LSU looks to reload, improve
Cameron to sharpen Tigers’ offense
To those who want to make the case of LSU’s decline, to those who want to think the Tigers can slip into a second tier of Southeastern Conference programs this year — we’re looking at you, Oxford — Les Miles has some sobering facts.
“A year ago, we lost three games by 13 points,” Miles, who is entering his ninth year as the LSU coach, said last month at SEC Media Days. “We lost to one Western Division opponent in the last 90 seconds of the game. We return 14 starters.”
And while Miles’ words read more like the “Quick Facts” page of a media guide than a conversation about a football team, the man has a point. It’s not as if LSU has fallen off a cliff since winning that national title in 2007.
There is reason for elite-level optimism surrounding the Tigers this year. LSU has certainty at quarterback, what with Zach Mettenberger, who threw for 2,600 yards last year.
“We expect that quarterback play will be much better,” Miles said.
It may help the sometimes-foundering LSU offense, too, that Cam Cam- eron is the new offensive coordinator. A former college head coach at Indiana and an NFL head coach for a season (2007) in Miami, Cameron was most recently the offensive coordinator for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens.
Cameron promises an attack that Miles characterizes as being more confusing for the opposing defenses. It’ll consist of multiple plays from various formations and personnel groupings, and it figures to be more balanced.
“So what appears to be something new for our opponent will not necessarily be new for our guys — that is really the major piece,” Miles told reporters in Baton Rouge this month.
Defense might be where LSU has its issues, but history suggests that coordinator John Chavis can figure it out.
The Tigers’ entire defensive front is new, and only two seniors are projected to start in the preseason depth chart.
“Obviously the number of guys that we lost last year isn’t usual — normal- ly you don’t lose that many, but we did,” Chavis told reporters in Baton Rouge this month. “We didn’t get caught off guard. We recruited well before this year and the years before that. But certainly when you lose that many guys, there’s going to be some freshmen that are going to have the opportunity to play.”