GUILBEAU: SEC Behind the Scenes
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| Beyond all the spin, LSU’s mass exodus of underclassmen hurts program
By GLENN GUILBEAU
Tiger Rag Featured Columnist
BATON ROUGE - No matter how you look at the early departure of 10 underclassmen from the 2012 LSU football team, particularly the five not expected to go until the third round or later, it is not good news.
Yes, underclassmen not expected to get selected until the third round or later from all schools are going more and more because of the NFL’s new collective bargaining agreement that was enacted before the 2012 draft. And it is a sign of just how well LSU coach Les Miles has consistently recruited extremely well.
But there has been so much positive spin from Miles as well as from his many defenders and apologists that it often sounds like that it was a good and sensible thing for all of them to leave. Such a good thing that I’m surprised more of LSU’s juniors like Zach Mettenberger and Alfred Blue and Lamin Barrow and Craig Loston and Tahj Jones and Kadron Boone and James
Wright did not leave, too.
Some of the players left early because they need the money. Some of the players who stayed also need the money. If they’re that good, the money will be there next year. I understand Chris Faulk’s concern about a second injury. He has the best argument of the LSU juniors not expected to go in the first two rounds. But if everyone used that argument, no one would stay in college.
I wonder if the agents had enough time to get to LSU’s juniors who stayed. The reasons for those to leave would have made no less sense than they did for Faulk and Michael Ford and Spencer Ware and Tharold Simon and Brad Wing. Those are the five not expected to go until the third round at the most likely earliest and probably more like the fifth for Ford and Wing.
No, the sky has not fallen, but at the same time the sun is also not as bright for the LSU program as it could have been had some of these players stayed.
I recently read how the 10 departures - 11 if you count Tyrann Mathieu (which I don’t because he never played in the 2012 season) - was not such a bad thing because when those players were recruited and signed they were considered probabilities to enter the NFL Draft a year early. True, but if every junior that was capable of getting drafted in rounds three through seven left, then there would barely any juniors in all of college football.
Just because you can does not mean you should. Sometimes better things come to those who wait and get better and get smarter. Ford, Simon and Faulk clearly had room to improve before entering the NFL. Ford could have gotten more playing time in the 2013 season with Ware gone. Simon possibly could have learned how to cover better and not have his last game be that How Not-To-Cover guide he displayed against Clemson. Faulk needed to show in pre-NFL games that he is healthy again and put forth some game film from something beyond 2011.
Ware and Simon, by the way, could also clean their spotty disciplinary records with another year of good behavior.
In addition, there is no guarantee Ford, Simon and Faulk will not get cut, regardless of what their agent may have said. NFL front offices lose far less sweat over cutting guys picked in the last five rounds than the first two.
Some of these middle-to-late-round-projected LSU guys are leaving partly because they hate school. NFL GMs, coaches and personnel gurus have been frowning on this in recent decades and years more than ever. If you don’t want to learn, are too lazy to try to learn or have other issues learning, you’re in trouble in today’s NFL. College is the best place to find the answers to those issues.
Any underclassmen anywhere who struggle in school for whatever reason need to hang up with their agent and watch the Jimmy Johnson episode of “A Football Life” on the NFL Network. In it, Johnson and New England coach Bill Belichick are fishing off the Florida coast when Johnson explains his No. 1factor in drafting a player.
“Hit me in the head with a hammer the next time I take a dumb guy,” Johnson said.
“Yeah,” Belichick says. “You taught me that well. You can’t fix that.”
I also read recently that LSU fans should not be upset about the 10 early departures because another group of great players is due in on signing day on Feb. 6. This is true, too, but it is also true when a program does not lose nearly a dozen underclassmen to the draft. Uh, I’m not a mathematician, but with new and talented players coming in, your team would be that much better if some more of the underclassmen stayed. Right?
Regardless of how anyone spins it, the fact is the LSU program is a victim of the largest mass exodus of underclassmen from one school in college football history. And it will not help the team. The team may still be very good in 2013, but it will not be as good as it could have been. It may just be missing a “player here and there” from this group, but look at the 2012 season. It missed the BCS title game by a “play here and there.”
Had Faulk returned to LSU in full health, it would have meant the Tigers would have returned one of the better offensive lines in the SEC. Now it will not. Had either Ware or Ford returned, it would mean LSU would once again have the deepest and most versatile tailback unit in the nation. That unit will still be very good, and Jeremy Hill was going to be the main man anyway. But it will not be as good as it could have been.
Had Simon returned and learned how to cover better, he could be one of the few voices of experience in the secondary.
But maybe all these guys are replaceable. Maybe LSU will have better players in the place of the five projected to go from the third to later rounds. But even if that does happen, it still makes one wonder where the word “team” came into play in the plans of Faulk, Ware, Simon, Ford and Wing and their agents.
Sounds like they each were just looking out for themselves.
Where is LSU’s Barrett Jones?
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Glenn Guilbeau covers LSU athletics for the Gannett News Service. He attended LSU before graduating from Missouri Journalism. Reach him at gguilbeau@gannett.com.
I feel like the LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva, and head football coach Les Miles is simply full of bull. That they have been struggling to explain to us why the LSU college football program has slipped back into the SEC pack. Now Alabama is the # 1 big time SEC football program. Just because Nick Saban has out recruited, and out coached Les Miles and the LSU football program coaching staff.
I now feel like LSU is second place to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and I guess pretty soon, even South Carolina. So please quit the bull talk. Because I really now don’t believe them, or you, that keep writing to the contrary. “That the guys running our LSU football program are good managers.” Les Miles has failed to make LSU the # 1 football program that we the LSU football fans wanted. Even after he had a head start on the rest of the SEC, back when he took over the LSU football team in 2005. Les Miles can’t coach. And you know it. You guys are just selling a bunch of bull talk, and I am very tired of reading about it?
And I wish TigerGumbo would find something new to say instead of the same old bull he spouts all the time.
Glenn:
In your opinion, what are the odds of LSU making any coaching changes? Why do you think Luke Muncie and the other player just recently left the team? Do you really feel the players that are leaving early are doing so ONLY for monetary reasons? BE HONEST! Do you really feel like LSU is a solid, well coached, cohesive unit?
Just interested to hear your take on “the state of LSU football”.
I agree with Gerry. It is time for some of the LSU fans and Tiger Rag readers to grow up. What would ANY mature, knowledgeable fan expect Miles to say publically about the departures? If a CEO of a coproration went to the press after his company lost money in a quarter and said ….” our earnings are down … I don’t see why anyone would want to come to our company and buy stock.” If a CEO did this …. the Board would fire him.
What does anyone expect Miles to say with respect to the departures?
O.K., Tiger Gumbo, you said (after the Alabama game) that maybe you should be coaching LSU. So, what would you say at your press conference (as LSU coach) say after the departures are announced?? Here is it … from Tiger Gumbo..” Well a lot of players have left. Our team is in disarray. If I were one of you 4 star recruits … I would not come here. We cannot teach you anything to improve your skills …. and we will not win any games next year. So, you should go somewhere else.”
Go for it, Tiger Gumbo. Write your press release. We are in the middle of recruiting. What would you say? What would Saban say … since he appears to be your idea of perfect coach. Oh, by the way …. you can give us your ….”the administration did not do enough to keep Saban here ” speach again.
Let me see, how can I rebuff the negativity in the quickest fashion? Ok, we were one play away from playing for the SEC championship and therefore the National Championship….for the second year in a row!!!!! If Mills does as instructed and simply stands there in front of Yeldon, instead of taking it upon himself to blitz the qb and leave Yeldon wide open, good chance we win that game and are in the SEC championship game…one play. All Yeldon did was stand there and turn around. Mills was supposed to stand there with him and force McCarron to simply throw the ball into the dirt. Play over, no TD, maybe they get a field goal to tie, but we ALL know, that with bama, that sure as heck aint a given. Just one play between loss and victory and yet, you two yahoos would instead have us believe the program is dying, fading into the distance, …disaster all around.
Unbelievable, guys, you are just unbelievable in your lack of knowledge and objectivity.
Les Miles can’t coach. (AEK) From the horse’s mouth:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1017793-alabama-beats-lsu-les-miles-made-too-many-coaching-blunders “We felt like with Jordan Jefferson’s speed and ability to move and get out of the rush, it was fair that he finish the game,” Miles said. “As much as I would have liked to put Jarrett (Lee) in, I felt like it would be unfair to him with the pass rush he would sustain.”
Brian Coody, if you really believe this team was one play away from going to the NC game you need to go to detox or something. This was one of the worst coached teams in LSU history. You can contiue to make excuses for Miles & crew but the facts can’t be disputed. The lack of an offensive scheme, the lack of discipline, the unbelieveable inconsistency from week to week, the penalties, the lack of a burning desire to win EVERY WEEK, etc., etc. is a DIRECT REFLECTION on the coaching staff, expecially Miles. If you think finishing in the bottom third of the nation for the last 5 years in total offense, passing ypg &total ypg is OK then, by all means, this program is in great shape! Great job Miles!
Well, ha ha ha. The thing about recruiting is that you need to getter better football players then your opponents. What the chances are that you recruit the best football players in America are? Multiplied by thousand of college football program across our country. And you begin to get a realistic picture of just what your favorite college football is. The better winning football programs are rolling along on top of the recruiting game, because that is their history of doing just that.
Now the SEC has a dynasty going on in the presents of Alabama. Les Miles help put Nick Saban into that rare reality by not being a good college football coach. If Les Miles was worth his salt, LSU would have beat Nick Saban high ambitions back. And simply put the shoe on the other guys foot. Namely Nick Saban. But the truth won out. And Saban is flying high and LSU at best is threading water.
Wow, are you kidding yourself on purpose?
Well, I like what you people are saying. I agree to most of it. I would just like to say. Defense wins Champianships but dog gone it we have to have a OFFENSE. Ithink we need to HANG the offensive coordinator instead of firing him