The season ahead – Despite a tough schedule, Top 10 finish is in reach

What would summer in Baton Rouge be if we didn’t have questions about LSU football?

Like, can a defense gutted by early NFL departures reload to keep pace in the national championship chase?

Will new offensive coordinator Cam Cameron make just enough difference in the senior year of quarterback Zach Mettenberger?

How will the Tigers respond if star running back Jeremy Hill is lost to legal woes? And is that schedule too much to overcome?

Last year, LSU wasn’t good enough to win the Southeastern Conference Western Division with a roster that included first-round draft picks Barkevious Mingo and Eric Reid, second-rounder Kevin Minter, third-rounders Bennie Logan and Sam Montgomery, and Tharold Simon and Lavar Edwards in the fifth round.

And yet LSU should be among the nation’s best again on defense, despite fielding an untested line. Linebackers like Tahj Jones, D.J. Welter and Lamin Barrow should be right up there with the best, and the Tiger secondary that includes Craig Loston, Jalen Collins, Jalen Mills and Ronald Martin will challenge everyone.

Cameron takes over an offense that was run last year by offensive line coach Greg Studrawa, who filled a dual role the past two seasons. Now, Studrawa is back to focusing only on the O-line. It looks to be a great one.

That means life will be easier for Mettenberger, who at times last season showed why he was once one of the top recruits in the nation but also he made the mistakes of a quarterback who hadn’t played in a situation like running the LSU attack before.

Mettenberger, the product of Athens, Ga., was kicked off the Georgia Bulldogs as a freshman, starred at a junior college, and then he carried the clipboard for the Tigers in 2011. A year ago, Mettenberger started all 13 games in LSU’s 10-3 season. Mettenberger completed 207 of 352 passes for 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions and, frankly, this season he is hoping for far more lofty numbers since his top targets return in Jarvis Landry, Odell Beckham Jr., Kardon Boone and James Wright.

A lot of optimism was generated when Les Miles hired his old friend Cameron, who not only was once the head coach of the Miami Dolphins but, for most of last season before he was fired in December, served as offensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens. Of course, the Ravens went on to win the Super Bowl. Cameron’s presence is no small thing in the grand scheme of things. He should push Mettenberger to a higher level on the field.

However, Cameron doesn’t enter the fight with LSU’s best player. That would have been Redemptorist product Jeremy Hill, who lost his freshman year as he worked a plea deal that kept him from being a sex offender for an incident his senior year of high school. Midway through last season he was inserted into the lineup, and he promptly lead the Tigers with team highs of 775 yards and 12 touchdowns, twice as many as his closest teammate. That happened to be Kenny Hilliard, who rushed for 477 yards and five TDs. Hilliard figures to be the focus of the running attack if Hill is not available.

Hill was involved in a fight earlier this year, and, because he was on probation, was not with the team as of press time in mid-July.

And then there’s that schedule.

It’s tough enough that the last seven national championships have been won by SEC teams. The Tigers have to go to Georgia on September 28. They have Florida at home on October 12. LSU goes to Alabama on November 9, and then Texas A&M comes to Tiger Stadium on November 23. These four games will decide the season, both for the Tigers and the BCS title picture.

Georgia represented the Eastern Division in the SEC title game against Alabama. Florida and Texas A&M were both one game away from winning it all. ? And Alabama? If you’re reading this and don’t know about Alabama and Nick Saban and all that means to LSU, well, Google it. Just make sure that you are sitting down.

LSU should care of business in the other eight games, split the four tough ones, and just like last season, finish 10-2.

It’s not quite good enough for a national championship, but it should keep the Tigers finishing in the Top 10 once again.

SAT 8/31 TCU at Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, TX 8 p,.m.
SAT9/7 UAB at Tiger Stadium
SAT 9/14 Kent St. at Tiger Stadium
SAT 9/21 Auburn at Tiger Stadium
SAT 9/28 Georgia at Athens, Ga.
SAT 10/5 Miss. State at Starkville, Miss.
SAT 10/12 Florida at Tiger Stadium
SAT 10/19 Ole Miss at Oxford, Miss.
SAT 10/26 Furman at TIger Stadium
SAT 11/19 Alabama at Tuscaloosa, Ala.
11/23 Texas A&M at TIger Stadium 1:30 p.m.
FRI 11/29 Arkansas at Tiger Stadium 3 p.m.