College Football Playoff: Which Top 25 teams are contenders, pretenders?
After being married to Les Miles and his old school, power-runninng offense for the last 12 seasons, the LSU Tigers now find themselves with a new head coach and offensive philosophy for the first time since the mid-2000’s.
After losing their star runningback Leonard Fournette to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2016 NFL draft, new offensive coordinator Matt Canada, who crafted one of the highest-powered offenses in Pitt’s history last season, has been tasked with creating a new, high-profile offense to highlight the Tiger’s offensive playmakers, and so far, the results have been mixed.
Derrius Guice, after amassing 1,387 yards on only 183 carries in 2016 as Fournette’s foil, has recorded 314 yards this season on 65 carries. As the Tigers have shifted towards a more traditional passing offense, they have struggled to find an offensive identity and their 73rd ranked offensive ranking only serves to highlight that fact.
On defense, LSU has also seen a slight dip in production, going from the 10th ranked unit in 2016 to the 23rd ranked unit in 2017. While defensive coordinator Dave Aranda’s unit is still filled with playmakers, they have only given up 10 or fewer points this season twice, and are averaging 18.25 points per game in 2017.
After defeating their first two opponents of the season by a margin of 72-to-10, the Tiger’s offense fell flat in a disappointing loss to SEC opponents Mississippi State by a score of 37-7.
And the next week things didn’t get much better. LSU struggled against an incredibly weak Syracuse team, and almost lost the game in the 4th quarter.
While the Tigers did end up winning the against the Orange, if they struggle to defeat a Syracuse team who will be lucky to finish with a .500 record, how will they be able to compete in their upcoming games against Florida, Alabama, Aubrun and Arkansas?
This is a rebuilding year for Ed Orgeron’s squad, and fans in Baton Rouge should be content with a bowl appearance in 2017.