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10
LSU
In three years in Baton Rouge, Gerry DiNardo has
restored the Tigers' dignity. That's nice, but not enough.
What he really wants to do is win an SEC
title
| |
If Faulk can stay healthy, he could become the career
leading rusher in
LSU history—and SEC history,
too.
(Michael C. Hebert/Spurlock Photo)
| Upon the
completion this summer of LSU's new squad meeting room,
coach Gerry DiNardo affixed to one of its walls words
written by 19th-century journalist and politician Horace
Greeley:
FAME IS A VAPOR, POPULARITY AN ACCIDENT; RICHES TAKE WING.
THOSE WHO
CHEER YOU TODAY WILL CURSE YOU
TOMORROW. ONE THING ENDURES,
CHARACTER.
Make no mistake, football coaches love epigrams. In the
name of motivation they preach, post, copy and mail almost
anything that sounds vaguely profound. Some locker rooms
look like the inside of the Lincoln Memorial. Think of it
as chicken soup for the
shoulder pads. With LSU, however, Greeley's message is
worth conveying. Since arriving from Vanderbilt to replace
Curley Hallman three years ago, DiNardo has restored
dignity to Bayou football, and he's not done yet.
"We'll continue to be good,''
DiNardo says. "What we would like is to be outstanding. To
achieve that you need dominating talent, which we don't
have, or great maturity and leadership, which we might
have.''
The Tigers could also use some consistency. In one
three-weekend stretch last season, LSU barely beat
Vanderbilt 7-6, then shocked—and
exposed—defending national champion Florida 28-21
before losing to Mississippi 36-21. There's more. The
Tigers beat
Kentucky and Alabama on the road by a combined score of 90-28,
then lost at home to struggling
Notre Dame, 24-6. "We took some weeks off,'' says senior inside
linebacker Joe Wesley. "We can't even take downs off
if we want to achieve our goals.'' Says DiNardo,
"Something has been
missing.''
Working in LSU's favor is the fact that the program is now
almost entirely
DiNardo's: Only five of Hallman's recruits remain (starting
defensive backs Chris Cummings and Raion Hill, starting
linebacker Arnold Miller, reserve tailback Kendall
Cleveland
and reserve linebacker Aaron Adams). The rest of the
squad—including 16 returning starters—owe their
allegiance to DiNardo. "If the previous coach brought
a kid in, that kid is saddled with a comparison,'' says
DiNardo. "He can say, 'This isn't how the
other guy did things.' It confuses the
issue.''
To further promote team chemistry,
DiNardo wrote his players inspirational letters each week
and gathered his seniors in
biweekly morning meetings during the off-season. The purpose of
huddling the seniors was to remind the players that they
are in this together. "We're a group that has been
through a lot, and we know what disappointment feels
like,'' says senior
noseguard Anthony (Booger)
McFarland.
Central to DiNardo's quest are quarterback Herb Tyler and
tailback Kevin Faulk, both of whom have started for three
years. Tyler took over the position late in his true
freshman season and has started 25 consecutive games. He is
an effective pass-run
player, but in his career he has thrown nearly as many
interceptions (17) as touchdowns (22), a ratio that must
improve. "The whole team follows Herb's lead,'' says
Faulk. "If he falls, we all fall.'' That's for sure.
Tyler was 6 for 21 in a loss to Auburn
last season; he was 10 for 17, with two touchdown runs, in
the Florida upset. "He needs to be a senior
quarterback, with everything that that means,'' says
DiNardo.
Faulk needs to be a Heisman-worthy
superstar, with everything that that means. He has had a quietly
brilliant career and is just 773 yards short of becoming
LSU's career rushing leader, a goal that became achievable
when he decided to return for his
senior season, despite assurances that he would have been a
first-round pick had he chosen to enter the '98 NFL draft.
"I only changed my mind about 150 times in the last
week before the [draft] deadline,'' says Faulk. It's a good
thing for the Tigers that
he's back. Junior tailback Cecil Collins (596 yards
rushing, three touchdowns last season) was kicked off the
team in June after being arrested for unauthorized entry
and sexual battery. Fellow junior Rondell Mealey went into
fall practice with a
sprained foot, leaving only Faulk and Cleveland healthy at a
position that once seemed overstuffed with
talent.
There is plenty of talent on defense. New coordinator Lou
Tepper, head
coach at Illinois from 1991 to '96, will use a simpler system
than the multiple scheme employed by Carl Reese, who left
to join Mack Brown's newly formed staff at Texas. Under
Reese, LSU employed the wild press defenses that are the
rage in the college game,
and Reese often made dramatic
personnel, alignment and strategy
changes in the week leading up to a game. Tepper will be more
conservative and more consistent. Says Wesley, "If
Coach Tepper tells us to do something one way in September,
I expect we'll still be doing it that way in
November."
This fits in with the Tigers' theme. Win in September, win
in November, with no slips in between. Win one for Horace
Greeley.
—Tim Layden
Fast Facts
1997 record: 9-3 (6-2, tied for 1st in SEC West)
Final ranking: Final ranking: No. 13 AP, No. 13 coaches' poll
| 1997 Averages | Offense | Defense |
| Scoring | 31.5 | 16.3 |
| Rushing Yards | 256.6 | 115.8 |
| Passing Yards | 154.0 | 231.5 |
| Total Yards | 410.6 | 347.4 |
|
Lineup
Coach: Gerry DiNardo
Fourth year at LSU (26-9-1); career Division I-A record: 45-34-1
| OFFENSE |
| WR | Abram Booty | So. | 40 catches, 611 yds., 2 TDs |
| LT | Louis Williams | So. | Has split time at both tackles |
| LG | Al Jackson | Jr. | Started 11 games at left tackle |
| C | Todd McClure | Sr. | Coaches' pick as best SEC center |
| RG | Ryan Thomassie | Sr. | Former backup won starting job |
| RT | Trey Langley | So. | 8 starts as a freshman |
| TE | Jamal Pack | Jr. | No catches, but good blocker |
| WR | Larry Foster | Jr. | 43 catches, 579 yds., 4 TDs |
| QB | Herb Tyler | Sr. | Record as starter: 23-5 |
| RB | Kevin Faulk | Sr. | 150.5-yd. SEC avg. on ground |
| FB | Tommy Banks | So. | 13 runs for 70 yds. and 2 TDs |
| K | Christian Chauvin | Fr. | Redshirted last season |
| DEFENSE |
| DT | Johnny Mitchell | Jr. | 23 tackles and 1 sack |
| NG | Anthony McFarland | Sr. | 6 sacks, second best on D line |
| DE | Jarvis Green | Fr. | 16 sacks as a high school senior |
| OLB | Arnold Miller | Sr. | Independence Bowl defensive MVP |
| ILB | Joe Wesley | Sr. | Made team-high 105 tackles |
| ILB | Charles Smith | Jr. | 10-plus tackles in three games |
| OLB | Theo Williams | Jr. | 9 starts as freshman; none in '97 |
| CB | Chris Cummings | Sr. | Converted WR had just 1 int. |
| SS | Raion Hill | Sr. | 65 tackles, tops among DBs |
| FS | Mark Roman | Jr. | 4 int. in '96, 1 in '97 |
| CB | Fred Booker | So. | 11 games, 12 tackles |
| P | Jeremy Witten | Jr. | Pooch punter with 35.0-yd. avg. |
|
Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are from 1997 season.
Pivotal Players
Senior tailback
Kevin Faulk missed two games and was slowed in several others last
season by a hamstring injury yet still gained 1,144 yards.
Herschel Walker's SEC career rushing record is 1,981 yards
away and not out of reach. The Tigers
are 15-2 when Faulk rushes for 100
yards.... New Orleans native and four-year starter
Herb Tyler brings senior experience at quarterback. He passed for
1,581 yards and 10 touchdowns last season but is also a
threat running the option. He rushed for 50 yards and two
touchdowns in last year's upset of
Florida.... SEC
All-Freshman right tackle
Trey Langley is one of three returning starters on the offensive
line....
Anthony (Booger) McFarland,
a
6'1", 290-pound senior noseguard, is the leader of a
defense that should benefit from new coordinator Lou
Tepper's streamlined
scheme.... Senior linebacker
Joe Wesley is the fourth Tiger in a decade to make more than 100
tackles in a
season.
Key Games
Schedule strength: 29th of
112
Sept. 19 at
Auburn
An early pressure game on the road. Louisiana State hopes
to avenge last year's heartbreaking 31-28 loss in Baton
Rouge.
Oct. 3 vs. Georgia
LSU drops Vanderbilt and picks up the Bulldogs in the SEC's
biennial schedule rotation. Nice trade, huh? Plus, the next
opponent is Florida, which will be hungry to reverse last
year's 28-21 loss at Tiger
Stadium.
Nov. 21 at Notre Dame
A tough nonconference matchup, with a game at Arkansas
still to
come.
X Factor
The Tigers need to play every week like a team that belongs
in the Top
10, not like one that's occasionally trying to upset teams in
the Top 10. It's all in the
attitude.
Bottom Line
With a veteran team and games at Auburn and Florida, LSU
has a chance to enhance its ranking with two quality wins
and, in doing so, win its first SEC championship in the
DiNardo era.
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