LSU's Mantra: The Way of Bamboo

Thus far this season, LSU Nation has been waiting for the way of the Tiger to emanate from what would be most arguably one of the most talented teams in the entire country.

If not for an inexperienced quarterbacking corps, they may have opened the season much higher in the polls.

That being said, "the way of the Tiger," has yet to appear in terms of total dominance of their opponents.

The Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns came into Death Valley as the Tigers third opponent and did a pretty good job against LSU.

Outside of the scoreboard, if you compare the box score, you’ll find similar numbers. As Coach Miles might say, "a good go, but room for improvement is our goal."

Obviously as a Tiger fan, another check in the win column is and always will be a delightful sight, but LSU fans may need to adjust their expectations this year with very young skilled positioned players at the helm.

This years team seems to have the way of bamboo…"bend, but don’t break."

In Asia, bamboo symbolizes various characteristics for different countries. In Japan, it is the symbol of purity. China recognizes bamboo as a symbol of longevity. In India, it represents friendship and in Vietnam, bamboo stands as a symbol of endurance.

The most famous characteristic of bamboo was pointed out by Bruce Lee: "Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind."

Both the LSU offense and defense has seen its fair share of "wind" so far and seems to follow this characteristic of "bending."

If you are a defensive coordinator and look at LSU’s offense on paper, you’d quake in your Nikes.  So many weapons…so many ways to strike fear…so many ways to cut the hearts out of an opponent.

But with that talent comes the difficulty of managing it…and using it to the fullest potential. Coach Crowton is blessed to have that problem, but therein lies the rub.

The offense seems to still be looking for its identity and like the way of bamboo, it’s just stiff enough to put a nice welt on you…not the force of a two-by-four, mind you, but that's okay…that whistle of wind you hear is the Tigers whacking away.

So far Washington, Vanderbilt, and ULL have the stripe marks to prove it.

By way of the defense, the bamboo mantra is most easily seen.

No question that LSU has improved from the field trip to Washington with a better defensive outing last week against Vandy, but I was surprised to see the Cajuns move the ball with the success they had.

Maybe ULL will have a tremendous year and prove that they are a very capable team. Only time will tell.

With all that said, the biggest question that many Tiger Fans have as the army of their schedule marches closer…will the storm winds of tougher opponents be too strong?

Will these Tigers bend…or will they break?