Hold that Tiger? Not in the Sugar Bowl

By Darrell Laurant  |   Friday, January 05, 2007  |  Comments( 1 )

College Football
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As LSU's world-famous band blared out "Tiger Rag" throughout the evening of Jan. 3, its football Tigers ran Notre Dame ragged, 40-14.

In the process, Charlie Weis' 11th-ranked Fighting Irish were exposed as a one-dimensional offensive team with a questionable defense.

Afterward, Weis found himself fielding more questions about whether he was going to return to coaching in the NFL. Instead, reporters should have been asking him how he planned to make his current team better.

There were, of course, extenuating circumstances in the Irish's ninth straight bowl loss. No. 4 LSU was, for all practical purposes, playing at home in the New Orleans Superdome, still riding a Katrina-spawned tide of emotion. DT Derek Landri, perhaps Notre Dame's best defender, went down with an injury in the second quarter.

And yet, this keeps happening -- last year, for example, the Irish gave up over 600 yards to Ohio State in a lopsided Fiesta Bowl loss. When they get on the field against another big-time team, especially in the glare of the post-season spotlight, they seem to slow down to a crawl.

It wasn't a good game for Brady Quinn's future, either. Considered hands down the top quarterback in the '07 draft prior to his senior season, he found himself starkly outplayed by LSU's monstrous JaMarcus Russell. That, plus the virtuoso performance of Hawaii's Colt Brennan in his post-season audition, may have slipped Quinn down to No. 3 on the QB list -- that is, providing juniors Russell and Brennan decide to come out.

"In the pros, they throw a lot of different things at you," said the 6-foot-6, 260-pound Russell. "If you aren't ready for that, there's no need to go."

Of course, one could argue that Quinn might have done as well as Russell with the big guy's surrounding cast. Besides a voracious defense, the Tigers have three of the best wide receivers in the country in Early Doucet, Dwayne Bowe and Craig Davis.

Notre Dame actually played well in the first half, controlling the ball for eight minutes straight at one point and forging a 14-14 tie before LSU scored a touchdown just before intermission.

After that, however, Les Miles' Tigers began going to a ground game that had eluded them most of this season, feeding the ball over and over to freshman RB Keiland Williams (107 yards, two touchdowns) and senior Justin Vincent (71 yards), as the clock ebbed away like the receding waters from the 2005 flood.

Hold that Tiger? Not on this night.

As for Notre Dame, great teams make adjustments to what the other side is doing. Either because of poor strategy or inferior talent, the Irish weren't able to do that.

And it gets worse. Besides Quinn, Weis will lose his two top wide receivers (Jeff Samardzija and Rhema McKnight), tight end John Carlson and most of the offensive line, not to mention nine of 11 starters on defense. Running back Darius Walker (125 rushing yards in the first half against LSU) will have to be the linchpin of the offense, at least until younger players develop.

LSU, by contrast, should be fine on offense even if Russell takes a hike. Backup QBs Matt Flynn and Ryan Perriloux have been chafing for playing time, and the latter is a Russell clone. Bowe and Davis are seniors, but freshman Brandon LaFell snagged a 58-yard touchdown pass from Russell in the third quarter of the Sugar Bowl and the Tigers have other speedy youngsters moving up.

The Tigers could take a hit on defense, losing All-Conference DBs LaRon Landry and Jesse Daniels to graduation and possibly junior All-American DT Glen Dorsey to the pros.

A key stat on Wednesday night was third-down conversions -- Notre Dame 3 of 10, LSU 8 of 16, most notably in the second half. The Irish defense repeatedly stopped Russell & Co. for three downs, only to see Williams scoot to the outside or Russell fire a completion over the middle.

Don't look for Charlie Weis to jump back to the pros any time soon. There's work to be done.
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