can you feel it?

From the Golden Band from Tigerland to LSU’s Golden Girls, from drunk frat boys to little old ladies, from the woman who sat next to me and read a book during an entire LSU game last season to the most rabid of foul mouthed LSU fans, they are all eagerly anticipating the upcoming season.

Can you feel it?