September 24, 2015
LSU BEATS THE BEAR!!
ArrestedDevelopmentMediaGuides, our EBay store, sells media guides and programs. Please visit JonFineProductions.com and click on icon to get to the store. Check out a full array of New Orleans Saints media guides and LSU media guides and programs
And, starting tonight, on auction, a 1982 LSU vs Alabama Football program. Led by Alan Risher, Dalton Hilliard and a stifling defense, the Tigers defeated the Tide 20-10 at Legion Field. This was Bear Bryant’s last year to coach the Tide. The Tigers had their best year under Jerry Stovall, eventually playing in the Orange Bowl vs Nebraska.
SPORTSCENTRAL
SportsCentral airs tonight! Steve Johnson and Sid Edwards are scheduled to be joined by Central players Gabe Brown, Mason Evans and Caleb Moore. See program information just below.
BATON ROUGE AREA BROADCASTING SCHEDULE:
Thursday, September 24: 5pm—6pm: SportsCentral… with Sid Edwards and Steve Johnson
Radio Amour 91.9… from Coach’s
Friday, September 25: 6pm: Denham Springs HS at McKinley HS
Jon Fine, Andy Duckworth
Fox Sports Radio, 1210AM, Baton Rouge
JonFineProductions.com
SportsRadio 1310 Radio, Lake Charles Programming of Interest (also heard on KEZMOnLine.com):
Friday, September 25: 6:45pm: Sulphur HS at Carencro HS
Bruce Merchant, Clopha Boudreaux
KEZM, 1310AM, Lake Charles
KEZMOnLine.com
Saturday, September 26: 9AM—10AM: All Things Football with Scott Holtzman
Monday, September 28: 8AM—10AM: The Locker Room with John Goodman and Jim Gazzolo
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
Let's get a few things out the way.
Fournette is a bull. Harris can sling it. Guice is a great change of pace back and super talented. Auburn has major issues and will probably lose 4-5 games. Coach Miles handles the heat pretty well… I know I have not worn a jacket in months.
With that out the way, I think we all realize this has the potential to be a special season for LSU after Mother Nature almost got in the way. LSU wanted to run the offense you saw against Auburn against McNeese State to be ready for the SEC opener at Mississippi State. But after cancellation, the Tigers would take no chances on the road at State. LSU survived thankfully, and now LSU gets a chance to develop from a good team to a great team.
All week people have started jumping to comparisons between this team and the 2011 team. I hate to be the downer, but due to the greatness of the 2011 team everyone needs to calm down a bit. The 2011 defense would not have played the way this defense did in the second half of the first two games. My point is not to criticize this team, only to point out that they are different teams. This one could be much better on offense, but I don't think will quite reach the level of the 2011 defense.
There are many aspects for this team improve to be a great team that is ready to win during the brutal part of the schedule in November. There is depth to develop on the offensive line, defensive line, and linebacker. The passing game looks good, but must clearly continue to develop to handle the stiff competition late in the season. As we have seen in the past, it would be nice for LSU to rack up 250 yards rushing each game and never need to throw for over 100 yards. But, it is not realistic to think that LSU won't run into a defense that slows down the running game.
Honestly, it wouldn't shock me to see Mississippi State and Auburn finish near the bottom of the SEC West with Arkansas which means LSU has yet to face its toughest competition.
Speaking of finishing near the bottom… the Saints. It is real easy to point out the problems. The Saints lose the battle at the line of scrimmage on both sides on a regular basis. Special teams is always a wash at best, and more often a source of lost field position or opportunity. The tackling on defense is suspect. The offense has become predictable enough that Lavonte David can take three steps to the line of scrimmage on play action and still get in front of a crossing wide receiver 20 yards downfield because he knows exactly what the Saints do after hard play action.
How we got to this point is simple and they have names. Junior Gallette, Jairus Byrd, and Jimmy Graham. Three players taking up huge cap dollars that don't play for the Saints. In a pass happy league, losing Keenan Lewis was the worst possible injury outside of Drew Brees. Stanley Jean-Batiste, Ronald Powell, Khari Fortt, Vinnie Sunseri, Tavon Rooks are the players in the disastrous draft of 2014 that are not on the team. PJ Williams, Garrett Grayson, and Andrus Peat are players drafted in the first three rounds this year that barely step on the field. Williams is on IR, Peat can't find a spot to play on a leaky offensive line, and Grayson was a foolish choice in a year when the Saints needed a volume of young, talented players on the field, not waiting in the wings.
So there have been an abundance of off the field mistakes in the past two years. But the problems continue. Mark Ingram is not the Saints best running back, but gets the most carries. He is consistently brought down by one tackler and by the first contact. Khiry Robinson is the more effective runner. Before the year, I thought Cam Jordan and Akiem Hicks would have to be standout performers for the Saints to be decent on defense. Jordan is noticeable on random occasions and I am fairly sure Hicks has been benched.
The buzzards are circling around the 2015 Saints before they even play their third game. Four of the next five games are against playoff teams from last year, and the fifth is against the Falcons who are playing well.
I would love to leave you with a reason for optimism, so here it is… the Dolphins lost to the Jaguars, the Seahawks, Ravens, and Colts are 0-2. Everyone (me included) is overreacting to Sunday's loss because the Bucs were horrible in week one against Tennessee. That game made everyone forget that the Bucs have a good defense.
Meanwhile, everyone is overreacting to the Saints horrific offensive performance against the Bucs. The Saints have no talent on offense? The same people saying that now were not saying that two weeks ago or this offseason. The Saints are missing Graham, Stills, and Thomas from last year. Thomas is not in the league while Robinson has played well in his spot. Stills is the 4th receiver for the Dolphins with 3 catches for 20 yards. Of course Graham is missed, but isn't it pretty clear that the Saints system more often than not makes the player rather than the other way around? The difference so far this year is the Saints have not executed, but they are much more capable than they showed against the Bucs. Turnovers and penalties have a way of making a team look terrible.
I am not arguing the season won't be a disaster. But, those complaining about the Saints overhauling the roster need to answer two questions. Why do they think the Saints would have been better than 7-9 had they made just minor changes? Is there really a difference between 4-12 and 7-9? Maybe before the Payton/Loomis era, but not in 2015.
HEY REF
As many readers of this column know all too well I really enjoy being able to pick and choose the subject matter covered here each week. I did have as my main focus for this week the continued soap opera between a certain MVP quarterback and the once mighty commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell. I’ll briefly touch upon it so that I can cover something very important that needs my utmost attention. With that said let me just say “Thank You” to those that have congratulated me for being dead on in predicting the outcome of a certain court case and the lifting of a four game suspension. But what we all need to realize is “it ain’t over”!
Yes, I know the ruling made by Judge Richard Berman seems to be the final word but the NFL has decided to appeal and the case will continue its journey through our overcrowded legal system. The advisors at Goodell’s New York offices contend they must continue this battle because the controversy “threatens the league’s integrity”. Now that’s laughable since we all know the NFL has no integrity what so ever.
The league is comprised of women haters, child abusers, drug addicts and even a few murderers sprinkled in here and there. So in my book the word INTEGRITY was thrown out long ago and just doesn’t fit anymore in an organization as inept as the NFL. I compare Brady-gate to an entire class of first graders being punished and not allowed to go out to recess because one student wouldn’t behave.
Remember football is a team sport so if rules were broken then the entire team should be punished and not just the one player whose name will grab the biggest headlines. I just don’t understand how these million dollar lawyers told Goodell that hearsay will win the day and the court will allow it to be used as real evidence. Again, it’s what can be proved in court and about the only thing I see as being proved is that the NFL needs to hire some real lawyers.
Now I’d like to take a quick look into a certain situation I found myself in during last Friday night’s game in Ponchatoula. For this game I was assigned to the visitor’s sideline instead of my normal haunt which is running up and down on the home team’s side of the field. One question I’m asked is “do the officials talk about the coaches and or teams before each game”? The answer of course is “yes” as every crew of officials review rules and certain situations that may come up during that night’s contest.
This game was nothing special or I should say I didn’t think it would be special. But as we went through our normal discussion on our mechanics which everybody knows is how and where each of us should be during routine plays I was asked by our referee if I had ever worked a game with this certain coach that’ll be on my sideline. My answer was “no” but after nearly 25 years of calling football games in Louisiana I felt I was ready for anything.
To be honest I never thought I’d be as wrong as I was that night. And without going into much detail the ONLY thing that really needs to be said is this coach is one of the main reasons why many officials retire and get out of the profession. I must count myself as one who also had decided it just isn’t worth it anymore to wear the stripes because of the pure unprofessional conduct this head coach displayed for all to see and hear.
And it just wasn’t the head coach that should get away from coaching but his entire staff. Never and I mean NEVER in 25 years had an entire staff behaved so atrociously that it bordered on complete bedlam. They acted as though they’d all escaped from an insane asylum. I wish I could say this is the exception to the rule but I see it happening more often as the pressure to win and the possibility of losing their jobs has caused an epidemic of disgusting behavior by the very people we entrust with our children.
It’s time for the LHSAA to come down hard on coaches that demonstrate this type of behavior. The coaches are demanding more from the officials as they should but on the flip side of the coin everyone should demand much more from those that are called “COACH”!
Till next week…
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