Antiquated football thought strikes again

Here's the ASU/LSU prediction from Rivals.com's Chris Wallace.  Silly justification below:

With all due respect to Arizona State, (I admire what Sun Devils coach Dirk Koetter has done in his four years in Tempe) the Tigers probably have more high school All-Americans on their 2005 roster than ASU has landed in the last decade

The same thing could have been said before last year's LSU game against Iowa, right?  Now, maybe it's true, that LSU's talent overwhelms Arizona State.  But I have my doubts.  I really don't have any idea which way this game will go.  Neither team is in a great position.  ASU, after all kinds of road prep in anticipation of noisy Tiger Stadium ("Death Valley"), is playing at home.  The home crowd could be pretty small given the last-minute change of locations, hardly the ideal "home field" advantage normally given to nationally ranked OOC foes.  They will have no idea what Les Miles' offense and defense will look like.

For LSU's part, they don't have a game under their belt, have had to deal with the hurricane cleanup, and may not be all that ready for a tough road test.

Basically, both teams have great built-in excuses.  I'm hoping for, more than anything, an interesting ballgame.

But the outcome probably hinges less on talent than on what team is further along in its system and preparations at this point. 

Comments

[CollegeFootballNW]

Honestly after seeing BSU get pounded last week my gut says I should say something along the lines of "Talent does play a huge, gargantuan role...so LSU by 10 blue chippers and 40 points..." But what does your gut feeling mean in relationship to college football? Who knows.

Aside from the obvious talent difference, ASU won't know exactly what to expect offensively or defensively from the Tigers, true. However It's not like Les Miles won any national titles at Ok. St by surprising anyone. I expect LSU to run the ball, run it some more, than maybe pass. Or run. ASU will make adjustments accordingly to whatever proportion LSU play's out and life will probably go on.

Finally and probably most importantly (Oh no, not the gut feeling again...) maybe it was just watching the Saints and Raiders game, but I don't see LSU playing at 100% after something like Katrina.