The SEC Forum at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I'd think the OU QB was told by his coach not to just kneel the ball. Even if everyone knew what you were doing, it's humiliating to have the other team just give it up. Running an A gap dive and falling over on contact sells it better.

That could be, but then that begs the question, why did he kneel it on first down?  It'd be highly irregular for a QB to call that on his own, without getting instructions from the sidelines.  

Mike: I inadvertently responded to your analysis of the 2003 A&M @ OU game. I'll repost my response here.

The offense probably was vanilla, as you noted. The defense was maybe the best of the Stoops era. I suspect that all the praise went to the heads of some of the players and coaches. I think Nick Saban has a term for that. Other than that, I really can't explain what happened in the CCG vs. K-State. The team just got whipped by Bill Snyder & Co.

In the Sugar Bowl vs. LSU, I think one or more of three factors played a role in OU's less-than-optimum performance: (1) Jason White got banged up in the CCG. Specifically, he got his foot stepped on and he was unable to plant it properly when passing for the NCG. (2) Whether by accident or design, LSU coaches were in the building at the practice field and the OU coaches were not aware of it. Coincidentally, OU had installed a trick play--a fake punt, IIRC--and LSU saw it coming when it was tried early in the game. (3) LSU was really good, and Saban may have had his team better prepared for the game than Stoops did.

Those OU and LSU defenses were outstanding, for 2003.  I've often wondered how they would fare in today's game.  Since then, the HUNH became commonplace, spread-option attacks became a thing, mobile QBs seem to have become a lot more common, and QBs in general are just.....better.....than the average QB teams seemed to face back then.  It used to just take some good pressure to make a QB wilt and throw off target.  These days it seems like there 10-12 guys in any given year who are just ballers and rise to the challenge of putting them under pressure.  

I know in LSU's case, all of the D-linemen had NFL careers, and most of the secondary too.  The linebackers were good college LBs, but not NFL talent guys.  I'm not enough of an NFL aficionado to be sure about all the names from OU, but I know Dvoracek, Harris, and Lehman from the front 7 all played in the NFL.  So I imagine the talent was there.  But in looking back over the schedule from those days, I don't think we ran into any nuclear offenses.  And the type of looks those defenses gave.....would Saban/Muschamp and Mike Stoops have been able to come up with something to thwart modern offenses, back then?  Don't know about that.  

Those OU and LSU defenses were outstanding, for 2003.  I've often wondered how they would fare in today's game.  Since then, the HUNH became commonplace, spread-option attacks became a thing, mobile QBs seem to have become a lot more common, and QBs in general are just.....better.....than the average QB teams seemed to face back then.  It used to just take some good pressure to make a QB wilt and throw off target.  These days it seems like there 10-12 guys in any given year who are just ballers and rise to the challenge of putting them under pressure. 

I know in LSU's case, all of the D-linemen had NFL careers, and most of the secondary too.  The linebackers were good college LBs, but not NFL talent guys.  I'm not enough of an NFL aficionado to be sure about all the names from OU, but I know Dvoracek, Harris, and Lehman from the front 7 all played in the NFL.  So I imagine the talent was there.  But in looking back over the schedule from those days, I don't think we ran into any nuclear offenses.  And the type of looks those defenses gave.....would Saban/Muschamp and Mike Stoops have been able to come up with something to thwart modern offenses, back then?  Don't know about that.

It's always tough to compare teams and players across the decades. Would Babe Ruth hit 714 dingers if he played today? Would Ty Cobb have stolen 892 bases if he played today?

Sorry, baseball does not equal football. So, would Bart Starr be leading the '66 Packers into Super Bowl LX?

Babe Ruth wouldn't have made the majors today.  Not because of a lack of ability/production, but he'd have been kicked out due to behavior.  

i remember a number of years back someone asked Pete Rose, a true student of the game, if Rose would benefit more from playing in Ty Cobb's era or Cobb in Rose's and his answer was ambivalent. He thought Cobb's era was hurt by the lack of uniformity of the ball itself and that playing in the modern era would give more power numbers but playing in Cobb's era would result in higher batting averages because of the development and evolution of the slider since then.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/47113365/lsu-officially-terminates-football-coach-brian-kelly-cause

LSU has to pay Kelly $54 MM.  

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/47113365/lsu-officially-terminates-football-coach-brian-kelly-cause

LSU has to pay Kelly $54 MM. 

Finally.  I'd say "not a good look for the university trying to get out of it," but it's really the board, and more specifically, politicians behind them, that are responsible for these fiascos.  Most of the people who run the operations at the school aren't making the decisions that are so dumb.

I guess I got my answer on a personality like Woodward as AD, though.  I've mentioned here over the years that the AD position at LSU has been largely a ceremonial one, a figurehead of sorts, he doesn't have the real power ADs tend to have at other schools.  He's a front-man for the president, and more accurately, the politicians in the state legislature behind them, and to a lesser extent, the governors.  Scott Woodward has a strong personality and is not built to be a yes-man, and wasn't in his roles at Washington, A&M, etc.  I wondered when we hired him if he'd butt heads with the PTBs and what would happen if he did, because historically, the very few ADs LSU had who tried to exert their own power were run out on a rail.  

Welp, Woodward fired the football coach, without the board's approval, and found himself canned the next day.  Guess that answers that.