Miles treats Alabama
by Joey Martin - posted Thursday, November 8th, 2012 @ 9:18 am

It turns out Les Miles did not need the trickery, as a matter of fact he should have given that bag of tricks out at Halloween. What he needed to do and what he's been needing to do is take the handcuffs off of quarterback Zach Mettenberger.

Sure, Mettenberger has been spotty. But going by the play-calling going into Saturday's Alabama game and the coaching staff's reluctance to let him loose, it's no wonder.

They finally took the kid gloves off of the strong-armed QB and he delivered in a big way. Unfortunately, Miles did not.

The Mad Hatter took off the Hatter part Saturday night and made several questionable decisions.

The faked field goal and attempted 54 yarder have been well documented.

I liked going for it on fourth down, but bringing in Spencer Ware and letting him run it up middle was questionable at best. Mettenberger was deadly on the short passes and I liked when they rolled him out, which Alabama was not expecting.

Also do not understand not getting Russell Shepard the ball more on misdirection plays.

But the main thing is the effort was there.

I seriously thought the game was over and done at halftime. You will not find another team in the nation battle back from a 14-3 deficit against Alabama.

I doubt you will see the Crimson Tide tested like they were Saturday night the rest of the year.

The bad news for the rest of the college football world is that two of the most outstanding players from that heavyweight battle were freshmen - both running backs.

LSU versus Alabama will set the tone for the national championship next year and a few years after that.

November is sweeps month. I doubt you will see CBS allow that game to be moved up any earlier.

Something tells me when the two teams meet in Tuscaloosa next year (Game Day and 7 p.m. kickoff), the Crimson Tide will once again be carrying the title of Defending National Champion and both teams will be ranked in the top five.

Right now it appears LSU is headed for the Sugar, Capital One or Cotton Bowl.

The crazy thing is the Cotton Bowl may be the most intriguing as far as match-ups are concerned.

Sugar Bowl would probably mean facing Clemson, Louisville or Rutgers.

Capital One would probably be Michigan, Nebraska or Wisconsin. I do have to admit LSU's defense against Denard Robinson would be fun to watch. Not to mention the whole Michigan-Miles angle.

But the Cotton Bowl could be LSU against Oklahoma or Texas.

But there's still three weeks left and anything can still happen (LSU still has to go to Fayetteville, which has never been easy).

A top five finish is again possible, and considering the way LSU looked against Auburn, Florida and even Towson, that looked like a long shot.

Let's just hope the Mad Hatter keeps his tricks under his hat the remainder of the season. He gave away too many treats Saturday night.