October 5, 2017
LAST NON-DISTRICT MATCHUP
Denham Springs HS Football faces Ferriday HS and you can catch all of the action on Family Radio, 91.9 FM, on the net at JonFineProductions.com and on Tune In Radio App—seek WWRA. See more info below.
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TORS ON AIR FRIDAY
Sulphur HS in action tomorrow night.. See info below.
ON AIR TONIGHT
SportsCentral is on the air, tonight (Thursday), 5pm on Central First Facebook Page
See more information just below.
Don't miss the Denham Springs Fall Festival Coming on Saturday!
Join in the Family Atmosphere In Downtown Denham Springs, LA. All for you are hundreds of Vendors, Games, Kiddie Rides, great Food Booths, Antique Stores to shop, view Art Exhibits, tour the Old City Hall Exhibits and listen to Music, Music, Music at the Old Train Station. Browse the main street area, rest at the sitting areas and “people watch”, sample the fare in the great restaurants, visit our comfort stations and “pass a good time” in the safe security of FESTIVAL TIME in Denham Springs.
The Antique Village hosts two festivals a year. Over 150 vendor booths line up in the middle of Range Ave. to sell antiques, art, greenery, crafts and many more items. There is plenty of food such as jambalaya, hamburgers, funnel cakes, and much, much more. Come stroll down Mattie Street a.k.a. “Art Avenue” and hear live music at Train Station Park. All of the stores are open in the village with plenty of sales, so come and enjoy the day with us in the Antique Village.
BATON ROUGE AREA BROADCASTING SCHEDULE:
THURSDAY: SPORTSCENTRAL: 5pm—6pm: Central First Facebook Page… … Les Bueche, Sid Edwards, Frank Fresina
FRIDAY: Denham Springs HS vs Ferriday HS 6 pm Family Radio, 91.9 FM, Internet: JonFineProductions.com Tune In Radio App—seek WWRA Josh Ward Jon Fine
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SULPHUR HS FOOTBALL at Barbe HS
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
Scrolling through the scores from a Saturday of college football that consisted mostly of blowouts, I noticed something. Let’s see if you can pick up on it.
Jalen Hurts, Trace McSorley, JT Barrett, Jake Browning, Jarret Stidham, Mason Rudolph, and Lamar Jackson. These are the names of the quarterbacks of teams in the top 25 that had blowout wins.
If you have been searching all week for why LSU is where they are in college football, look no further than quarterback. Tiger fans have known this for years, and in his defense, maybe so did Les Miles.
LSU has slowed its steady decline as a program with dominant defense and great running backs for years. The one year LSU a terrible defense with co-defensive coordinators, the team had a bad season. After the first two weeks, the defense has been bad. The line is getting whipped at the point of attack. The defensive backs have have trouble playing with discipline, and have not been physical. The linebackers have been a step slow.
Most importantly, the defense cannot get off the field on 3rd or 4th down which has LSU losing time of possession to teams that play up tempo on offense. LSU has yet to find a way to take advantage of Arden Key’s presence and Rashard Lawrence’s absence has been glaring when he has been hurt. The defense is supposed to lead this team and they are not doing that.
Of course, the goal is to have a complimentary team between offense and defense. LSU has not had that in years because of one position, and that is quarterback. Before I go anything further, let me be clear that I respect the heck out of Danny Etling. That is one tough dude.
Still, LSU did not have a third down conversion against Troy’s defense. If the receiver was open, the pass was off target. If the pass was on target, it was dropped. A few other times the protection was lacking, which is another position that has been in decline over the recent years.
I would be amazed if anyone reading this article, remembers what I wrote after the college playoff when Alabama lost. I pointed to Alabama’s poor third down conversion rate and the fact they had a true freshman quarterback. So far this year Bama has converted 44% of their third downs. The Saints are a great offense yearly because they convert third downs which allows them to sustain drives.
This conclusion will be over simplistic, but here is why LSU is struggling. The opponents run the ball too well creating third and short distances, which they convert because they are controlling the line of scrimmage. On offense, LSU is inconsistent in their running game, and the passing game is not good enough to convert any third down over 5 yards.
Tiger opponents extend drives flipping the field, while LSU’s drives bog down as they consistently have to drive the length of the field. As icing on the cake against Troy, LSU turned it over giving away points the first time while costing points later on in the game.
Last week, LSU was being knocked for an “ugly” win and I said the opposite. Partly, because it had become obvious that this team is very weak in a few areas. Areas I hoped would be overshadowed by a few “star” players like Guice, Lawrence, and Key.
I don’t know when things will turn around, but I believe they will. I know LSU was going nowhere this time last year on a team loaded with experienced talent (Fournette, Adams, Key, White, Beckwith, Pocic, and others). For all the talent and experience, there was no hope for improvement on offense. There was a coaching change, and many things improved.
This year, LSU again looks to be in trouble again, but this time I can’t list as many players that will be on NFL teams next year. The short term looks bleak. But, maybe the long term does not, which is why last week I said the most important thing was that LSU continued to play Myles Brennan no matter what. The coaches number one goal should be developing Myles Brennan. I am sorry to hear there are no plans to get him in the game at Florida.
The second goal must be finding a way to get control along the defensive line.
The third goal is to get the ball to playmakers in space on offense. LSU is still one of the only schools in the country that can’t seem to find ways of accomplishing something that the rest of the country including Troy and Syracuse do on a weekly basis.
If those things happen, and LSU can get their three top NFL prospects going, there could be some better times ahead.
Thank goodness the Saints are providing some better times. If they hadn’t I think
I would have taken a sabbatical from the “Wizardry.” I am also happy I held back somewhat in the article I wrote after the Vikings loss. The main problem I had with that loss were the busted coverages in the secondary. With a larger sample size, we can fortunately conclude those mistakes were the product of the “new NFL” where the preseason does nothing to get teams ready for the regular season.
The Saints have been fortunate the last two weeks. They have played weak offenses that had a chance to jump on top on their first drives of the game. At Carolina, a bust in pass protection led to a field goal. In London, Jay Cutler’s fade route was woefully underthrown and Ken Crawley made a play. Playing with a lead in the NFL can make a huge difference.
Don’t get caught up in the hype of the Saints shutting out the Dolphins. Penalties and mistakes on offense for the Dolphins continually put them in long yardage situations. A few times those situations could be attributed to the Saints defense. Many times, it was due to poor play on the part of Miami.
To the Saints credit, the turnovers have been held down. Again, the Saints have been fortunate the last two weeks. Kuechly dropped an interception in Carolina and Miami missed a chance for a fumble recovery on a bad snap in London.
The first quarter of the season is over and there is some help on the way. Strief may be done for the year, but Armstead and Snead will be back. The coaching staff has done a great job managing the running game and protecting Brees with a banged up offensive line. I doubt the Dolphins will see as many screens the next 3 weeks as they saw from the Saints. Still, this game planning to cover for the offensive line has prevented the Saints from being able to make big plays in the play action pass.
Defensively, if the Saints avoid a string of injuries at one position, the defense should be what we hoped… average. But, with the potential to be good if the Saints are playing with a lead.
I am not confident yet, and will probably stay gun shy for a while with this team. The schedule, which looked fairly weak at the beginning of the year, suddenly looks more daunting. The Rams, Bills, and even Jets are playing well. But those games are a ways off, and injuries have a way of catching up with some teams in the NFL. The first quarter of the season is over, and next week we will look at the second quarter.
HEY REF
Well, it’s happening already in Tiger Land. Many fans are calling for heads to start rolling in Baton Rouge in the days since Troy came to town and shocked the entire football world. It seems to happen every year when the Tigers don’t play up to their potential and lose the games that should be put in the “WON” column that these so called fans start screaming for blood.
Poor coach “O”, he was the messiah to many Tiger fans and seemed to be the savior everyone had been praying for. But as it so happens when you don’t work hard enough you get your buttocks handed to you on a silver platter. But I’m not going to add my two cents or give my opinion because there are so many experts out there clicking away at their keyboards explaining the shortcomings of this most recent edition of LSU football that my few reasons are needed or expected.
One little fact that shines through all this darkness is that throwing good money after bad won’t get you a championship. LSU has had for I believe the last five or six years the highest paid assistant football coaches in the nation. I was surprised too since the vast majority of people sitting in the stands rank somewhere in the neighborhood of 46th to 48th in income. So, how can a poor state such as Louisiana afford to pay the coaches in Baton Rouge more than any other state in America?
I’m not about to try and understand how we can constantly put millions and millions of dollars into the pockets of football coaches while many in Louisiana have to go without. I’ll leave that task to the politicians since they’ve been able to sell snake oil to the citizens of this once great state and promise them everything under the sun. It’s called “prioritizing” and for the masses the number one thing at the top of their list isn’t having enough money to feed, clothe or provide decent housing for their families. Not by a long shot grasshopper! It’s more important to tailgate outside Tiger Stadium and yell “Tiger Bait” at those visiting Baton Rouge.
But what I’d like to do is to ask all those “fair-weather” fans to give the coaching staff and the players more than 30 days to prove themselves. SEC action begins this week for LSU when they travel to Florida and another team trying to stand on their two feet. What I do find entertaining is the fact both LSU and Florida will be starting former Purdue Boilermakers at the QB position.
Florida will start Austin Appleby who is filling in for the injured Luke Del Rio while LSU is going with Danny Etling. That little fact should be a huge wake up call for those making a living at recruiting the top players in the country to come down south and play for a couple of former top 20 programs. One big problem LSU has is its history of being a partying university and not one known by many to educate a young man and getting him ready for the real world outside a football stadium.
And as soon as I wrote then read that last sentence I had to stop for a minute and wonder what other schools are doing in securing top STUDENTS that also play sports to attend their university. I’m not sure but when we find those answers then maybe just maybe LSU and its “Fair weather fans” will see a top 20 ranking once again.
Till next week…
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