With fall camp opening, Les Miles had a chat with the media yesterday and opened up about a couple of topics. The coach summed up the unique situation his team is in as he enters his eighth season on the Bayou:
“The great news is that this is a team that has tremendously achieved and is very, very talented, but they didn’t get it done (last year). It’s a team that had the best record in college football and, yet, they didn’t get it done. It’s an interesting position to be in…
(High preseason rankings are) a compliment to the body of work that’s gone on here. Nobody in this room feels like there’s anything guaranteed anybody. It’s only earned last.
There’s a necessity to learn from your past experiences. The good news is it was last year.”
While most publications have LSU ranked in the top three of their national polls, the coach made it clear there’s still plenty of opportunity for freshmen to step in and play. “If this freshman class isn’t ambitious about where they play, how miserable,” he said. “If they come in just thinking they’re redshirting, what a miserable way that would be to approach a great year because we need everybody. This freshman class has to step into their role and play aggressively.”
If they do — and if the team avoids a hangover from last season’s BCS title game loss — it’s hard to imagine LSU not finishing near the top of the BCS rankings come December.
