Oh, it’s worse than you ever imagined.

Yes, Les Miles was meddling in the LSU game plans all along.

Must think the head coach should have a say or something.

Most blatantly, he occasionally would suggest specific play calls, often at critical junctures.

You knew it would all come out eventually.

If LSU hasn’t taken the handcuffs off offensive coordinator Cam Cameron, at least it did take the muzzle off him.

Cameron, who is rarely made available to the media other than a token appearance at the team’s August media day, was front and center and totally unleashed this week in an appearance at the New Orleans Quarterback Club.

As so often happens these days, the whole thing is available on YouTube.

OK, maybe that was what’s known as a false tease at the top of this essay.

Cameron didn’t exactly spill the beans on what went wrong with an offense that ranked 77th in the nation in total offense and 114th with a passing offense that often seemed to regress as the season went on.

Or why no matter which quarterback the Tigers’ played — Anthony Jennings or Brandon Harris — it always seemed to be the wrong one.

“I have to be honest with myself, I think I could have done a better job,” Cameron said of handling two young quarterbacks.

He wasn’t dealing, he noted, with a Drew Brees or a Joe Flacco or a Philip Rivers, all of whom made his NFL coaching days easier.

Or even a Zach Mettenberger, the fifth-year senior Cameron inherited for his first season on the LSU staff.

He suggested maybe they put too much on Jennings and Harris early. Information overload.

“We had young guys. They were different than a fifth-year guy like Zach Mettenberger,” Cameron said. “I’m evaluating how I’m teaching and try to streamline some things to help Anthony play better, help develop Brandon Harris. I think both of our guys are going to be really productive quarterbacks, but I’ve got to do a better job.”

With LSU’s offense floundering around aimlessly early on, the final straw was a humiliating loss to Auburn six games into the season. Cameron said the Tigers went back to basics to “establish an identity.”

It wasn’t flashy. Basically the Tigers lined freshman Leonard Fournette deep in the “I” and leaned on an offensive line that got better and better.

“It allowed us to regroup, take some pressure off of our quarterbacks a little bit,” Cameron said.

“Nobody wants to be the offensive coordinator, the head coach, the quarterback, of an offense that’s like watching paint dry,” Cameron said.

“Sometimes you have to take your offensive ego and put it aside to win the game.”

It worked in wins over Florida, Kentucky, the big upset of Ole Miss, even had LSU within a whisker of upsetting No. 1 Alabama.

But Cameron said he knew the Tigers were living on borrowed time with such a simplistic approach in today’s football world.

“We all know that approach usually doesn’t last and it eventually caught us,” Cameron said, presumably meaning the Arkansas game in which LSU had its fewest yards in 39 years.

But LSU bounced back with Plan C for a more dominating performance against Texas A&M than the 23-17 final score would suggest.

“I think we were smart enough as a staff, for coach Miles, to say, ‘OK now we have an opportunity going into the A&M game to maybe head a little different direction.”

So the Tigers added the quarterback read-option to the mix. If Jennings couldn’t throw, maybe he could run. If the receivers couldn’t get open, maybe Travin Dural could contribute with the jet sweep.

“Are we going to be a huge zone-read team? I don’t know,” Cameron said. “But the threat of the zone read helps you in so many ways.

“It’s a little bit of a balancing act for us because we do believe in some traditional things, and a guy like Leonard benefits from those traditional thoughts where we can put him 7-8 yards behind the quarterback and let him run downhill. We’re going to continue to do that, mesh those two things together.”

Cameron also addressed the hot topic item of the play-calling.

Yes, he said, Miles often makes suggestions. After all, he’s on the staff.

“It’s a total staff effort,” Cameron said. “In critical situations, headsets really go pretty quiet in every level because that’s what you (offensive coordinator) are charged with. At some point in time as a coordinator, you’ve got to make that call.

“I can hear two or three guys and I’ve got to filter it in my brain. What do I feel like is the best call? Or I might get a suggestion. Yeah that’s a great call, but I wouldn’t call it now. I have to set up his call. You’ve got to know how to set up a guy’s suggestion.

“Five or six minds are better than one, but sometimes I know I’ve got to make that call. That’s how we do that.”

In the Ole Miss upset, the Tigers, having run the ball every play from their own 10 to a first-and-goal situation, scored with a pass to Logan Stokes, the most forgotten of all of their lonesome tight ends.

“That was Les Miles’ call,” Cameron said. “Les made a great call. He phrased it as a suggestion, but it was a great thought. Great head coaches understand how to work with a play-calling coordinator throughout the course of the game.”

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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU

athletics. Email him at

shobbs@americanpress.com(Associated Press)    

David J. Phillip