Down on the Bayou

LSU's win may speak for itself, but Florida is the best two-loss team in history

Oct. 7, 2007

College Football Recap: Week 6

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> Run & Shoot: Spurrier Keeps Frustrating Kentucky  |  Illini Snap Wisconsin's Win Streak Sooners Take Another Classic  |  Tennessee Wins Big  |  Ohio State's D Hits Purdue Bearcats Too Much For Rutgers  |  Stanford Stuns USC  |  LSU Partying In Baton Rouge > Trev: USC Loss Sends Shockwaves  |  Cardinal Takes The Trojans Down

Top 25 Game Recaps ----- THURSDAY ----- No. 11 South Carolina 38, No. 8 Kentucky 23 ----- SATURDAY ----- No. 1 LSU 28, No. 9 Florida 24 Stanford 24, No. 2 USC 23 No. 4 Ohio State 23, No. 23 Purdue 7 Illinois 31, No. 5 Wisconsin 26 No. 6 South Florida 35, Florida Atlantic 23 No. 7 Boston College 55, Bowling Green 24 No. 10 Oklahoma 28, No. 19 Texas 21 Tennessee 35, No. 12 Georgia 14 No. 13 West Virginia 55, Syracuse 14 No. 15 Virginia Tech 41, No. 22 Clemson 23 No. 16 Hawaii 52, Utah St. 37 No. 17 Missouri 41, No. 25 Nebraska 6 No. 18 Arizona State 23, Washington State 20 No. 20 Cincinnati 28, No. 21 Rutgers 23 Kansas 30, No. 24 Kansas State 24  Team Capsules  ---------- Air Force Akron Alabama Arizona Arizona St Arkansas Arkansas St Army Auburn BYU Ball St Baylor Boise St Boston College Bowling Green Buffalo California Central Mich Cincinnati Clemson Colorado Colorado St Connecticut Duke East Carolina Eastern Mich Florida Florida St Fresno St Georgia Georgia Tech Hawaii Houston Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Iowa St Kansas Kansas St Kent State Kentucky LSU La Tech Louisville Marshall Maryland Memphis Miami Fla Miami Ohio Michigan Michigan St Middle Tenn Minnesota Mississippi Mississippi St Missouri NC State Navy Nebraska Nevada New Mexico New Mexico St North Carolina North Texas Northern Ill Northwestern Notre Dame Ohio Ohio State Oklahoma Oklahoma St Oregon Oregon St Penn St Pittsburgh Purdue Rice Rutgers SMU San Diego St San Jose St South Carolina South Florida Southern Miss Stanford Syracuse TCU Temple Texas Texas A&M Texas Tech Toledo Troy St Tulane Tulsa UAB UCF UCLA UL-Lafayette UL-Monroe UNLV USC UTEP Utah Utah St Vanderbilt Virginia Virginia Tech Wake Forest Washington Washington St West Virginia Western Mich Wisconsin Wyoming ----------

By Brian Curtis

CSTV Senior Editor

	BRIAN CURTIS Brian Curtis is a CSTV football and basketball analyst and a regular CSTV.com writer. E-mail here!

        ---   Column Archive   --- FOOTBALL 1/20: The Three C's 1/14: Assistants In The Spotlight 1/9: Tomey On Hawai'i Wish List 1/8: LSU Impresses Like Never Before 1/3: Source: Caravantes Loses Ruling 1/3: The Right Man For The Job 12/29: The Coordinator Carousel 12/29: Bruins Get Much Needed Bravado 12/28: No Formal Interview For Locksley 12/26: Three Schools Still Searching 12/19: Football News & Notes 12/14: Updating The Carousel 12/8: Heisman Voters Got It Right 12/8: Michigan Coaching Search A Mess 12/4: Sizing Up The BCS 12/1: Summing Up The Searches 11/24: Black Saturday 11/19: Out With Carr, In With Miles? 11/18: Falling Down, Rising Up 11/11: When An Upset's Not An Upset 11/4: Where's The Outrage? 10/27: Coach Speak 10/21: What You're Not Hearing 10/14: Assume Nothing 10/7: Down On The Bayou 9/30: A Quick Read On Wild Week 5 9/23: The Heroes and Zeros of the Zeros 9/19: Crystal Ball Blitz 9/16: Sunday Morning Thoughts 9/9: Still No Answers 9/1: Some Things You Just Can't Explain 8/24: USC's Plethora of RBs Dwindling 8/14: Maryland, Illinois May Surprise Some 8/08: College Football News And Notes 7/30: Remembering Bill Walsh 07/15: Sooners, Carr and More 01/09: The Day After 01/03: Unbelievable 11/26: They Get It Right 11/3: An Unexpected Reaction 10/30: A Legacy Like No Other 9/30: Quick Replay 9/24: Will We Have Any Unbeatens? 9/10: The Rest of the Story 9/4: Lessons Learned From Week 1 8/28: The Insider 8/13: College Football Kicks Off 1/6: A Rose By Any Other Game 1/3: Home Game Feel For USC 1/3: Point/Counterpoint - Round 14 1/2: The Rose Bowl Blitz 1/1: The Making of Pete Carroll M. BASKETBALL
1/20: Dropping Like Flies 7/26: Prosser Respected By All 6/29: Odds & Ends 6/1: Donovan - Good For Him 4/25: Wednesday Thoughts 4/13: Afflalo's Journey Continues 4/6: Gillispie Good Fit For Kentucky 4/4: Final Final Four Thoughts 3/24: Intermission: Act III 3/22: Smith's Move To Big Ten, Surprising 3/17: Intermission 3/10: T-Minus 36 Hours 2/24: Bigger Isn't Better 2/17: The Commonwealth 2/2: Howland Liking His Bruins 1/28: What I'm Thinking 7/07: The ABCs of ABCD: Day Two 7/07: The ABCs of ABCD: Day Two 7/06: The ABCs of ABCD: Day One 4/26: And the Seatch Continues... 4/5: And So the Season Is Done 3/28: What You Need to Know... 3/27: Enough About the Parity 3/26: One of the Shockers of My Lifetime 3/24: Atlanta: The Day After 3/20: Tuesday Morning QB (Point Guard) 3/16: Nine Thoughts From Day One 3/13: Selection Afterthoughts 3/09: Thursday Nine-Point Shot 3/08: Wednesday Three-Point Shot 3/04: What I Am Hearing 2/28: The Tuesday Eight 2/21: Trials and Tribulations 2/15: In The Nation's Capitol 2/08: Holy War: On the Wildcat Trail 1/20: Hoops Blitz: Rocky Top Rivalry 1/14: The Jury Is Still Out BASEBALL 6/4: Time's Ticking For Porcello KINGMAKERS 1/29: West Virginia Saga 1/30: The Agents 1/30: The Donors

Well, I think the LSU win speaks for itself.  What more did you really want?    

Like most weekends in the SEC, this game really started on Thursday when the RVs and revelers started to pour into Baton Rouge. 

When I arrived in the city, the pre-game was well underway. There were cars with LSU flags and flags just about everywhere. There were tailgaters claiming territory like gold miners in the mid 1800s. Yes, it was a big game. But just how big? Well, the last time LSU played a game as the top team in the country was in 1959 and a lot of these folks weren't quite the same then (or alive). 

So the No. 1 team welcomed a hated ranked-rival with so much on the line.

It was no great secret all week that Les Miles planned to use back-up quarterback Ryan Perrilloux. But the question was, just how much?

At practice on Thursday, Perrilloux and Matt Flynn split snaps with the first team offense. Like Florida's Tim Tebow, a rushing threat, Perrilloux took a quick step to the line of scrimmage before dropping back on some snaps, to try to freeze the linebackers. In comments earlier in the week, Miles talked about how Perrilloux has been, and would be, playing a major role.

So what happened come game time? Flynn went 14-of-27 for 144 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT while his "backup" Perrilloux went 0-of-1 passing and carried the ball six times and handed it off many more. 

Look, the Tigers won, so let's not nit-pick, but neither one of these guys is a great quarterback. They did just enough combined. But how about Jacob Hester at QB? Fans will point out that a two-man system worked for Florida last year but Tebow came in infrequently, on big running downs. Flynn and Perrilloux were alternating plays at some points.

The LSU defense didn't look great in the first half and blown coverage made them look silly. But Glenn Dorsey & Co. pulled it together to contain and then stop Tebow late in the game. Earlier in the week, I asked Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville what lessons LSU could take from his team's upset over the Gators last week. Tuberville told me first, they limited the Florida's running game. Second, they managed to contain, though not stop, Tebow. Third, Auburn gave up just 78 yards after contact, meaning his defensive players made tackles without allowing the big plays.  Again, we turn to the stats from the game where LSU gave up 314 yards to Florida, 158 through the air and 156 on the ground.

So what do we take from this game? Well, for one, Miles has been elevated. His coaching decisions, which somehow worked out, endeared him to thousands of LSU fans who still questioned his chops. Good for him. 

We also took away the fact that this season, LSU has been the most dominant. But that's not saying too much, considering they looked bad against Tulane last week and sloppy against Mississippi State. That's not domination, but it is winning and a lot of other teams wish they could say the same. And finally, Florida may just be the best two-loss team in history. Play this game again in Atlanta in December and the result may change.                                                                                          

Some other notes from LSU-Florida:

·          Last week, the Tennessee Titans' Vince Young returned to his alma mater to watch Texas fall to Kansas State. With a bye weekend, many expected former LSU QB and No. 1 draft pick JaMarcus Russell to make an appearance on the sidelines. But since Russell held out of camp, he had too much studying to do and owner Al Davis and others wanted him in California. 

·          Obviously, the No. 1 team always draws attention and the LSU Athletic Department granted well over 600 credentials for the game.

·          If LSU runs the table, they Tigers will be playing just 60 miles away in New Orleans for the national championship in January. If they don't, there will still be plenty of takers. Representatives from the Capitol One Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl were all in town for the game.

·          In an ironic twist, while the head coach at Oklahoma State, Les Miles sent his offensive assistants to Utah to study the spread offense being run by Urban Meyer. Though the two coaches came into the SEC at the same time, they don't have much of a relationship.

·          One visitor to LSU practice on Thursday was PGA golfer David Toms. Toms is an LSU alum and huge Tiger football fan and has booked hotel rooms in Baton Rouge for every LSU home game this season.

·          The LSU-Florida matchup featured five coaches with head coaching experience and a few others who could get that chance next season. Outside of Les Miles and Urban Meyer, LSU's defensive coordinator Bo Pelini served as interim head coach at Nebraska and offensive coordinator Gary Crowton was the head coach at Louisiana Tech and BYU. On the Gator staff, defensive coordinator Charlie Strong coached a bowl game for Florida as the head man and will be in the mix at Ole Miss and Virginia, should those jobs open. Pelini has had overtures before as has Florida's Greg Mattison.

And One More Thing

When the final USC-Stanford score came across the wires, no one could believe it. How in the world did that happen? I would argue that this was a bigger upset than Appalachian State beating Michigan. This was a horrible Stanford team playing a No. 1 team on the road, a place where the Trojans never lose. The Cardinal had a back-up quarterback under center, a coach known more for controversial comments than Pac-10 wins and trailed in the game before their amazing comeback. After the game, Pete Carroll said he thought they were going to win the whole game. He probably thought that about UCLA as well. And speaking of UCLA, previously winless Notre Dame came into the Rose Bowl and held the Bruins to just six points. Karl Dorrell. Buh-bye.