I know we didn't have all the horses, but we had a pretty good record before we hit that losing skid late in his first season. We know there were some bad seeds/influences on that team that didn't fit the buy in mold. I wonder what our record would have been in '07 if everyone had like this year? I also wonder if they had completely bought in last year, seeing as how they played against Utah. I don't think it mattered against Florida in '08 because we played hard and it was just Tebow's time. Then again, did the loss to Utah get them to finally buy in this year? Seems like I heard something Saban said about that loss preparing us to win it all this year.
What if everyone had bought in Saban's first year?
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We were at the LSU and MSU games. There were some questionable calls that didn't go our way and that loss had an effect on the remainder of the season. It all came un ravled when JPW fumbled deep in our territory in the 4th resulting in an LSU td. The following week at State, the offense could not score. We were sitting on the opposite sideline and saw that MSU defender chugging down the field with their go ahead td before the half. The rest is history. I would say the Indy Bowl victory was a huge steping stone to the 08 season though.
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We shouldn't have lost to La-Monroe, prolly not to Miss St. Of the other games we lost, our team had to learn how to win again, and learn how to beat teams who knew how to win.
It's a long way from Shreveport to Pasadena. But it's a sweet trip back to Tuscaloosa!
It's a long way from Shreveport to Pasadena. But it's a sweet trip back to Tuscaloosa!
It's a process 
All kidding aside, what CNS has instilled does not happen overnight. In order to have success you have to have failure. Through those failures, everybody better understood what "buying in" meant. You can talk about it all you want, but you have to live it to fully understand it. That is why I think repeating is so difficult. Currently our older players truly know what it means, and they can teach the younger ones. But in the next couple of years those younger players, who have not had failure, will be the leaders. Can they pass that on? That will be the key.
All kidding aside, what CNS has instilled does not happen overnight. In order to have success you have to have failure. Through those failures, everybody better understood what "buying in" meant. You can talk about it all you want, but you have to live it to fully understand it. That is why I think repeating is so difficult. Currently our older players truly know what it means, and they can teach the younger ones. But in the next couple of years those younger players, who have not had failure, will be the leaders. Can they pass that on? That will be the key.
I blame "Bookgate" for late season collapse during 2007. Without those suspensions, that would have been a 10 win season.
Maybe you will buy what I say here, maybe not.
The "issue" here, or subject, is what I don't think a lot of LSU fans understand about Les Miles -- and the diffeence between him and Nick Saban.
I'll re-hash this -- Nick Saban refused to recruit high school All-American quarterback Ryan Perriloux from just southwest of New Orleans; when Saban left LSU at Christmas for Miami, Miles immediately came in and pursued and then signed Perriloux, who proceeded to prove himself a bad apple.
Then, the next two years, with Perriloux gone to Jacksonville State, LSU and Miles struggled with raw young quarterbacks -- "Pick-Six" Lee (bless his heart -- he was coached by the Gambler, Miles, and his OC, Crowton) and "I can't stay in the Pocket" Jefferson.
Result: "17 wins in two seasons," as Deke Bellavia of WWL has put it.
Moral: Don't sign a high school quarterback that Nick Saban refused to recruit -- even if he was a high school All-American.
Why? Because Nick Saban has a sixth sense when it comes to knowing what to do with young, fresh-out-of-high-school football players.
What is Saban basing this insight upon? Well, for one thing, he can tell when a player has a personality that will buy into a program -- or a personality problem that won't allow him to buy into a program. Miles obviously does not have this sixth sense.
Have you just read the article about Saban's 200-page "Blueprint"? That is a lot for a player -- or any other human being -- to buy into. It takes a special person to buy into all that. Saban doesn't want you if you can't buy into it, and he probably knows from the time he says 'Hello' whether you will be the kind who can or cannot buy into his program.
Obviously there were some players on the Bama squad when Saban took over with whom he had not had the pleasure of shaking hands before they came on board.
The "issue" here, or subject, is what I don't think a lot of LSU fans understand about Les Miles -- and the diffeence between him and Nick Saban.
I'll re-hash this -- Nick Saban refused to recruit high school All-American quarterback Ryan Perriloux from just southwest of New Orleans; when Saban left LSU at Christmas for Miami, Miles immediately came in and pursued and then signed Perriloux, who proceeded to prove himself a bad apple.
Then, the next two years, with Perriloux gone to Jacksonville State, LSU and Miles struggled with raw young quarterbacks -- "Pick-Six" Lee (bless his heart -- he was coached by the Gambler, Miles, and his OC, Crowton) and "I can't stay in the Pocket" Jefferson.
Result: "17 wins in two seasons," as Deke Bellavia of WWL has put it.
Moral: Don't sign a high school quarterback that Nick Saban refused to recruit -- even if he was a high school All-American.
Why? Because Nick Saban has a sixth sense when it comes to knowing what to do with young, fresh-out-of-high-school football players.
What is Saban basing this insight upon? Well, for one thing, he can tell when a player has a personality that will buy into a program -- or a personality problem that won't allow him to buy into a program. Miles obviously does not have this sixth sense.
Have you just read the article about Saban's 200-page "Blueprint"? That is a lot for a player -- or any other human being -- to buy into. It takes a special person to buy into all that. Saban doesn't want you if you can't buy into it, and he probably knows from the time he says 'Hello' whether you will be the kind who can or cannot buy into his program.
Obviously there were some players on the Bama squad when Saban took over with whom he had not had the pleasure of shaking hands before they came on board.
I agree with you. I believe the lack of buy in during the first season along with the collapse at the end of the season is what created the success we've seen the last two seasons. Without those failures, I'm not so sure we would be where we are so quickly. It allowed CNS to say, "See what happens when you don't buy in? or "You did tried it your way and see where it got you." I think it gave him some serious leverage over the remaining team. Had we had some good success right off the bat, many may have thought it would come easily and delayed the "critical mass" buying in as they did.
Maybe we would've beaten the Bayou Bengals if bookgate hadn't happened, but that loss to LSU really crushed the team. You could see the guys, who grudgingly bought in to a disciplinarian regime, quit fighting after the tough loss. Some of the players were ok with sacrifice as long as we were winning, but IMO some lacked the resolve to handle adversity.
As I recall, he posted pictures of the La. Monroe and MSU scoreboards in every locker...
its not that they didnt buy in. they hadnt been in the system long enough to be the players that we have right now. all things such as strength, conditioning, mental preparation, attitude, aggression etc takes time.
No, it's really that some of them didn't buy in. DJ admitted it at the end of the season - publicly - and said that he regretted that he didn't. Upperclassmen who don't buy in influence those closest to them. In addition, the former HC stayed in contact with some of them, and that didn't help...
As anyone who's tried to lead/influence a large group of people knows, bad attitudes are contagious.
I felt a late season collapse in '07 was likely or even somewhat expected . Reason being players had crammed more S&C into 8 months than they had over the prior 2-3 years . New staffs always work their players extra hard and there couldn't have been much left in the tank .
JMO
JMO
interesting..........i wasn't aware shelia had maintained contact. care to elaborate has to why Earle?
It wouldn't serve any good purpose to dig into it. Suffice it to say, though, that divided loyalties don't help. I'm sure he thought he was helping players he'd become close to...interesting..........i wasn't aware shelia had maintained contact. care to elaborate has to why Earle?
I had forgotten about bookgate. Anyway, I guess we can look at it in a positive way that it set us up for the way things happened in the future.
It's nice that we can reflect on this subject without being accused of living in the past. I think (FWIW) that even had they all bought in we still would have lost to Georgia, LSU and Auburn; but defeated ULM, MSU, and FSU (maybe). At best 10-3, and at worst 9-4.
I think we probably beat Louisiana-Monroe and Mississippi State. Other than that, I'm not sure that the season would have turned out much differently. We might have beaten Auburn - they were playing pretty poorly at that point in the season, particularly on offense. So you're looking at 8-4 or 9-3 as opposed to 6-6. We probably play in the Chik-Fil-A Bowl or maybe even the Outback, where we likely draw a better opponent than Colorado. So it's anybody's guess as to how that would have turned out.
We lost those games to Georgia, FSU and LSU before the team mentally checked out, so I'm not sure that any circumstance would have changed those losses.
We lost those games to Georgia, FSU and LSU before the team mentally checked out, so I'm not sure that any circumstance would have changed those losses.
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