The LSU Tigers football regular season came to an end on Saturday defeating their rival SEC opponent Texas A&M 42-30. The season closed out on a positive winning note unlike last years team and ended with a 9-3 won-loss record, same as last year. So, now is the time once again to evaluate the team's performance.
This writer believes the program took a step backward this season and did not make progress. The won-loss record was the same; LSU defeated only one team with a winning record in SEC play, Missouri; LSU defeated only two teams with an overall winning record, Missouri and Texas A&M; LSU was defeated by Ole Miss and Alabama, two teams they defeated last year. LSU finished third in the SEC west, a division they won last year. LSU defeated only one of the top four teams they played, Missouri and were defeated by Florida State, Ole Miss and Alabama. LSU's defense dropped off big time and their failure to stop their opponents on third down situations was glaring.
None of this was expected by the Baton Rouge sports writers and finally realized after LSU's defeat by Bama, they would not win the SEC west again and started to push Jayden Daniels for the Heisman award. That award is about an individual's stats and not the ability a team needs to compete for a national championship.
This writer in a PolitiDose commentary of last November that wrapped up LSU's first football season under a new head coach gave the opinion that last year's record would not be an indication of what this year's program would bring and was just a one year record. That turned out to be the case. To read the full commentary log onto politidose.blogspot.com.
Now, LSU awaits a holiday bowl invite. Some sports writers are saying it will give the Tigers another opportunity to have a 10 win season, but that is a stretch and moving the goal posts because in the past only the regular season record was used to brag about a 10 win season. What will a third season bring under coach Kelly will be discussed in a future commentary.
