SCOTT:

   Saban envy

That’s why LSU fans get so bent out of shape about Nick Saban.

That’s also why LSU fans still question Les Miles.

Nick Saban made Les Miles and LSU look ridiculous Saturday.

LSU won and Alabama lost, but that game proved who the better coach by far is and just exactly how much LSU lost when Saban left.

I write what fans are too partial and warped to see, and for the objective and unbiased like myself, Miles is a clown compared to Saban.

LSU is a dumb, undisciplined, manic football team which is a direct reflection of its coach.

Alabama is a savvy, disciplined, smart football team which is a direct reflection of its coach.

Fortunately for LSU, its brilliant bodies make up for its puny brains and with great senior leadership and Saban yet to fully institute his program and character in Tuscaloosa, that was enough to win, but the writing is on the wall for the future.

LSU fans aren’t primarily hostile toward Nick Saban for the way he left, or the way he came back, or who he came back to, or what he’s said about Louisiana, they’re melting down because they know Saban has the ability to take what he built in Baton Rouge and transfer it to the Capstone while they stumble back into another 30 year malaise if they don’t find the right guy to compete with him.

Les Miles is not the right guy to compete with Nick Saban.

He’s not smart enough. That was patently obvious for anyone watching this weekend’s game who didn’t have their face painted and wasn’t running a .20 blood alcohol content.

If Nick Saban was coaching this LSU team, it would waltz to a national title undefeated not stumble and bungle around like it’s doing now.

Do you think Tyson Jackson commits that late hit personal foul with LSU up 17-3 and ready to put the game away if Nick Saban, and not Les Miles, is his coach? Not a chance in a million.

Don’t forget, that was almost Jackson’s second fatal late hit penalty this season. He’s the guy whose late hit against Andre Woodson in overtime at Kentucky bailed the Wildcats out of a terrible down and distance allowing them to go on and win. That’s twice. Nick Saban doesn’t allow players to make stupid, critical, unforced errors twice. He coaches it out of them.

LSU may yet cross the finish line this season #1, but it will be in giraffe-on-roller-skates, hold on tight, Indiana Jones fashion.

This LSU team is far too talented to need to rely on the astonishing, death-defying finishes it has escaped with recently.

But it’s a dumb team. Dumb teams make things hard on themselves when they should be easy. That goes back to Les Miles.

Doubt me?

Explain the 4th and inches gimmick formation which resulted in a false start penalty, personal foul and ultimately a punt return for a TD.

I’ll explain it.

Poor coaching.

With LSU’s superior talent, there’s no reason to be tricky on 4th and inches. Line up, give the ball to Jacob Hester, get first down. A coaching staff outthinking itself.

Player takes his helmet off drawing a personal foul. Lack of discipline. Lack of coaching.

Give up a long punt return for TD. Lack of focus in a critical moment. Lack of coaching.

LSU has easily the most talented team in the SEC yet has played its last four opponents to razor thin margins, losing one of those games.

Alabama has a team that is in the middle of the pack when it comes to personnel, yet gets every ounce of ability out of those guys and plays with a poise and presence far exceeding the youth and level of success those players have experienced.

Why?

Nick Saban.

Nick Saban is a brilliant football coach and it’s only a matter of time before he has the Tide back in Atlanta. Watching Alabama play Tennessee and now LSU, that matter of time will be much shorter than I, or the rest of the SEC, was hoping for or counting on.

That’s why LSU fans are so irate about him.

If Gerry DiNardo returned to the conference next year to coach Arkansas or Ole Miss, LSU fans would laugh, not steam. DiNardo is no threat, Saban is a huge threat and every LSU fan knows it.

Les Miles is a fine football coach and probably a decent guy.

Nick Saban is elite, and while he may be the biggest horse’s rear end in Dixie, that doesn’t take away from his genius on the sidelines.

LSU fans know what they’re missing and they’re hacked off over it and there’s only one person to vent that frustration upon, the guy who spurned you, Nick Saban.

Call him all the names you want, he deserves it, but there isn’t an LSU fan alive who wouldn’t rather have Saban leading the Tigers than Les Miles.

And this is the least talented team he’ll ever have.