LSU Football: Why Paul Finebaum thinks the Tigers are in trouble

Is LSU football in trouble after a season-opening loss to the UCLA Bruins?

Or can this team recover and make a run the rest of the season?

According to SEC Network host Paul Finebaum, it’s the former.

Finebaum said on the College Football Live Podcast that he believes the Tigers “have problems across the board” while saying that LSU’s new coordinators looked “clueless” against UCLA.

Paul Finebaum had some harsh criticism for LSU football

That wasn’t the end of Finebaum’s criticism for the Tigers.

In fact, it got worse from there.

Here’s what else Finebaum had to say (via 247Sports):

"Nothing gets more overhyped than the LSU defense,” Finebaum said. “Their run defense got gashed. I didn’t expect that to happen. Stingley looked pedestrian at times. I think because of Nick Saban we think you can switch coordinators and not have a drop off. It affected him a couple years ago. Just think about LSU for a second. If you rank the tough games on LSU’s schedule, UCLA was nowhere near the top. They have to go to Alabama. They have Florida, which we don’t know much about yet. Naturally, they have an Auburn team that gutted them last year. They’ve got Texas A&M on the road. Who knows?”"

The defense definitely has some major issues. And with new a mostly new staff on that side of the ball, there’s no guarantee it gets better. The defensive line, which wasn’t perfect, was the only unit that looked above average on Saturday night against the Bruins.

Finebaum’s point about Stingley is also interesting. Stingley missed most of fall camp due to a nagging injury, so it’s doubtful he was 100 percent on Saturday. But even a less-than-100 percent Stingley is better than nearly every defensive back in the nation. At this point, it feels like Stingley hasn’t progressed since his true freshman season. We know what kind of talent he has, so that’s something we can put on the coaching staff.

LSU certainly has a lot of work to do. The adjustments from week one to week two will be key. Fortunately for the Tigers, they get a “scrimmage game” against McNeese State in week two. That will be a great opportunity for LSU to fix the issues that plagued the program against UCLA.

If those issues get fixed, then LSU has the talent to make some noise in the SEC West. But if those issues aren’t fixed, it could be a LONG season for Tigers fans.