Excuses, excuses, excuses

BATON ROUGE - Several LSU football players on Monday said they were not used to losing, which makes a lot of sense. The Tigers have been one of the winningest programs in the nation this decade. The 51-21 disaster movie at Florida Saturday was the Tigers' first loss in regulation since 2006, if you don't count LSU's overtime losses as losses.

What that game really was was LSU's first butt kicking since 2005 when Georgia slapped it around 34-14 in the SEC Championship Game. That's what the players are not used to.

The people really not used to LSU losing in such a fashion, though, are the fans and the many fans disguised as media members. The explanations I'm hearing for LSU's Lossesville in Gainesville are hilarious, ridiculous and delusional.

Here they are.

- Florida is great. It would have beat anyone in the nation on Saturday.

Uh, Florida just lost on Florida Field to Ole Miss, which is 3-3 and fired its coach just last season. Florida played well, but LSU played horribly. LSU's coaches also did not do a good job adjusting as the game went on.

- Florida is so fast and talented.

Uh, LSU has as much speed and talent as Florida. If not, then everything people have
been saying and writing about LSU coach Les Miles' recent recruiting classes are not true. Rivals.com must be wrong.

LSU didn't all of a sudden get slow and not talented. The problem is even the fastest players look slow when they are not in the right place, or in LSU's case, when they're still running onto the field or do not know the play before the ball is snapped.

LSU is starting three first-year starters in the secondary, but I've been hearing for months how talented they are. Are they are suddenly not talented? Or are they not being coached properly? Don't tell me Chad Jones is not fast and talented. LSU's
coaches need to start showing more speed and talent in getting the plays out there, picking the plays and preparing their players.It might be a good idea to decide on the best 11 and quit trying to substitute so much.It's great to try to match up well with an offense by inserting a fast guy, but not if the sub doesn't know the play or is in position
in time. I'd rather a slower guy who knows the play and is set.

- LSU had nothing going for it coming into the game. Florida had everything to play for. It had a loss. Its back was to the wall. Ricky Jean-Francois' comments fired the Gators up.

Uh, good teams win regardless of what it has going or not going for it on a given week. They just win regardless of the game hype. Jean-Francois' comments had nothing to do with the game. He had no vicious intent in making those statements. Jean-Francois is just a guy who likes to talk. The comments were not even taken that seriously by the Gators.

They were already fired up. And none of Jean-Francois' comments were "misinterpreted" as LSU said, and as so many papers just bought hook line and sinker. His comments were also not blown out of proportion or taken out of context.

That's just more of LSU's apologist media at work.

- Here's the best one. One LSU media member said that he knew the Tigers were going to lose just before the game because of the atmosphere at Florida Field.

Uh, LSU won amid as strong and loud an atmosphere at Florida in 2002 and 2004 and could have won in 2006.

Atmosphere? Are you kidding me? Should LSU have worn space helmets? Would that have done it?

Sometimes, you just get your butt kicked, and there is no explanation other than you were not a good team that day. Now the question remains is LSU any good. Again, all LSU has this season is a win over a bad Auburn team. That and a lot of excuses.