WORSHAM: On the Ball
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| View from sidelines of LSU-Florida was a frightening one
By CODY WORSHAM
Tiger Rag Editor
For my first game as Tiger Rag editor, I pulled a Steve Kragthorpe and made the move from the booth to the field.
Of course, in Kragthorpe’s case, he wanted to be on the sideline to provide support to junior quarterback Zach Mettenberger. He came down to the field with a clipboard, but I brought something else: a camera.
That’s right, faithful readers, your new editor is something of a sports photographer, too. With my humble equipment, I forfeited my formal attire and customary seat in the press box for a pair of shorts, a green (and certainly not sweat proof) arm band, and 30 pounds of photography gear.
The results included a few very good photographs, many more awful ones, and a scheduled trip to the dermatologist for a gear bag-induced rash on my chest (no photos of that, be assured, but, to be honest, it looks like I just started a cycle of steroids). But the biggest takeways I brought back to Baton Rouge from a game on the sidelines were particular to this 2012 LSU football team.
On the sidelines, you see both more and less than you do from the press box. Up there, you get an eagle’s eye view of the game. The whole thing is crystal clear, ready to be transferred from brain cells to computer files and into the mass media for circulation. You see big picture, which is good for a journalist, because we deal in big picture ideas more often than not.
On the field, however, it’s an entirely different ball game. Sure, you miss a lot - I couldn’t tell you how often Florida stacked the box or when Zach Mettenberger missed an open receiver. I’ll have to review film for that. Instead, you get a much closer look at the game - and I’m not speaking in terms of aesthetics. As a photographer, you see the game as intimately as you can see it without playing in it - perhaps even more so, since your mind is free to simply observe.
You can listen, for example, to what the players are saying, or when their thoughts are elsewhere, like Russell Shepard yelling to his teammates before the game to “Forget Towson! Now it’s time to play real football.”
Down there, you can see what the players are seeing, like the incredible hunger in Kevin Minter’s eyes. For all the ground he covers, the guy never makes a sound on the football field. His communication , like his game, is all physical. While other players talk trash to the opposing team or argue with their teammates, Minter remains a silent assassin, letting his 20 tackles and leadership do all the talking for him.
You can also see how Les Miles communicates with his young players: like a teacher, always correcting. When Vadal Alexander missed an assignment on the Tigers’ third drive of the game, it was Miles who pulled him aside to indicate his responsibility was the five technique, not the inside man.
Even through the camera lens, you can see how physical SEC football is, where even a behemoth of Bennie Logan’s stature takes a beating not even Bane could handle, or where a standout recruit like Ronnie Fiest simply isn’t physically ready to hold the fort down at middle linebacker for LSU.
From the field, you can also hear what the players hear: 90,000 screaming Florida fans whose sole objective is to get inside their heads. Most of us do our jobs in front of no one, or at the least a handful of coworkers who aren’t yelling obscenities at us or telling us what they did with our mothers last night.
LSU’s football players aren’t most of us, and they hear all of those things - and worse.
With a telephoto lens, you can get closer to the players than anyone who is not in uniform. You can see the pain in Josh Williford’s eyes: not the pain of an injury, but the pain that of knowing he won’t return to the playing field today to do battle beside his teammates.
You can also see how Zach Mettenberger’s eyes aren’t the same joking, casual eyes of a Monday media session, but instead are trying their best to hide the fear of failing in front of the entire world.
But, to be fair, Mettenberger’s eyes don’t hold an exclusive right to that look. It was everywhere, with a few exceptions like Minter and Eric Reid, among others.
For the first time, I saw from the field just how terrified LSU was against Florida.
Don’t get me wrong: it wasn’t a fear you or I are like to know. It was nothing like a fear of physical dominance; LSU’s athletes are as intimidating as Florida’s, if not more. Nor was the look of fear one relating to the size or sounds of Florida’s crowd, which seemed more of a distraction (a deafening one, of course) than a cause for trembling.
No, this was a more existential sort of fear, a fear you can only know if you’ve been exposed in front of tens of thousands in front of you and millions on television.
It was the fear of being found out; of having your true identity revealed to not just millions of strangers, but - worst of all - to yourself.
It was a look that spread throughout the LSU squad, but it started - and ended - with Les Miles. The same guy who stared down Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow so fearlessly five years ago in Tiger Stadium looked a shell of himself Saturday - a timid, confused spectator.
Maybe it was 2008 that got Les, the year that his risk-taking cost him a quarterback in Jarrett Lee, who never really recovered from the burden Miles placed on him that season. Or maybe it was Nick Saban on January 9.
Whatever it was, Miles isn’t the same old Miles. He’s not fearless, not anymore.
And for LSU fans, that’s a scary thought.
Cody: Good article from a different perspective. I have said all along that something has changed. There is no killer instinct, there is no fearlessness (on offense), it just looks like chaos, confusion and timidness on the sidelines. It looks like a team with no motivation, leadership or game plan. I think it ALL is on Miles and his stubborness and arrogance.
I disagree, though, that this team has been exposed, my belief is that Les Miles has been exposed as a average coach, at best. Talent has covered many of his flaws, now is the time to show your elite coaching prowess…………Miles has nothing.
Wow,
I hope to never read anything you write ever again.
The very lucky Les Miles got himself hired as the LSU head football coach at LSU. Taking over from all the blue chip recruits that Nick Saban left him. After losing 2 football game that LSU should have won in 2007, Les Miles went on to win a BCS National Championship. Because the rest of the college football teams that year wanted to keep losing also. Now after all those lucky bounce of the football. The LSU fighting tiger football fans are indeed stuck. This guy who can’t coach and is still collecting $4 million dollars a year. He is not worried what we think about him at all. Les Miles said that this LSU offense is just fine.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWXDjiKVs2Uless
@Brent: I think the players deserve as much flak as Miles for the offensive issues. Coaches are supposed to put their players in good positions, and Stud/Miles did that early and often Saturday. But as the players continued to show they weren’t capable of executing the game plan, Miles/Stud (wrongly) went into a shell and tried to win with defense and special teams. It cost them the game.
@Gumbo: I don’t know that I disagree with Miles as far as the plan goes. The players just have to stop dropping passes, use proper technique on the line, quit missing assignments. I still think they are capable of fixing those issues.
Now, if they continue to make those mistakes, Miles has to change the plan. Maybe it’s time now, but, like him, I don’t think it’s that time yet. Not with SC coming to town.
LSU showed they could execute against UW. They need to show they can do it vs. the SEC.
Cody: I hear what you are saying, it’s not about the X’s and O’s but the Pete and Joe’s. But, come on man, the play calling, motivation, discipline, the desire to be the best is simply not there. And that is all on the coaches. When you get the ball on the opponents 7 yard line, 1st and goal and end up 4th and goal from the 5. That was not on the players, that was just pitiful play calling. A jump pass from 10 yards out DOESN’T WORK. Garbage.
BTW, tell Stud that the TB toss up the middle doesn’t work! A TB sweep on 3rd and 24 doesn’t work. We have given up on trying to make first downs, we just try to put our punter in a better punting situation. Pathetic message that sends to the players.
Wasted in a fight that they can’t win because of their leader who is a blind man. In a war that should not have been fought. Is not my idea of a good leader in fierce contact sports, or war. Les Miles can’t coach. How would you like to run as hard as you can into a stacked deck?
Look…this is not a sudden panic cry, as a result of losing one game. LSU fans must be befuddled why the teachers of the offense and QB are still employed! I’ve been preaching and not comprehending, the reason we failed to get another Offensive Coordinator and QB coach during the entire off season. I understand injuries have hindered our O-line, but we have 4-5 star youngin’s who appear to be lethargic when filling in. Mistake after mistake, whether it be an O-lineman or a tailback…it repeatedly occurs…not even speaking of the drop balls, penalties, and turnovers which is the direct result of Les being a “Player’s Coach” = No Discipline or taking responsibility for one’s actions or lack of. Am I the only one that feels super frustrated and would like to take over being Les just for a sec during a game, simply to express some anger, dedication, and just maybe grab the face mask of the player who caused the error and ‘give him the business’! But no…Les simply continues to pace on the sideline as if he has everything under control, looking befuddled as his QB, quizzing Coach Stud’s calls via the headsets, when in reality, Les knows the play call beforehand as it come in, and could have easily vetoed it for a different play, if he really wanted to. Coach Stud’s miserable attempts to run the entire Offense for the past 1.5 yrs, has developed 3 significant negative factors that have been hindering our team, which in the past, was able to conceal hindrances with escaped victories. Yet their vulnerabilities have been slowly revealed and quite evident to all aware fans. First, the O-line is only getting progressively worse against below-average competition, since his departure of full time duties (even in calculating all the injuries). Secondly, Coach Stud is simply an unproductive OC and his lack of experience play calling in the ‘big boys’ league, is quite evident…sad cuz all the top notch players we got are going to waste. Lastly, if our AD fails to terminate Stud and KRAPthorpe at the end of the season, who will? Les is content with Coach Stud being OC. Les enjoys being able to have control over Stud and must enjoy making the final decisions, without directly being solely blamed for it. May I ask….What makes people think our offense would be any different from last year? Only way that could have occurred is if we had obtained a superstar QB, ala Tebow, Young, or Cam and Hamberger the ‘Messiah’ is FAR from that, and they have known this, for over a year now! It doesn’t take Rocket Scientists to comprehend the reason there were no ‘Messiah Sitings’ last year during the big games, that our other two geniuses of Qb’s, were perhaps struggling in. KRAPthorpe knew during the Nat’l Champ Game, that the Messiah’s turtle crawling, what appears to be a 1.5-step drop back, lack of pocket pressure awareness, and 10 sec delivery time it takes for him to throw the ball, would have been a disaster against Bama’s consistent and deadly pass rush. Speaking of KRAPthorpe, is it me or does all of his ‘trainees’ completely lack a sense of pocket-pressure awareness? At least, JJ ran from it at times. Has anyone else also seen, at least 3 pictures of Hamberger, closing his eyes well, before even being hit? So you tell me, what is the reason Coach Stud and KRAPthorpe are still employed? 11-1 and Les’s controlling desires are the only answers I can come up with! It’s been revealed, and now the long term results will be a side-show and very long Sat. Night’s for us fans, if change is does not come soon! Just saying…………
KawnsorndFAN: Well said. Miles has consistenly wasted our talent on offense: Trindon Holiday & Russell Sheppard are prime examples. Miles is apparently satisfied with the offensive scheme and nothing will change. That in itself is just hilarious and solidifies my position that Miles is pitiful offensive coach with absolutely no imagination. I’m thinking SC beats the crap out of us on Saturday night. If they can stop our devastating TB toss up the middle they may have a chance. What a joke this offense is…………