kadillak

Doesn't Miami already have Teddy Bridgewater committed in this class? He's the number one QB in the country, I believe. Obviously that depends on if he keeps his commitment which is impossible to tell at this point, but there's hope for a better QB. LSU is one of his options so hopefully he backs out and heads to BR! If not, we'll "settle" with Zach Mettenberger and Stephen Rivers.

Arkansas does need South Carolina to lose to Auburn in the SECCG, too. If South Carolina wins, they get an auto-bid to a BCS Bowl and Auburn still would have a shot at being #2. Depends how much SC moves up in the polls this week and the margin Auburn can create coming off of the win over Bama. A conference can't have more than two teams in BCS Bowls so Arkansas would be left out. How sick is the SEC West this year? Auburn, Arkansas, LSU, Alabama, and Mississippi State all in one DIVISION, not conference, DIVISION. Alabama came in FOURTH in the DIVISION. Unreal.

BSU kicker on suicide watch?

Yep. Not only should Ridley be able to rack up a lot of yards, but LSU should be dialing up the run time after time tomorrow to keep the clock on their side and the Arkansas offense on the sidelines.

Monster hits hard in the ride. That's all I know.

The talent level is overrated? Um...look at LSU's recruiting classes under Miles. We've pulled in top 5-10 classes almost every year, including the #1 class two years ago and possibly again this year if we close out as expected. Additionally, Louisiana is known to be one of the top talent-rich states in the country, and where do players from Louisiana go? LSU. (minus Joe McKnight & Trovon Reed). And our defense took a step down? We improved drastically last year and we are one of the top defenses in the country this year. Yeah, take out the three best players on anyone's defense and that pulls its level down several notches. Fact is, LSU is one of the best defenses out there and will only get better as it is a very young group with a lot of depth that only gets better with an elite haul on the DL in this recruiting class. My only complaint is that Chavis hasn't figured out how to stop the read-option deal that Auburn and Ole Miss both tore us apart with, and that's mostly because LSU's defense is fast, but a little undersized up front. I think this problem will be resolved next year with some of the size we have coming in. You're right on Jefferson, but he has come A LONG way since the beginning of the season. He makes some stupid decisions and his mechanics are AWFUL, but his confidence is very high right now and he's been playing well these past few weeks. Hopefully he can continue improving and putting together games similar to the Alabama and Ole Miss performances. You're assessment about Miles calling these options and read-option plays couldn't be any more wrong. That's a Crowton staple. Crowton is the one with the spread background and he is the one calling the plays. Miles is a Big Ten type coach who likes to line up in Power-I and run it down their throat. The playcalling has nothing to do with Miles wanting to boast the "Mad Hatter" deal. He gets that name for pulling the trick plays out of his hat, not because he calls the offense. And I'm not going to defend Crowton on that. I've hated in for two years now and I, along with most people in this state, want him gone. And, from what I've heard from a few sources, Crowton is coaching his last two games at LSU. We'll have to see if that's true. Fact is, LSU wasn't even suppose to be in the title discussion this year. We are an extremely young team that was expected to go 9-3 at best. 2011 was suppose to be when everything aligned for LSU to truly compete for a title with experience and all of the talent lining up. Well, we apparently are a year ahead of schedule, and our only loss to this point is to the best team in the nation...uh yeah. Call Les Miles an idiot and LSU lucky as all get out, but the guy has put together FOUR seasons with 10+ wins and a national title in the SEC. You can't argue with his success. And we'll be back next year, and the year after, and the year after. Les isn't going anywhere. The players love him, he's winning, and his recruiting is off the charts. And you know what they say, "better to be lucky than to be good".

Geaux Tigers Should see a heavy dose of Stevan Ridley tomorrow.

Went back and edited with explanations. Meh, Eminem hasn't impressed me this year. He's worked very hard jumping on everyone's projects -- I'll give him that. I liked "Recovery" for a little while, but I don't ever play any tracks from it anymore. "Space Bound" was cool. A lot of the album seemed really corny, and it just got old very quickly. Him yelling into the features has gotten more annoying than Lil Wayne on autotune. I'll say this...he did a good job on "All She Wrote" with T.I., the two Bad Meets Evil tracks with Royce that leaked were solid, and the track with Dr. Dre sounds promising. Been a GREAT week for Em. Plus we haven't heard that track with Banks yet and supposedly he's dropping a mini-album or a re-release in December as a follow-up to Recovery. If that turns out well, he can easily bump up in there. JMO.

1) Kanye West Outworked everyone in hip-hop this year. Free weekly tracks with dream collabos for the fans. He put together a contender for the album of the year in "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". Unreal production. A short movie. G.O.O.D. Music is growing. Oh, and he's working with guys like Pete Rock, Q-Tip, and Jay-Z for his duo album with Hov called "Watch The Throne". Very impressive. 2) Nas "Distant Relatives". Just delivered positive message after positive message, and "Patience" is a contender for song of the year. Also, there's a small chance he drops Lost Tapes 2 some time in December. I believe there was a release date set for early December, but I think the label moved it back and Nas got angry, so idk if it has a legitimate chance of coming out any time soon. 3) Jay-Z Nothing solo, but he has killed it on the features this year. He turned in the best verse on Drake's feature-heavy "Thank Me Later" album. He has an outstanding verse on Rick Ross's "Free Mason". Good verse for "Hot Toddy" on Usher's album. He's turned in two or three solid verses for Kanye's weekly drops. A solid verse on Jay Elec's "Shiny Suit Theory". Doing work on "Watch The Throne". Put out a book -- "Decoded". Oh, and his Roc Nation label is growing well and just signed the most coveted unsigned rapper in Jay Electronica. If he successfully promotes Jay E and J. Cole and gets real hip-hop back on the radio, Jay-Z will be a lot of people's heros. 4) J. Cole Put a J. Cole post on your blog and watch the comment numbers blow up in minutes. Put a link to his new mixtape the day it comes out and watch your site's servers get overloaded. Friday Night Lights was one of the most anticipated mixtapes the internet has seen in a few years, and it didn't disappoint as it is easily a contender for mixtape of the year. He's got unreal buzz for someone who hasn't put out a debut album yet. Cosigns from his boss, Nas, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, etc. Held his own with Talib, Mos, and Jay Elec on "Just Begun". Murdered B.o.B on "Gladiators". Outdid Kanye West, Big Sean, and Pusha T on "Looking For Trouble". Despite the disappointment of him not releasing his debut this year, Cole has kept his buzz and continues to build his fan base without selling out. 5) Talib Kweli Almost put Joe Budden instead. Can't go wrong with either. Did some great work on "Revolutions Per Minute" with Hitek. "Ballad of the Black Gold" and "Just Begun" are two songs that are still in heavy rotation on my iPod even several months after the release. Talib could have done better on the album, but he still did his thing and I liked the project a lot. Additionally, he's been jumping in on some interesting tracks. He dropped a solid verse on Nelly's "Go" track. Solid verse on Kanye's "Chain Heavy" track. "Papers Please" was a good track. I also wanna say he stepped out of his zone and collaborated with someone like Gucci Mane or something. Dunno how that verse went, but he did some hard work this year and dropped some really good verses this year. I'll put in an explanation today or tomorrow. That's just based off of content from this year. Overall, my top 5 artists would be probably Blu, Nas, Jay Elec, Lupe, and Ye.

Can't wait 'til Act II actually drops. He's already dropped two songs since signing..."The Announcement" and "Shiny Suit Theory" with Jay-Z. "The Announcement is on repeat.

Well, while he was gone, G.O.O.D. Music and Roc Nation passed Young Money significantly in talent, and the leaders (Kanye and Jay-Z) have been tearing it up all year. This verse shows no signs of him 'taking back over'. However, I did like the cataract line. I'm rootin' for Wayne, but this just isn't gonna cut it when Ye and Jay are stacking up talent.

Not all mixtapes are free... (see Joe Budden's Mood Muzik 4)

Not even 1/3 of this is old... Blow Up, Premeditated Murder, Villematic, Back To The Topic, and Higher are the only ones that were out before the tape (minus the tracks he leaked last week, plus Villematic was kinda of a 'lead single'). I guess In The Morning could be considered old, but he threw an extra verse and a feature on there. 5/19 =/= 9.5/19

Before I'm Gone, 2Face, See World, Farewell, Enchanted, Best Friend, and Cost Me A Lot are all favorites of mine.

Yeah, I'd give FNL the slight edge over MM4. Both are amazing though. Cole never lets down.

The explicit version that leaked still isn't CDQ from what I've heard.

Yeah, I get why they don't fit, but he should have had those two as bonus tracks if anything. Chain Heavy and Mama's Boyfriend should probably be on the actual album. Because Kanye's one of my favorite artists, and I really like the album. I might actually just buy one to start out with, 'cus I still have to get Cudi's and then I might grab either Banks or Curren$y's. Too hard to tell right now. Not gonna attempt to rank them simply because it's too easy to get caught up in the hype and excitement of having the brand new album. Musically / production wise, I think it's better than both. Lyrically, I don't think so it's quite on that level. There's some clever wordplay, but I don't know that the common person can relate to this album as much as his past ones.

Solid song. Reminds me of Nelly's "E.I.". Samples Janelle Monae's "Neon Valley Street". Feels like the "Ladies" (off of The Warm Up) track of the tape. Only 1 more day! Before I'm Gone is amazing, btw.

This is a great album musically. "Blame Game", "Dark Fantasy", and "Devil In A New Dress" are probably my favorite tracks. "All of the Lights" was a let down track for me, but it's still a solid song. "So Appalled" and "Monster" are solid songs, but they seem very random on this album. The breakdown on "Devil In A New Dress" is extremely impressive. Also like the interlude to "All of the Lights". Wish I had the dirty version though. I'll be buying 2 copies later this month.

good

Eminem needs to quit yelling. His verse was good, but the delivery was terrible and makes the song almost unbearable. I understand that's his part in this song, but you can show anger without sounding so pathetic.

I've been bumpin this pretty heavily since I got it a few days ago. Not the most lyrically impressive album I've listened to, but it's just a nice album to chill and relax with. To be honest, I like most of the songs on the album, and I like the Marijuana track a lot even though I don't smoke. heh. I think All Along is my favorite on the album though.

This is honestly a contender for the worst song I've heard all year.

It's a bunch of different songs in there. All Of The Lights Runaway Gorgeous Blame Game Dark Fantasy Lost In The World plus he chopped up the Power beat in it really good stuff...a lot of symbolism and a lot of creativity coming from a hip hop artist

Definitely in contention for the year's best mixtape. Love "1000 Faces".