The Crimson Tide exposed LSU’s mental weakness

The Alabama coaching staff exploited the one thing LSU’s money can’t buy: Patience

The connection between football and war is a long one.

The parallels between them have been drawn frequently, dating all the way back to the inception of the sport. The Alabama victory over LSU made those same connections in my own brain. Those connections were not the usual names and places of American conflicts like Chickamauga, Jackson, Arracort, or Patton. My military history-soaked grey matter instead dug back further to a brilliant commander whose accomplishments were sadly neglected by the Alabama Public School system: Flavius Belisarius.

A century after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, and in the shadow of its conquest by my scalp-taking, skull-cup-a-swilling Germanic ancestors, Belisarius, a native of semi-barbarian Thrace (modern day Bulgaria), was given the title Magister Militum, and sent forth to subdue the barbarian hordes and take the fight to the Sassanid Persians along the Empire’s Eastern border. Always short of troops, supplies, and support he went on a three-decade tour of the Mediterranean Basin doling out ass kickings to Goths, Persians, and everyone in between.

His approach to war relied on exploiting the mental weaknesses of his opponent as much as battlefield clashes. This was long into the twilight of the Legions, and his own troops were barely equal in quality (and usually inferior in quality) to the Germanic and Persian opponents he was tasked to defeat. In most every case a frontal clash was the option of last resort. Belisarius instead used the enemy commanders’ own aggression to maneuver the into a disadvantage before striking. It was that approach that Saturday’s ass kicking of LSU, twigged in the dusty recesses of my frontal cortex.

Alabama faced a similar challenge on Saturday. The transfer portal, injuries, and youth left Alabama at a disadvantage against LSUs Sassanid-like level of roster spending. The on-field matchups overwhelming favored LSU.

As a two-score underdog, Alabama’s own Magister Militum, Kalen Deboer, along with bucellarii Wommack and Grubb, elected to strike at LSU’s greatest weakness: their brains.

This version of LSU is built on the big play.

Lane made his name audibling in to create huge chunk plays on-field and flinging clipboards into the air. Blake Baker’s aggressive defenses do much the same with less damage to the office supplies. Naturally, 2026 LSU mirrors those coaches with a scrambling, bomb-tossing QB, and a downhill, QB sack-leading defense.

Patience is a four-letter word on both sides of the ball in Baton Rouge. The Alabama staff exploited that lack of patience masterfully. The defense played off-coverage, denying Leavitt his highlight reel tosses. Spying linebackers did mostly the same for the big scrambles. Those underneath throws were met with teeth rattling tackles from ‘Bama defenders. The Alien Trey’dez Green got his catches, to be sure. But they were seven-yard gains, not a xenomorph running free in the second level.

Offensively, Grubb mixed runs, screens, and quick passes to deny the LSU defense its chance at sacks and TFLs. Kiffin and Baker’s rising frustration levels were written plain across their faces as the game wore on. Meanwhile, Leavitt’s frustration boiled over in a more tangible way. In the Tigers’ critical end-of-half drive, already trailing 10-3, he threw one of the stupidest picks you will ever see: a meatball directly into a seven-man zone, with three red jerseys around the receiver. Luke Metz made the play, but there were two other ‘Bama defenders standing behind him to make the easy interception as well.

It was only when the LSU offense closed into the red zone that Alabama unleashed it’s own counterstroke. Instead of drop-8 coverage, Wommack unleashed full boogie, cover-0 right
into the face of a confused Leavitt.

Grubb hit Baker’s’ defense (and ego) with his own flanking attack, scoring two laughably easy touchdowns on a WR end around, and a TE delay.

Lane himself short-circuited. Denied the dopamine hit of huge shock plays, and feeling
the squeeze of a familiar crimson trunk around his neck, he started trying for riskier and riskier 4th down conversions — using some laughably predictable play calls. Wommack had the counterpunches waiting, and Alabama stopped every single one cold, setting up the Tide offense to rout the Tigers.

The LSU defense, long denied its chance to hammer the slippery Russell, ratcheted up the
aggression. When shown a TE screen which had gashed them on the opening drive, they compulsively attacked and left Cederian Morgan with an easy over-the-shoulder touchdown reception to put the spatha through the ribs of LSU.

Although winning football games can be an exercise in exploiting matchups between superior athletes, by creative play design, or by simply bringing the hardest skull to the headbutting contest, there is also a deeper approach to victory that exploits the mental weaknesses of the opponent. In this age of parity, the indirect approach of a Thracian general from 1500 years ago, an approach that attacks the one thing teams can’t buy, may be the way to tilt the football field in the Crimson Tide’s favor.

Patience.