LSU’S CHANCES OF “TAKING OUT TEBOW?” SIGNS SAY: NOT LIKELY.

  SNL, like every media outlet from “Mike and Mike” to “Pardon the Interruption,” reported yesterday that LSU DT, Ricky Jean-Francois, was quoted as saying that LSU wanted to “take Tebow out” if possible.  Jean-Francois left little wiggle room when he responded to a follow-up question by noting that Tebow “could get medical treatment Sunday” from Florida’s trainers. 

As you might expect, the silver-tongued Jean-Francois has since been called upon to conduct damage control and offered this prepared written statement in hopes of explaining what he meant when uttering yesterday’s illy worded barb:

My comments in regard to Florida quarterback Tim Tebow were misinterpreted and were intended to reflect the style of football that we play at LSU. We have great respect for Tim as a player and a competitor. By taking him out of the game, I meant as a defense we are going to try to make him ineffective. I’m sorry that my initial comments were interpreted another way.”

SNL will ignore the obvious, which is that Jean-Francois-who was suspended last year for..uhhhh…”academic insufficiencies”-clearly did not author the passage above, which reads more like a remiss CEO’s contrived statement of contrition than a forced apology from a 6″3 290 lb. quarterback-seeking cyborg on the eve of a showdown.  However, this is to lose the forest for the trees.

 Any objective football fan (a term used loosely in the context of the SEC), especially one who has spent anytime playing football, knows that this is G-rated stuff which yields little , if any, pragmatic use for either team outside of the standard “bulletin board material” that fans love to regurgitate in the days before a big game.

That said SNL has heard from LSU fans all week, each less eloquent than the last, but  all unified in their belief that LSU’s defensive line is the equivalent of an unstoppable force of nature that will spare only those who kneel before it from total destruction.  SNL, fearing for the women and children caught in the wake if this bellicose group of cajun hellions, was considering relocation until he discovered the following pearl:

LSU is 11th (of 12) in the SEC in sacks per game. Even better, Jean-Francois, utterer of the now infamous threat of bodily injury to Florida’s quixotic leader, Tebow, has one sack through 4 games.  For purposes of comparison, Gator fans may want to know that Florida is 3rd in the SEC with 13 sacks through 5 games.  These are interesting numbers considering that sacking the QB is a perceived strength for LSU, and a perceived weakness for Florida. 

The upshot, Gator fans, is that Florida’s offensive line may lose some battles this Saturday, but will win some too.

-So Sayeth the Shepherd