Defensive Pressure; LSU very, very good

The LSU defensive line, Ricky Jean_Francois and Glenn Dorsey especially, was flat unstoppable after the first Ohio State series.  What would LSU have been if Dorsey was healthy and Ricky Jean-Francois (all time name team candidate, especially at LSU) would have been eligible.  RJF blocked the field goal that turned the tide of the game in the second quarter with the score tied 10-10.  LSU scored the next 31 to put the Buckeyes away.

Ohio State played hard but the LSU corners took away the wideouts early and the dline then pressured the QB to throw up some easy picks and it was over when LSU got the pick and made it 24-10.  No way Ohio State was going to score 17 unanswered on the Tigers and hold a very diverse LSU offense scoreless.  To their credit, the Buckeyes fought to the end but to no avail.  LSU's second national title in 5 years.

Proponents of the Plus One will point to this vote/decision to make LSU the champion as the reason that we need a Plus One.  Who you going to leave out?  USC, Georgia, West Virginia or Kansas?  The Jayhawks deserve to be in the discussion with their win over Va Tech.  Ok, if you go more than plus one then when does it start?  What happens to the Bowl system?  Is the student-athlete being best served by a playoff?  The grind of the regular season takes a toll and the kids are there to get an education.  If there ever is a Plus One, or playoff, the powers to be need to be sure that some sort of stipend for all players at the D1 level.  $500 a month each year sounds like a fair number; with head coaches making in the 2 to 4 million range and coordinators at 250k, seems to me that 100 million for the D1 football scholarship participants each year could be carved out of the pot of money generated by any playoff system.

Been a great year and I've enjoyed it tremendously, 2008 looks to be another exciting year for the game we all love, college football.