Hot Boudin, Cold Cous-Cous...

No Media Coverage, No Problem:

Now that the national media has finished exhausting every highlight, stat, and blurb from Week 1, I was rather surprised how little coverage LSU was given this weekend. I first noticed late Saturday night, not able to even stay up late enough to see highlights (if any) on SportsCenter. Then again, if your team is not Notre Dame, Ohio State, Texas, or USC, there’s a good chance no more than twenty seconds will be spent on you, anyway. But still, I remember the days when highlights of every top-25 team were requisite, no matter the opponent. And don’t get me wrong, UL is no Arkansas or Georgia Tech, but I’d like to hear at least LaRon’s name dropped every so often.

Or maybe not. As long as I’ve been alive, LSU has never handled media coverage well. Some notable examples are 1998 and 2004, the former we returned Faulk, Mealey, and Tyler but still tanked (see: DiNardo, G.), the latter, we had been hungover since January 5^th that year.

Let's face it, the man's greatest contribution was 'White Out Vandy' in '95

Last year, we received ample media coverage for all the wrong reasons; still, our players and fans either lost their television, had no power, or were generally just too distracted to even notice. A sidenote: if you’re feeling altogether too pessimistic about this season, remember how inconceivable a record of 11-2 was last year, given the circumstances. I know it sounds played out, but I really think the month of September built a great deal of character for 75% of the team. Whether that matters in two weeks or not remains to be seen.

If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have LSU mentioned once before Gameday September 16^th. But we’ll be mentioned more next week, and rightfully so—Arizona doesn’t come to Baton Rouge very often. This game worries me in every aspect, especially when we’re running the ball, and that’s a whole other column. But right now, I like to think that we’re looming in the doldrums of 8-15^th ranked teams—our coach isn’t on Nike commercials, Herbstreit thinks we’re on the way down, and there’s no Heisman in sight. And for these young athletes with something to prove, that’s fine by me.