(AP) – If the 2012 season plays out as Les Miles envisions, the Tigers will look much like the team that fell one victory short of a national title last season.
Even as Miles looks forward to a more potent passing game with new starting quarterback Zach Mettenberger, he still expects LSU to be defined largely by its dominant defense and deep, powerful running game.
“I hope things don’t change too much,” said Miles, a guest speaker at a Rotary Club lunch on Tuesday, noting that LSU’s 13 victories in 2011 set a single-season school record.
Miles also promised that LSU fans would see some unfamiliar wrinkles in the passing game, largely because of Mettenberger’s skill throwing down field.
“We’ll throw it more efficiently, and we’ll throw it down the field a bit better,” Miles said. “I believe that Zach does those things maybe incrementally better than any other quarterbacks we’ve had maybe since the national championship year with Matt around.”
LSU has some promising young receivers in Odell Beckham and Jarvis Landry, but Miles also mentioned senior Russell Shepard, who has yet to live up to the billing he received as a recruit, as a player whose maturity and work ethic may have finally caught up to his talent.
He described Shepard as “more humble, more understanding of what it’s going to year.”
Shepard and the rest of LSU’s returning players may never completely get over their 21-0 loss to Alabama in last season’s national title game in New Orleans. Yet Miles sounds increasingly comfortable talking about that setback and hopes his players will as well.
During this offseason, Miles took the unusual step of planning social outings such as picnics with the Tigers, which gave Miles a chance to stay in better personal contact with his players during the period between the end of spring practice and the beginning of fall camp, which this year begins Aug. 1. The events included guest speakers, one of which was a Navy Seal who offered poignant perspective on the bitter end to last season, Miles said.
The soldier told the Tigers that when a Navy Seal makes a mistake, he hopes it only costs him his own life and not the lives of others. He also talked about how soldiers are not bashful about showing their scars from battle.
“I think we’re still healing from that last wound we suffered,” Miles said. “And I think our team will understand that we will eventually be stronger and will eventually want to show our