TexAM is on the come up, but they won like 6 games by 4 points or less last year, or some crazy stat like that. On a neutral field, I think LSU should be favored over TexAM if the game was played today. LSU is a good football team and is quickly righting their wrongs.

And I think part of this conversation is that I believe that defenses have caught up to the whole Spread-turned-HUNH-turned-RPO stuff that's revolutionized offensive football in the last decade. And a lot of the Xs and Os stuff that's catching the defenses up is coming out of the big 12, notably from Matt Campbell/Jon Heacock at Iowa State as well as the coaches at TCU. They are dong simple, but revolutionary, things with the Star position.

I also think that Clemson showed the blueprint for defending certain things in the pass game/RPO game, by really disguising coverage well into the development of the play post-snap. This is why in the spring game, Todd Blackledge kept talking about us going hard on disguising our own coverages. (Honestly, the most info from spring games comes form the announcers conveying what the coaches told them in practice only days before. Blackledge really gave out a TON of info, if you understand why he's saying it.) Granted, teams will continue to put up yards, but defenses are learning how to get stops and turnovers, and the balance if shifting back a little bit. Also, calling illegal man downfield as played a huge part.

My point is that LSU will have a defense as good as anybody's, and I think that still matters in bigtime CFB. I think it matters a lot.