This past Saturday (Sunday for me) provided the dawn of a new era for LSU. After the Tiger’s embarrassing last minute loss to Auburn due to ignoring the play clock, Coach Les Miles was fired by the Athletic Department. He was a great coach and I suspected that this was going to occur after the loss to Wisconsin. So, a 12 year relationship is done. I wish Coach Les all the best in whatever he does from now. Coach Orgeron has taken over the reigns in the interim. So far, I have been hearing all kinds of talk about a new coach coming in, but Orgeron performed spectacularly in his first game. If he can keep up momentum and defeat Alabama, he might have the final spot.

On to the game. I was impressed by the heart displayed, especially by the two backs, Guice and Williams. The offence, even without Fournette (ankle injury), played smash mouth football. They gained 634 yards, the most against an SEC school in LSU history. On offense, the only issue was with Danny Etling. He was cool in the pocket and performed great. The only criticism was the fact that he has difficulty hitting backs in stride down the field. He has the arm, in fact perhaps too much of it, often overthrowing the receivers. The defense was almost flawless. I particularly want to give a shout out to the D-backs, as I have been very harsh toward them the last few weeks. I saw more man coverage and those guys did fantastic, holding Mizzou to 265 yards (167 passing). Mizzou’s only score was off a gimmick play in the fourth quarter. An excellent recap is here, ironically provided by the Mizzou Network.

It will be interesting to see if this can be replicated against teams with much stronger defenses – Florida next week and in particular, Alabama.