TDlurker

Yes, but this post has way too much of a Jerry Stoval vibe.

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Skip was made AD so that fans would more easily accept seat licensing for the first time in school history.

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This. For those of you who were too young to be a paying ticket holder when Saban came on board…. THIS!
You have no idea what the mentality was like. You have no idea how much change went into that, from the AD, down through the paying fan base itself. LSU made Saban, not the other way around.

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Skip had a lot to do with it but Saban was the one that demanded that we upgrade our facilities. Without his push for the football ops, upgrades to the old field armory building etc we wouldn’t have been able to stay on top of recruiting like we did when Les took over

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Saban came here because LSU made the commitment to do that. It's not a coincidence that Saban's starting salary was multiples of Dinardo's. LSU was going to succeed in the post-2005 time period with or without Saban - that's the point.

It's probably Skip Bertman more than Nick Saban. I was there. I still remember Skip's 2001 barnstorming tour. Fans were furious with the price of everything going up (to pay for Saban's salary + spending spree), but Bertman was lecturing us that the screws were only going to get tighter. I remember the "per seat" comparison to other programs that were flourishing at the time (LSU fans were getting a bargain!). I remember getting uncomfortable in my seat, squirming thinking "there's no way LSU fans will pay that much."

The point is, it was LSU's commitment to paying top dollar that enabled Saban to succeed here. It can't be done without an institution making that commitment. Not here, not in Alabama, not anywhere. The people crediting Saban for LSU's success as though he alone did this are fools. LSU made Saban. Not the other way around.

LSU went from paying coaches a few hundred thousand, to making Saban the 2nd highest paid coach in football the day he arrived in BR, with a contract that automatically made him the highest paid if he won a NC, which he did. LSU built Saban a new building, and the finest football facilities in the land, so he could out-recruit everyone and build himself into a legend. Already the highest paid coach, he was offered a raise to stay, but decided he couldn't pass up the NFL.

It was the commitment to football greatness from LSU that made Saban, and created those national championships, not the other way around. In a way, LSU is to blame for sparking the current era of absurd coaching salary inflation when it hired Saban 24 years ago.

Here's what you should be asking: how many National Championships does LSU have today if Saban stayed in Miami?

upsetting longstanding precedent, there's going to be a surprise last minute candidate and the Heisman will go to Milroe

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Winning matters — and that’s all Penix has done. He’s 4-0 against ranked CFP teams this year. Daniels is 1-3.

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Except that Daniels out-performed Penix *in those 4 games*. Heck, even looking at the entire *team*, LSU outscored Washington *in those four games* (150 to 145). Highlighting those 4 games is perhaps the best case to be made for Daniels!

Not dissing Alabama or Texas, but just as a college football fan, what we saw from FSU's defense in the ACC championship game was something special, IMHO. It felt that way watching the game, so I looked at the drive chart, and it was even more special than it looked. Louisville's entire offense consisted of:

- 50 plays that netted -8 yards total.
- A single coherent drive that led to a FG
- Just five other plays with meaningful positive yardage.


1. Louisville had 69 yards of offense in the 1st half, but 72 yards came on just 5 plays. The other 24 first-half plays netted -3 yards.

2. One of those 5 plays was a meaningless 11 yard run on the last 0:03 of the half, with FSU in prevent defense. Ignoring that meaningless snap, Louisville's offense had just 4 successful plays, and just 3 first downs in the 1st half.

3. Louisville came out of half time and mounted a single decent 12-play, 56 yard drive that led to its first FG. Five of Louisville's 8 pass completions came on that one drive. After that, FSU shut them down even more than they did in the 1st half.

4. Except for the 41yard run that led to the 2nd FG, Louisville's remaining 26 plays of the 2nd half netted -5 yards.

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JaMarcus Russell essentially played his way to the first overall draft pick in a bowl game. No one was really talking about him going that high until the shellacking of ND in the Sugar Bowl in '06.

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This is 100% true about JaMarcus Russell. That was a single-game QB performance for the ages. Have never seen a person throw a ball that far from his back foot. Not sure it applied to Daniels given how exceptional his season is already, but yeah that game earned Russell an extra $10 million or so.

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"With a month to play in the season, that doomsday scenario may seem far off. But if LSU wins out, it’s just as likely that what needs to happen to clear the deck for the SEC champion to reach the Playoff won’t happen."

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No one is writing this article about Ole Miss or Missouri. Even with 2 losses, they all know who the team to beat is.