LSU's 2011 Football Roster: What Actually Happened
The 2011 LSU Tigers are one of those teams people still argue about. They went 13-1, won the SEC East, lost to Alabama in the conference title game, and then got blown out by Oregon in the BCS National Championship. But before any of that, there was a roster built mostly on raw talent and some questionable decisions at quarterback. I've spent more time than I'd like looking at film from that season, and honestly it's a case study in how good players don't always mean a good system. Let's just lay out the actual roster. The quarterback situation was the first problem. Batiste, Lee, Mettenberger were the main names, but the truth is no one in that group was putting it together. Bradie Echols and Jordan Jefferson had departed the year before, leaving a vacuum that Matt Flynn's departure made worse. Lee was experienced but inconsistent. Mettenberger was a true freshman throwing behind a line that couldn't protect him. Spiller was the workhorse running back after Michael Bush left for the NFL, and Alfred Blue provided solid backup work. On offense you had Kenny Vaccaro and Eric Reid as the safety duo who were basically All-Americans before either of them even turned 21. Eric Reid in particular was the kind of player who made plays you didn't expect, reading routes and getting hands on balls before anyone else reacted. The linebacker group was where that team really lived or died. Kendricks was everywhere. The Kendricks brothers Barry and Terron formed one of the most physical linebacker units in college football at the time. Barry Kendricks had a knack for showing up at the point of attack whether he was supposed to be there or not. Barkevious Mingo was a pass-rushing specialist who recorded 7 sacks that season despite barely being used in the running game. Tyrann Mathieu was the free safety coming off his freshman year where he led the nation in pass breakups. His presence alone changed how offenses approached the secondary.
What most people miss about that roster is the depth. LSU had guys like De'Anthony Thomas-type speed in the returning players, but not at receiver. The receiving corps was thin. Russell Shepard was the main target but he was inconsistent. Terrance Copper and others couldn't stretch the field consistently enough to complement the run. This is why Nick Saban figured them out in the championship game so easily. You pressure the quarterback, you force Mettenberger to check down, and you make one-dimensional plays over and over. I remember going back to review the championship tape after the season, trying to find what went wrong defensively since they had been so dominant earlier. The answer was simple: Oregon's offense just moved the ball at a pace that disrupted LSU's ability to substitute and get fresh legs onto the field. That's not a scheme problem, that's a tempo problem. We've seen this exact scenario repeatedly in college football, and it usually comes down to recruiting speed more than anything else. If you want the full roster breakdown, you can find it on the official LSU Athletics website or in the NCAA record book. The defensive statistics from that year are particularly interesting. LSU allowed just 14.1 points per game through the regular season before the Alabama game changed everything. The offense averaged 30.5 points per game, which sounds good until you look at the games against lesser opponents where they scored 40-plus. Against quality competition, the numbers dropped significantly.
The 2011 roster is still talked about because it was close to being great. Not quite great enough. That gap between almost and enough is where most college football programs live, and LSU had a front-row seat to it that year.
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