LSU Loss A Microcosm Of The Season

Epic game leaves Tigers with second loss and out of the BCS title game

Nov. 23, 2007

College Football Recap: Week 13

> Full Scoreboard  |  GameTracker Final Stats  |  Images of Saturday

> The Red Zone  |  Tape It Up  |  Strike The Pose  |  Breaking The Code

> Run & Shoot: USC Pounds ASU  |  LSU's Title Dreams Smashed  |  Hawaii WAC Champs, Eye BCS West Virginia Earns BCS Berth  |  Tennessee SEC East Champs  |  Kansas' Run Ends At Arrowhead > Trev: LSU Loss Not So Surprising  |  Curtis: Black Saturday For Coaches  |  Chick-fil-A SEC Wrap Up

Top 25 Game Recaps ----- THURSDAY ----- No. 11 USC 44, No. 7 Arizona State 24 ----- FRIDAY ----- Arkansas 50, No. 1 LSU 48 Texas A&M 38, No. 13 Texas 30 No. 14 Hawai'i 39, No. 17 Boise State 27 ----- SATURDAY ----- No. 3 Missouri 36, No. 2 Kansas 28 No. 4 West Virginia 66, No. 20 Connecticut 21 No. 6 Georgia 31, Georgia Tech 17 No. 8 Virginia Tech 33, No. 16 Virginia 21 UCLA 16, No. 9 Oregon 0 No. 10 Oklahoma 49, Oklahoma State 17 No. 12 Florida 45, Florida State 12 No. 15 Boston College 28, Miami 14 No. 19 Tennessee 52, Kentucky 50 No. 21 Clemson 23, South Carolina 21 No. 23 BYU 17, Utah 10 No. 24 Cincinnati 52, Syracuse 31 No. 25 Auburn 17, Alabama 0  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 Trev Alberts

Special to CSTV.com

	TREV ALBERTS Trev Alberts is a football analyst for CSTV and CSTV.com. E-mail here!

        ---   Column Archive   --- TREV's MAILBAG 2/20: Show Some Patience 1/23: Cutcliffe Can Be Successful At Duke 1/16: To Each His Own 1/10: Watching Different Games 1/2: Brennan's Sugar Performance Won't Hurt Him 12/26: LSU Hater I Am Not 12/19: Rodriguez Licking His Chops 12/12: Buckeyes Have A Chip 12/05: Missouri Got Hosed 11/28: Some Coaching Changes Ludicrous 11/21: Love Woodson's Poise 11/14: Dixon Can Be Contained, But Not Stopped 11/7: Pac-10 Far From Overrated 10/31: Appalachian State Loss An Afterthought 10/24: No Halves Off In College Football 10/17: Nebraska In Good Hands With The Doctor 10/10: Trojans Still A Player 10/03: Don't Hate On South Florida 09/26: Hangovers Part of The Game 09/19: Nebraska's Performance Disappointing 09/12: DeSean As Explosive As It Gets 09/05: Tebow Impressive In First Start 08/29: ACC QBs Better Than Advertised 08/24: McFadden Not Quite In Bush's Class 08/17: From Overrated To Underrated 08/10: Florida's Overrated 08/03: Spurrier's Got That Twinkle 07/27: Big East Deserves More Credit 07/20: Badgers Playing For Second, At Best 07/13: Gators Repeat? Not So Fast 07/06: Pac-10 Still Owned By USC 06/29: One Big's Better Than The Other 06/22: WAC Ain't All That 06/15: Text Messaging Ban Excessive 06/08: Fifth Year of Eligibility A Good Idea 05/25: Hot Seat Warming Up For Some Coaches 05/18: Big Ten Falling Behind SEC 05/11: 'Canes, Seminoles Have Ways To Go 05/07: Sleeping Dawgs 04/20: Look Out For South Florida 04/13: Boise's Johnson Has No Shot At '07 Heisman 03/30: The Best Atmosphere In College Football Belongs To... 03/23: Tough To Compare QBs With Different Styles 03/16: Top Coaches Need To Be Appreciated 03/9: Woodson Nation's Most Indispensable QB 03/2: Things Just Not The Same At Nebraska 02/23: Rodriguez Does Well With His Chips 02/16: Believe It Or Not, I Don't Have An FSU Agenda 02/09: Yes, I Do Know College Football 02/02: Of Course Huskers Make Adjustments 01/26: Coach Alberts In Lincoln? No Chance 01/19: Can't Begrudge Kids For Leaving Early 01/03: Saban Heads to Alabama 12/29: Some Coaching Changes Come As Surprise 12/22: Too Many Bowl Games Way of Life 12/15: Who Has The Best Talent In The Nation? 12/7: Who's The More Deserving National Title Participant? 12/1: Irish Don't Deserve BCS Bid 11/16: Ohio State the Better Team 11/9: Give the Big East Its Due 11/2: What's Wrong With D at USC? 10/26: Where Will Bowden Be in '07? 10/20: Who Belongs in the Top 20? FOOTBALL 1/8: In Surprise, Ohio State Beats Itself 1/6: Good Start Vital For Buckeyes 12/26: LSU Hater I Am Not 11/23: LSU Loss A Microcosm Of The Season 11/19: Give It Some Time 10/13: Give Kentucky All The Credit 10/7: USC Loss Sends Shockwaves 9/1: Michigan's Loss Nothing Short of Stunning 6/19: Hoeppner Did Things His Way 4/27: Unexpected Reigned In 1994 02/22: Combine Experience Can Be Eye Opening 02/08: Signing Day Observations 02/07: Walk Down Recruiting Memory Lane 11/17: Remebering Schembechler 9/5: One Week Is Just One Week 8/25: The Return Of Trev

What we saw with LSU-Arkansas was a microcosm of the entire season. What a fitting way for that game to kind of represent 2007. It's been a really crazy year, but exciting and fun.

But watching, I felt really great for Arkansas and I have to tell you, I'm kind of conflicted. First of all, I'm completely in awe of Darren McFadden for his abilities. Peyton Hillis and Felix Jones, same thing. At the same time, I'm kind of wondering about LSU's defense. The last couple of weeks they've shown some chinks in the armor and I'm trying to balance those two facets out.

But bottom line, it was an epic game.

I got the sense that Jeff Long, the new A.D. at Arkansas, wanted to make a coaching change, but there's going to be some Arkansas people upset if he makes that kind of decision after that effort the Razorbacks just showed.

It was one of those games where I think both of the teams kind of knew what the other was going to do and it was just a matter of wills. McFadden and the offensive line willed their way to 384 yards rushing. That's an astounding number against that defense. I still think LSU has a good defense, rather than saying that LSU had some defensive letdowns. I think the Tigers played their tails off, but Arkansas rose up on the road and willed itself to victory with McFadden in the Wildcat Formation.

The one thing that came up to bite LSU earlier in the game was Matt Flynn's inability to connect on his passes. I don't think he was the reason they lost, but that's football in the SEC. It's absolute craziness. Now LSU has to find a way to regroup, find a way to motivate itself for the SEC Championship game. 

My initial reaction to LSU losing was not of surprise. I won't be surprised if Kentucky beats Tennessee Saturday, but I'm absolutely stunned that the winner of the Kansas-Missouri game is going to be No. 1 in the BCS.

The team you have to say is sitting in the best position right now is Ohio State. They're done playing. People are going to beat each other, and of course West Virginia has some work to do, but it might be best to have your season over with at this point.  

The other thought that crept into my head is that if indeed Les Miles is the guy for Michigan, it's sure going to make the transition a whole lot easier. I'm not trying to imply that he's happy they lost; I'm just saying if that's truly what's going to happen, that marriage becomes a lot less messy at this point.

Now, the final thing I take away from this game: how are the voters going to decide on a Heisman Trophy winner? So many times guys have these signature performances at the end of the season, but I can make an easy case for McFadden and an easy case for Tim Tebow. The two of them really deserve to get part of that trophy.