Sugar Bowl

You can see what I thought would be the deciding factor in the Sugar Bowl here. A quick quote:

Last year, I thought LSU's offensive line underperformed the same way ND's did this year. But they really pulled it together for the Peach Bowl stomping of Miami. There's certainly the possibility that ND could do the same thing and get it together. As good as LSU's back four are, there's not a secondary in the country that can't be had if you give the QB time to throw.

I think I was a bit off. Notre Dame's offensive line played much better than most people would have expected, they still only put up 14 points, and got outgained by 300 yards in the second half. I had figured that if Brady Quinn had time to throw, he could exploit mismatches against the LSU secondary. In the second half, however, LSU covered the receivers really, really well. The defensive line helped out with a little more pressure and shut down the Irish running game, but I was very impressed with the play of the back four. Jessie Daniels entering the game after being suspended for the first half probably helped.

Additional thoughts:

A lot of people are saying that LSU's receivers had a great game because of their speed advantage over the ND secondary. That could be part of the reason, though I imagine if you lined up the ND players and told them to sprint, they'd be pretty fast. A bigger reason is probably because the ND secondary just doesn't have very good players, fast or not.

The LSU offensive game plan was put entirely on the shoulders of JaMarcus Russell. It's a good thing he's got really big shoulders. He played very well and may have played himself in to a top ten selection in this year's draft. Lots of people said that this could be the last game for him and LSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher. It looked like they wanted to go out with a bang, slinging it all over the place. It was a very aggressive attack to build up a 20 point lead, then they mashed away with the running game for most of the 4th quarter.

Keiland Williams ran hard, strong, and showed good moves. I like how he manages to break tackles while being elusive at the same time. Justin Vincent played a very good and complete game to close out his career. He ran it for about six yards a pop, breaking a lot of tackles. He caught a couple of balls. He blocked well in pass protection. In short, everything he could do to help the team win.

Early Doucet is the best athlete among the big three receivers, and he showed it with a couple of big pass plays. But Dwayne Bowe is the most skilled receiver in terms of running routes and catching the ball. The slants and deep outs he has in his arsenal could serve him well in the NFL. Craig Davis is a little between the two.

Brandon LaFell has two TD catches this season. One in the first game, one in the last, both for 58 yards.

Les Miles is 22-4 as the LSU coach. That ain't too shabby.

Some people are taking this opportunity to bash Charlie Weis, saying he's not as good a coach as he thinks he is or people have been saying he is. I've already mentioned that I've completely drunk the Kool Aid on Charlie Weis. I think that next year may be a setback record-wise for Notre Dame, but by 2008 I think they'll be back in a big way. He's proven to be a very capable recruiter so far. In the next few years I'd expect to see a lot more talent on the o-line, at the skill positions, and in the secondary. Let's see what he can do with equal talent as the other coaches before we label him a bust.

Now we get to turn our attention to the stretch run of recruiting, starting with today's US Army All-American game. Let the fun begin.