Tag: Opinion

LSU baseball assembled a dream team. Will it work?

LSU baseball has one of its most talented teams ever. Will it lead to a national championship?

“Dream team.”

It’s the most conflicting phrase in sports — a term used more often before the fact rather than after. There’s a reason for that.

It’s because most dream teams turn out to be anything but. It’s rare for a team to go wire-to-wire and win the whole thing. The preseason favorite usually isn’t the one hoisting the trophy.

There’s no curse. It’s possible there are instances where the pressure gets to a team and it crumbles. Then there are cases where it’s clear the preseason favorite didn’t deserve that No. 1 spot. And sometimes, good teams just fall on some bad luck.

[autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag], now heading into his second year, has built LSU baseball’s best roster in some time. Still, that sells it short. This squad has a chance to be the entire sport’s best roster in some time.

It could be described as a “dream team.”

As the consensus preseason No. 1 team, the expectations have never been higher. This team is supposed to win it all, there’s no other way to put it. Here’s a closer look at the narratives surrounding this team as it enters 2023 with the highest of hopes.

The Memphis Grizzlies, LeBron James and the rest of the basketball world react to the killing of Tyre Nichols

Enough is enough.

Protests and demonstrations have emerged across the country after the city of Memphis released body camera footage of five police officers severely beating 29-year-old Tyre Nichols, who died three days later.

More than 20 minutes passed before Nichols started receiving medical treatment after officers beat him and left him on the pavement, according to the Associated Press.

The officers, who were charged with second-degree murder on Thursday, have been relieved of duty. But that won’t bring Nichols back to life. Nor does it take away the sting of knowing that yet another unarmed Black man doing no one any harm has lost his life as a result of police brutality.

We’re still here as a society. This is the same pain everyone felt after police officers killed George Floyd in Minnesota. And when police officers in Louisville killed Breonna Taylor. And when Trayvon Martin was killed in Florida — and that happened more than a decade ago. It’s the same pain over and over again.

Tyre Nichols’ life mattered, as USA TODAY’s Mike Freeman writes. Nichols was a father. He was a son. He was a skateboarder. He was a regular person like the rest of us. He didn’t deserve this.

Everyone has had enough. The NBA world tried its best to put a voice to that.

What are fair expectations for LSU football in 2023?

Brian Kelly and LSU did good work in 2022. That means high hopes for 2023.

Progression and regression.

LSU fans have heard those words a lot over the years. This program has ascended to the highest of highs only to descend back to mediocrity. That back and forth is the norm. It’s rare for a school to stay up or down for an extended period. Most teams get caught in the cycle of progression and regression.

In the case of Brian Kelly’s LSU, it would appear to be a moment of progression — that’s the hope at least.

The Tigers exceeded expectations by winning 10 games on their way to an SEC West title. A step forward after 2021 gave LSU its first losing season in some time.

Improving on six wins is one thing. It’s LSU, a program that’s never far from being back, even when it’s down. Improving on 10 wins is an entirely different ball game. Plenty of programs go from average to good. Not many go from good to great.

LSU’s done it before. The Tigers were good in 2018 but elite in 2019. Kelly and his staff are tasked with a similar challenge this year.

Pitting this team against the one LSU fielded in 2019 is unfair. Kelly doesn’t have to run the table to meet expectations. 15-0 is a longshot for even the best rosters and LSU is still a notch below the nation’s elite.

Here’s the good news: LSU hasn’t had a standalone 10-win season since 2003. It happened four times in a row from 2010-13 and three times from 2005-07.

LSU reverting back to nine wins in 2023 would be against the norm.

Kelly doesn’t have to win it all, but LSU has to be good, and not just an 8-4 type of good. LSU needs to make an NY6 next year.

Last offseason, I told Tiger fans to be patient and that this would be a multiyear rebuild.

LSU’s 2022 success has reset that expectation. All of the returning talent along with a proven coaching staff that should remain mostly intact means LSU has an opportunity to do something big in 2023.

These opportunities can’t be missed. They only come along so often.

Anything under 10 wins for LSU is a regression. LSU didn’t bring Kelly to Baton Rouge to regress. He’s supposed to compete with Alabama year-to-year.

For Kelly’s LSU, 10 wins are now the standard.

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Tom Brady got away with such a dirty move while trying to tackle a Cowboys defender

Tom Brady got away with what should have been an obvious penalty in the Bucs’ blowout loss.

Tom Brady seemed to forget which version of football he was playing on Monday night.

While trailing 24-0 in the third quarter of a Wild Card playoff matchup against the Dallas Cowboys, Buccaneers receiver Chris Godwin seemingly fumbled a nine-yard reception. During the ensuing return from Dallas safety Malik Hooker, which went for 19 yards, Brady attempted what can only be described as a slide tackle as he tried to trip up Hooker.

Godwin was later ruled down upon review and the return came off the board, and though an unnecessary roughness penalty was assessed on center Ryan Jensen at the end of the return, Brady got off scot-free.

This was a blatantly dirty play. It was clearly intentional, and he obviously let his frustrations get the better of him. The 45-year-old, 23-season vet should know better.

Brady deserved a red card for this one, let alone a penalty flag. It’s a joke that the refs missed the call and allowed him to get away with it, though the Cowboys rendered justice of their own in a beatdown in what could potentially be Brady’s final game.

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The Raiders are an unflattering but true reflection of Derek Carr

Is Carr the best of the bad quarterbacks or the worst of the good ones?

A large swath of the American betting public picked the Las Vegas Raiders to beat the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday night. I can’t imagine many of them felt great about it.

How could they? The Raiders were 5-7, even after a recent three-game winning streak. And they had a tendency to blow big leads, which they were sure to grab against the shorthanded Rams.

All season going into Thursday’s game, it was hard to tell whether they were the worst good team in the NFL or the best bad team.

Then, they did it again. Favored by 6.5 points, the Raiders built a 13-point lead just to squander it in the fourth quarter and lose to Baker Mayfield three days removed from the waiver wire. It’s the Raiders’ fourth loss this season in games they’ve led by at least 13 points. They’re 0-4 in games they’ve held double-digit halftime leads.

Fans are roasting head coach Josh McDaniels for another embarrassing loss, but it’s about time Derek Carr shoulders some blame too.

Carr is the longest tenured starting quarterback with one team in the NFL aside from Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay. But in nine seasons with the Raiders, he has just two winning seasons and no playoff wins. It’s rare that quarterbacks are afforded so much time to build such an underwhelming resume.

At times, it’s easy to see why he’s stuck around so long. The talent is there — he’s on pace for his fifth straight 4,000-yard season. And the Raiders know how much worse things could be after spending an entire decade prior to Carr searching for Rich Gannon’s replacement. But those years of suffering also lowered the bar for what a franchise quarterback needed to be. If Carr was marginally good, he would receive the benefit of doubt.

That’s exactly what’s happened. When things go wrong for the Raiders, it’s everyone else’s fault but Carr. But after Thursday night’s meltdown, it’s very obvious Carr is part of the problem. The above average quarterback that he is, Carr can help a team build a 16-3 lead. However, it takes a great quarterback to put games away. Instead, Carr languished against a secondary that has been bad all season — he went 11-of-20 for 137 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions.

He’s running out of excuses, though. After Carr finally played his first playoff game last year, the Raiders made moves in the offseason to give themselves a chance to return. They traded for Carr’s college roommate and good friend Davante Adams, who remains one of  the best wide receivers in the NFL. And Carr also has the NFL’s leading rusher in his backfield thanks to a breakout season for Josh Jacobs.

Both Adams and Jacobs were effective on Thursday, and yet Carr had maybe his most pedestrian game of the season — he was just 2-of-7 passing for 11 yards in the second half, when it mattered most. Just when you think he’s good, a game like this is right around the corner.

It’s hard to tell if Carr is the worst good quarterback or the best bad quarterback in the NFL. The Raiders are a reflection of that. As long as he’s leading them, they’re a tough team to trust.

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Top-Shelf Takes: The NHL shouldn’t tolerate Jordan Binnington’s childish antics any longer

Jordan Binnington continues to be an embarrassment to the NHL.

Welcome to Top-Shelf Takes, a weekly series from staff writer Mary Clarke all about the NHL. Lace up your skates as we dive deep into the epic highs and lows of this little sport called hockey.

The best pests in the NHL are good at getting under their opponents skin while staying unbothered themselves. Think Brad Marchand, love him or hate him. Jordan Binnington, on the other hand, is a petulant child playing hockey.

Over the weekend, Binnington once again became the narrative of the hockey world thanks to yet another incident involving his well-documented short fuse. During the St. Louis Blues Saturday matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Binnington gloved Jason Zucker in the face as the winger was chasing a puck behind the net in the dying seconds of the first period.

The move was a completely unnecessary one, given the routine nature of Zucker’s route, and one that caused play to be halted as the Penguins winger lay crumpled in a heap on the ice.

Then early in the second period, when Binnington was being pulled after allowing four goals on 17 shots, the Blues goaltender was given a 10-minute misconduct for “inciting” as he had words for the Penguins bench while leaving the ice.

This incident is just the latest in a long list of tantrums Binnington has thrown over the years since 2018-19. Without fail, when Binnington has a poor game or things don’t go his way, he lashes out physically against his opponents in a meltdown of epic proportions. That all came to a head in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs when Binnington tossed a water bottle at Nazem Kadri during a postgame interview after the goaltender left due to an injury sustained when colliding with the forward.

So far, the NHL has tolerated Binnington’s childish outbursts with no external punishments. Even the water bottle toss didn’t warrant a fine or a suspension from the powers on high. But it’s clear by now that in-game penalties aren’t going to stop Binnington from taking out his frustrations physically on his opponents, since he’s continued to do so for years.

That being said, Binnington’s antics are starting to wear thin on his head coach, Craig Berube, who had this to say after the Blues 6-2 weekend loss to the Penguins.

“It’s got to stop. It doesn’t help anything,” Berube said. “Just play goal, stop the puck.”

Look, I could understand Binnington’s actions here a bit if he was actually an elite goaltender. Tom Brady throws fits on the sidelines all the time, but the dude is the undisputed football GOAT with seven Super Bowl wins. Binnington has a Stanley Cup, yes, but in the years since he’s posted a .906 save percentage and has been remarkably mediocre.

The NHL needs to be finished with tolerating Binnington’s actions from now on. Binnington’s petulance has gone on for far too long and he’s only going to keep embarrassing the league — or maybe even hurt someone — if he continues to act out like this.

COLUMN: Inconsistent LSU team should be defined by its highs

LSU might get smoked on Saturday, and going from playoff contender to 9-4 in just the span of two weeks can be demoralizing, but it shouldn’t take away from the advances this staff and group made in 2022.

LSU wasn’t supposed to be here.

Nick Saban had one of his most talented and experienced rosters. Jimbo Fisher was getting ready to turn the corner at Texas A&M. In Mississippi, Lane Kiffin and Mike Leach had established programs.

LSU was rebuilding under a first-year coach. Nobody expected this team to win the west. Yet, it did, and here we are. This version of LSU, just as so many previous renditions have been, is volatile.

You never know which team is going to show up. The one that beat Alabama or the one that got rolled by Texas A&M. Against a juggernaut like Georgia, it might not matter. LSU has to play the game of its life to have a chance in this one.

This is LSU. The standard is winning national championships. The players know that and [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] does too.

But this team shouldn’t be defined by its lows, but by its highs.

It’s still hard to believe this LSU team is playing this weekend. This roster was worn thin when Kelly took over. It was coming off a bowl loss where [autotag]Jontre Kirklin[/autotag] had to play quarterback for a team with 39 scholarship players.

That’s full rebuild state. Plugging a few holes in the transfer portal shouldn’t suddenly boost a program back into contention.

And in some ways, it didn’t. LSU’s loss last weekend revealed the Tigers aren’t ready to be part of the national picture. This is a good team, but not an elite one. Elite teams are consistent, and this LSU team is anything but.

As I’ve said all year, LSU’s playing with house money. Losses confirmed what we thought, that this team is rebuilding, while wins meant the program was ahead of schedule.

Saturday is no different. LSU will get to see how it stacks up against the nation’s best, but its safe to presume that gap is a little wide.

There are no moral victories at LSU and the standard is too high to take the “we’re just happy to be here” route, but making this game is something this team and fan base should be proud of.

Winning your division matters. If it’s all about the process of getting back to a national championship, this is just one step.

LSU might get smoked on Saturday and going from playoff contender to 9-4 in just the span of two weeks can be demoralizing, but it shouldn’t take away from the advances this staff and group made.

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Opinion: What will the transfer portal mean for high school recruiting?

For better or worse, the transfer portal has certainly diminished the intrigue around high school recruiting.

We live in a different day and age of college football.

Years ago, when you committed to playing for a school, that’s where you were going and you were going to be there for the next four or five years of your life. Now, we live in a world of instant gratification.

Anything you want, you can have it right now. Enter, the transfer portal. Or should we say, college free agency? If you aren’t getting as much playing time as you want, you can leave. That’s what a lot of kids are doing nowadays.

There are enough athletes in the transfer portal right now to make a brand-new team and a pretty good one. So, what is the trickle-down effect that will come from this “free agency?”

National Signing Day feels like Christmas every year for college football coaches. All of the fans that are keeping track of recruits are on the edge of their seats waiting to see who will join next. That day has lost a lot of its luster now because if you miss on a high school kid, you can look in the transfer portal and find a player with college experience at the highest level already.

That guy is already ahead of the game. If you sign a high school kid at a position and then get a transfer at the same position, what makes you think that high school kid will stay? He could hit the portal just as easily as the other guy.

The rabbit hole never ends.

I don’t know how this will all play out, but I feel like we’re headed toward an inevitable black hole.

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OPINION: Billy Napier’s first season was a controlled burn

Billy Napier’s first season didn’t live up to the Gator Standard on the field. The off-the-field results make it a successful first season.

Billy Napier had a lot to manage in his first season in charge of the Florida football program. He walked into an ecosystem that desperately needed to be revamped from top to bottom. He spent the first few months of his tenure focusing on cleaning up in-house so that the product on the field could rise to the standard that Gators fans have come to expect. The man quite literally warned us that there was a lot of work to do at his introductory press conference, and then again in his open letter to the fans issued back in June.

I think that’s why I’m a bit more optimistic than most about the season that just ended. At 6-6, clearly, it wasn’t what everyone associated with the program wanted, but I think it’s what we deserved. For a long time, Florida has gotten away with structural problems by depending on elite talent to do just enough to consider the season a “success”. Since the rug was pulled out from under the program last season, the “real” Florida program was finally shown to the world. Mullen’s inability to recruit at the level necessary to compete with Georgia and the administration falling behind in off-field spending necessary to win SEC and national championships were a hole that Napier stumbled upon, except he wasn’t given a shovel to get out.

This season was Napier waiting for a shovel to arrive via Amazon so he could get the program out of that hole. The new football facility opened up, Napier significantly improved recruiting, and there were more polos than jerseys in the team picture. Did that translate to the field in year one? Not as much as we would have hoped. But there were moments. The running game blossomed and was one of the best in the nation. Trevor Etienne arrived. Young players that Napier brought in like Kamari Wilson got a lot of playing time to adjust to the SEC. The defensive scheme improved significantly as the season went on.

It’s not the 8-4 or 9-3 that we’ve become accustomed to seeing out of a first-year Florida coach, but that might be a good thing in the long run. 6-6 isn’t good, but it might be what the program needed as they fixed all the prior mistakes made by previous staffs dating back to when Urban Meyer coached the team. I do think there are some serious questions that need to be asked, like if Billy Napier needs to hire an actual offensive coordinator. If not, then he needs to look at his play-calling philosophy. You can only run so many first and second down screen calls before the defense figures it out.

I have faith in Napier to continue this rebuild that was so obviously the result of years of mismanagement. 6-6 in year one isn’t good, but it’s understandable. I expect significant improvement next year. The cleansing of the program happened last season. This upcoming offseason is the rinse cycle. The upcoming season should see significant improvement and establish Florida’s identity in the Billy Napier era.

Hopefully, it’s a long one.

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COLUMN: LSU belongs above USC in the College Football Playoff Rankings

At No. 5, LSU officially controls its own destiny.

The playoff committee released its latest rankings on Tuesday night.

There wasn’t much drama. Everyone knew Georgia was going to be No. 1 and Ohio State, Michigan and TCU would round out the top four. We knew Tennessee would fall, allowing for a shakeup in the back half of the top 10.

Perhaps the biggest debate before the release centered around USC and LSU. The Trojans, still just with one loss, got their first ranked win last week, beating UCLA.

USC has been sitting right behind LSU for some time now, despite the Tigers having an extra loss. People wondered if USC would be able to leapfrog LSU now that Lincoln Riley’s group has a signature win.

LSU trails USC in the AP Top 25 and the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll, but the playoff committee held firm, slotting LSU at five and USC at six. LSU and USC are neck and neck in ESPN’s strength of record. LSU sits eighth while USC is ninth.

There’s a much wider gap when it comes to strength schedule. LSU is 15th and USC is 58th. That isn’t to say USC has played a cupcake schedule – it’s been respectable. The Trojans’ win at Oregon State has aged well as has a 30-14 win over Washington State. Mix those in with the win at UCLA, and it’s a decent resume.

But it’s not LSU’s. The Tigers’ 45-20 win over Ole Miss and the hard-fought win against Alabama are two of the best wins any contender has had this year. To compliment that signature win, LSU beat Mississippi State by two touchdowns — a win that’s probably as impressive as anything USC has done this year.

Yes, LSU has two losses, but one of them came by one point in week one to a Florida State team that has turned out to be pretty good. The committee has said before that it values improvement throughout the season and LSU has earned the benefit of the doubt in that department.

USC’s toughest tests still await. It’s set to host Notre Dame this weekend and will face a tough but to-be-determined opponent in the Pac-12 championship.

With Tennessee’s loss and a No. 5 ranking, LSU officially controls its destiny.

In my view, I thought an 11-2 LSU that manages to win the SEC title was always getting in. An 11-1 Tennessee was the only real threat because of the Vols’ head-to-head win in Baton Rouge.

If USC had jumped LSU, it would have been tough to say LSU controlled its fate. That would have left too many one-loss or undefeated teams in front of the Tigers.

According to FiveThirtyEight’s playoff predictor, LSU has a 97% chance of making the playoffs should it win out. If USC loses to Notre Dame and TCU doesn’t win the Big 12, those chances rise above 99%.

LSU couldn’t have asked to be in a better position in Brian Kelly’s first year. Despite the struggles, despite the two losses, LSU controls its destiny.

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