Time to look at some of the analytics. How well did the Tigers do this season? Not great Bob.
The new SP+ ratings were released from ESPN (subscription required) with the LSU Tigers finishing at No. 61 with a rating of 6.0. They find themselves behind teams such as the Texas Longhorns (No. 54), Florida State (No. 48), and Nebraska (No. 38).
What is SP+? In a single sentence, it’s a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. – Bill Connelly
Offensive Rating: 28.8 (68th)
No surprise here with the offense coming in right in the middle of the FBS at No. 68. This past year the offense has looked great such as the Florida game, and other times you wondered how they beat anyone. In terms of scoring offense, only two SEC schools were worse on points per game basis. South Carolina and Vanderbilt finished lower than the Tigers’ 27.1 points per game. The big takeaway was redzone offense, where LSU had the fourth-worst performance in the SEC and No. 81 in the country.
Plenty of work needs to be done by the next head coach and offensive staff.
Defensive Rating: 24.3 (51st)
It was up and down for the defense this past season, a change to the front seven philosophy enhanced their level of play. Over the last three games, the run defense limited offenses to 106 yards per game. That is 40 yards below their season average. The scoring defense only allowed 18 points per game, nine points below the season average. It looked like a completely different defense following the Ole Miss game when they made the switch to a 3-4 defense that utilized a lot more blitzing.
Special teams finished at 20th with a 1.5 rating. Avery Atkins and Cade York were weapons this season. This team needs a lot of work heading into 2022.