Chaotic College Football Season Right Up LSU's Les Miles' Alley
"This year is setting up perfect for a Les Miles-coached team."
Former LSU running back Jacob Hester knows exactly what that means.
In 2007, his Tigers vaulted all the way up from No. 7 in the penultimate BCS standings to the No. 2 spot following their win over Tennessee in the SEC Championship Game and losses from Missouri and West Virginia on the final weekend of the season.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
It was a fitting end to one of the wildest seasons in college football history.
There were no dominant teams in 2007, and this year is already taking an eerily similar path.
| 2007 | No. 3 Oklahoma | Lost to unranked Colorado 27-24 |
| 2007 | No. 4 Florida | Lost to unranked Auburn 20-17 |
| 2007 | No. 5 West Virginia | Lost to No. 18 South Florida 21-13 |
| 2007 | No. 7 Texas | Lost to unranked Kansas State 41-21 |
| 2007 | No. 10 Rutgers | Lost to unranked Maryland 34-24 |
| 2015 | No. 3 Ole Miss | Lost to unranked Florida 38-10 |
| 2015 | No. 6 Notre Dame | Lost to No. 12 Clemson 24-22 |
| 2015 | No. 7 UCLA | Lost to unranked Arizona State 38-23 |
| 2015 | No. 8 Georgia | Lost to No. 13 Alabama 38-10 |
In Week 5 this year, four top 10 teams lost. In Week 5 in 2007, five top 10 teams suffered defeats.
No. 1 Missouri lost to No. 5 Kansas in the Big 12 Championship Game to open one door for LSU in 2007, and Pitt toppled the second-ranked Mountaineers to open another, and the top five was a revolving door all season that, at one time, landed South Florida at No. 2, Boston College at No. 3 and then—the cherry on top—saw Ron Zook lead Illinois to the Rose Bowl.
Then a senior, Hester and his Tigers really weren't supposed to be in position to play for a national title, much less win one.
They had fallen in triple overtime to Kentucky on the road earlier in the season, but just when Hester thought they were back in the mix for the national title, they fell at home to Houston Nutt's Arkansas Razorbacks the week prior to the SEC Championship Game.
"We lost two games in triple overtime, and those were heartbreakers," Hester said. "I can remember losing to Kentucky, and back then, really, we thought if you had a loss you were kind of out of it. We thought we were. Then obviously when we lost to Arkansas, we thought there was no way we'd be in."
Miles never let his team quit.
"If you lose, digest it quickly; don't wallow in it and get ready to play next week, because you never know what is going to happen," said former LSU offensive lineman T-Bob Hebert, who redshirted on that 2007 team and hosts Double Coverage on 3WL 1350 in New Orleans.
This season is shaping up just like that one.
Why? There are no elite teams in college football.
Ohio State, the current No. 1 team in the country, has looked like the 2015 version of last year's Florida State squad—winning with its C-game more often than not. If head coach Urban Meyer doesn't pick things up, that C-game will become its 2015 A-game, and the Buckeyes will be toast.
No. 2 Baylor isn't exactly known to be a juggernaut this year either. Sure, the offense is putting up numbers that are impossible to achieve in Madden, but the defense might be their Achilles' heel during the grind of the Big 12 season.
No. 3 TCU is riddle with injuries with a defense that has been far too inconsistent, No. 4 Utah needed six turnovers to outlast Cal, No. 7 Michigan State has struggled in virtually every game and No. 8 Florida just lost starting quarterback Will Grier for the rest of the year.
"There are a lot of really good football teams this year, but there's not one or two elite teams that we are used to having the last couple of years," Hester said.
Because all teams are flawed, the door is open wide for Miles and the Tigers.
We all know about Leonard Fournette. The superstar running back for the Tigers has rushed for 1,022 yards and 12 touchdowns in just five games this season and is the unquestioned front-runner in the race for the Heisman Trophy.
But the Tigers are flawed.
Quarterback Brandon Harris topped the 200-yard mark through the air for the first time this season last week against South Carolina when he threw for 228 yards and two touchdowns, but 62 yards and one of those scores were on a bizarre tipped pass to Travin Dural. In three out of LSU's five games this year, Harris has failed to even top the 100-yard mark through the air.
"The biggest problem is if the quarterback is making bad decisions," Hebert said. "Last season, Anthony Jennings was a little inaccurate, and a lot of times he was making poor decisions. Stats haven't been great for Harris this year, and it seems like I'm making excuses for him every single week, but his decision-making has been really solid. At times he's been inaccurate, but he's getting a lot of drops from receivers."
| 2014 | 25-for-45 | 55.6 | 452 | 6 | 2 | 159 | 3 |
| 2015 | 51-for-89 | 57.3 | 610 | 4 | 0 | 146 | 3 |
Despite that, Fournette has saved the day, and the new-look defense under first-year coordinator Kevin Steele has held opponents to just 291.4 yards per game—third in the SEC.
Typically, one-dimensional offenses get beaten. This year, though, it's looking like every other team in the country is spinning its wheels, while LSU is simply going about its business.
How well have things shaped up for LSU?
With the suspension to Florida's Grier, LSU will play its fourth straight game against a team starting a backup quarterback (Grier, South Carolina's Perry Orth, Eastern Michigan's Brogan Roback and Syracuse's Zack Mahoney). The last full-time starting quarterback to start against LSU was Auburn's Jeremy Johnson, and that was his last start on the top spot of Auburn's depth chart.
LSU still has a rather daunting path, with games against Florida this weekend, at Alabama in early November and a stretch run that includes a home tilt vs. Arkansas, road trip to Ole Miss and a season finale vs. Texas A&M in Baton Rouge.
Tough, yes. But this season feels like it's going to take a lot of twists and turns before all is said and done, which plays right into the "Mad Hatter's" personality.
Miles is living a charmed life so far this season, and the chaos around him and incomplete nature of even the top-ranked teams in college football are setting up 2015 to be the "Autumn of Miles."
"You know Les Miles: He's quirky and crazy, and that's why we love him," Hester said.
The quirky and crazy Miles is a perfect fit for what's shaping up to be a quirky and crazy 2015 college football season.
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Statistics are courtesy of CFBStats.com.
Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
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