LSU Fightin’ Tigers
vs.
Ar- Kansas

Well, this is an appropriate week to play for The Boot. In fact, LSU started early when Ole Miss booted our defense all over Tiger Stadium. With the slow pursuit and poor tackling our guys looked like they were wearing lead boots. After sustaining a high ankle sprain, Jarrett Lee is now probably walking around in a boot. Andrew Hatch sported the latest footwear fashion for several weeks as well.

Mike A. Tiger is sad to start off his weekly blog with such a negative impression, but if the shoe fits…

But Mike has no stomach to recap that game. It’s enough to drive me to drink!

Nor does Scott McKay in Monday’s BayouBengalBlog as he reflects the same “boot to the head” hangover that many of us feel this week.

But here are some ‘footnotes’. Let’s go back to “the perspective thing.” A lot of teams consider it a good year when they enter their final game with a chance to go 8-4 and get to a great bowl in Atlanta or Tampa. Tennessee and Auburn would love to be in our position. That doesn’t cut it at LSU for more than a year given how the program has been rebuilt and equipped to be elite in this decade. And it’s the way that we have lost that is unacceptable. Our defense has only played good enough in five or six quarters this year to earn the right to be considered the “LSU defense” that we have always been known for.

Les Miles tried to promote two guys from within as co-defensive coordinators. It’s clear that he will have to make some changes at the end of the year, and quickly. We have an unbelievably talented recruiting class to lock down. Mikey believes Miles has demonstrated he can admit and overcome mistakes and challenges, and 2008 will be seen as an anomaly when we bounce back next season and start booting everyone in our way again.

So let’s reboot and look at kicking some hawg butt on Friday. For those of you going to the game, enjoy the unbridled wallowing of the Razorback faithful like Bubba Hogg. And keep an eye out for UA’s official tricked out VW Razorback:

Nice to see how they use all of that Wal-Mart grant money!

Getting down to it, if there is one coach in America that deserves to get his butt booted, it’s Bobby Petrino. By many accounts he ran a thug program at Louisville. Then he bolted to Atlanta to try the NFL. He failed miserably, although to be fair no one was going to overcome the Michael Vick debacle that year. But Petrino actually found a way to add insult to injury by literally stealing away from ATL under cover of night with three games left on the Falcons schedule to take the Arkansas job. Stealing a page from the Nick Saban Book of Me , Bobby boy didn’t have the nerve to address his team and coaches when he left Atlanta, and he didn’t have the guts to face his team when he left Louisville either. This is a class guy with considerable people skills. Not. Petrino was almost universally raked over the coals for the manner of his moves.

Prediction:
So what can we expect this week? Hellifiknow. Mike has no idea what to expect from the LSU Tigers, but if they play anywhere near their talent potential they should be able to handle the 2008 Razorbacks. Good lawd, Mississippi State beat them 31-28 last week, rolling up 226 yards in rushing – the Maroons’ season average is just 76 yards per game. After the embarrassingly low output on the ground against the pesky Rebs last week, one would assume that LSU’s vaunted rushing attack will be looking for some redemption this week. The Hogs aren’t very good on pass defense either. Is Jordan Jefferson’s SEC learning curve any faster than Lee’s?

Mike saw some promising things in Jefferson’s appearance Saturday. He looked off his primary receiver, turned back and threw a dart to his (open!) receiver. He threw the ball away when there was nothing safe. THREE times. He has some running ability and handled the pitch perfectly in the game. Can he lead the Tigers offense and help ring up the 30 or so points we will need to overcome what our soft defense will allow?

The good news is that Arky hasn’t been consistent on offense this year and last week Petrino benched senior quarterback Casey Dick in favor of his redshirt freshman brother Nathan Dick, who threw for 333 yards and three touchdowns in his first start last week. Let’s hope this Dick doesn’t have a hot hand on Friday. (Okay, that’s all about them. That’s as far a Mike can go without getting into trouble with crude jokes. The message boards are full of them.)

Mike is a homer who will never pick against his beloved Bayou Bengals and will always look for the best in them.

And in himself!

While there was a queasy sense of dread in the gullet about last week, there is very little nervous anticipation about the Arkansas game. We still have a great program with loads of talent and more coming on the horizon. These seniors have some unfinished business and need to step it up on the road on Friday. This pigskin prognosticator thinks they will.
LSU 21, Petrino’s Piggies 17

So LSU will regain The Boot trophy, which is not really much of a motivational piece to look at. It’s shiny (24 karet gold no less) so it has that going for it. That trophy is so coveted that one year the Tiger team had to send a trainer back out on the field to retrieve it. They simply forgot to take it with them into the locker room after the win. Seriously.

LSU Faithful in the ATL: Please join us at our viewins on Friday and show support for the Tigers! Come to Rio Grande Cantina in Buckhead or Buffalo Wild Wings in Alpharetta and watch with your fellow alums!

Your Pal,

Mike A. Tiger