This Year's National Title Should Once Again Run Through The SEC

An SEC team has won the BCS National Championship the last five football seasons, and this year should be no different.  While Alabama continues to improve each week as their young Quarterback AJ McCarron matures, LSU is looking like the most dominant team in College Football in all three phases of the game.

LSU dismantled 16th ranked West Virginia, 47-21, in Morgantown, boasting a ferocious NFL-style defense which features many playmakers, including two future NFL first day defensive ends -- sophomores Sam Montgomery and Barkevious Mingo, who are athletic freaks with the ability to crash upfield on every down.  They also run and chase and create havoc from the backside on both running and passing downs.  The Tigers are two-deep at defensive end and defensive tackle, featuring as many as 7-8 future NFL defensive linemen.  

The defense also has an athletic linebacker corp and the best cornerback tandem in CFB, in future NFL corners Morris Claiborne and Tyrann Mathieu.  I featured Mathieu after the Oregon game, and he continues to make big plays -- intercepting a pass, recording 6 tackles, forcing a fumble, breaking up a pass and downing a punt at the one-yard line vs West Virginia.  His play vs the Mountaineers earned Mathieu the Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week honors -- the week after Claiborne won the award for his play vs Mississippi State.  The defense also has Senior safety Brandon Taylor, who has good range, ball skills and solid instinct for the position.  He also picked off a pass vs WVU.

What makes this LSU defense so smothering is their speed, toughness and depth, which allows them to utilize a number of looks and schemes.  They also have the athletes in the secondary and on the defensive line to play a lot of press and man coverage.  It's a unit that starts four sophomores and one true freshman, so as scary as it may seem, they should only get better as the season progresses.

However, as dominant as LSU's defense has been so far in 2011, the one thing that may separate this LSU team from other Tigers teams of the recent past, is their offense.  Senior QB Jarrett Lee continues to improve each week, becoming more of a playmaker and not simply the game manager we saw in spot duty over his first three seasons in Baton Rouge.  Though the offense welcomed back dynamic playmaker Russell Shepherd Saturday night, Lee has found a few new weapons while waiting for Shepherd's return, including the dynamic running back duo of Sophomores Spencer Ware and Michael Ford, along with TE Deangelo Peterson and Freshman speedster, WR Odell Beckham.  Junior WR Reuben Randle has improved his consistency and has given Lee a tall, angular presence and a go-to receiver.  The offensive line has also been solid and physical.  The offense, like the defense, is young, starting seven underclassmen.

So far, LSU team is the one dominant team in CFB and should only improve as November 5th and a trip to Tuscaloosa looms.