Forget the young team blame that Louisiana's sports writers are trying to sell to football followers of LSU. Its coaching, that is, a coaching staff who does not use the players talents properly. That includes the right play calling at the right time which LSU failed big time against Alabama. LSU beat Florida, Auburn and Ole Miss and all three had young teams. Auburn has a better won-loss record than LSU.
Before the Alabama game, the pundits said LSU quarterback Etling had to have a great game for LSU to win. Really !!!. Well, Etling did not have a great game and for two reasons. The first reason escaped the pundits that Etling has not been a accurate passer and over or under threw wide open receivers since he has been in LSU's lineup. The second reason results from the coaches failure to realize Etling's limitations and do what good coaches do. That is call plays that have a higher degree of success and minimize Etling's short comings, especially on third and short when you need to make a play to keep possession and move the football.
LSU had several opportunities to keep possession on second and third down with short yardage. Instead of throwing the ball down field it would be better for the coaches to call a short curl pass that is very hard for the defense to stop, or a screen pass or a swing pass to the running back. Those type passes and plays would be better for Etling's problem of accuracy.
LSU's defense, both this year and last year against Alabama gave the Tigers a chance to beat Alabama but the coaching staff never had the right call at the right time and did not use the plays that the players could execute with the highest possible degree of success. Bart Starr, quarterback for the Green Bay Packers was not a great quarterback nor did he have a great arm. But Vince Lombardi recognized his capabilities and used plays that took advantage of Starr's assets and Starr and the Packers won more NFL championships than any other quarterback and team during that era.
There is more to coaching than having talent and a good game plan. Knowing the strength and weakness of a player and adapting is just as important and this writer believes it showed during the Alabama game because this so called young LSU team was right there with powerhouse Alabama. The difference was LSU's failure to execute at the right time because the plays called never met the capabilities needed to execute the play successfully.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
