Paul Myerberg

USA TODAY Sports

It was comical to see LSU’s name plastered not just among the short list of teams projected to contend for the national championship but, in more than a few cases, atop the list itself.

The Tigers entered the first weekend of the season ranked No. 6 in the Amway Coaches Poll and No. 5 according to the Associated Press, even earning a first-place vote in the latter.

LSU? Only if defense alone wins championships, which in this day and age of college football is as antiquated a notion as, say, the idea that you can use roughly the same offensive system as a decade ago and expect to find anything close to similar results.

This is a program with an offense problem. Run left, run right; overload to the right, run left; pass on third down, maybe. Someone once said — and it wasn’t a football coach — that insanity is best defined as repeating the same action again and again while expecting different results. Welcome to LSU under Les Miles.

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It’s insane. It’s also remarkable: That the coaching staff has been able to reel in this level of talent and still not make an inch of progress in formulating an offensive vision is actually an achievement, in a strange way. What’s more remarkable is that Miles was given a second chance to remake LSU into a title contender and has seemingly changed nothing at all.

This offense will again serve as the program’s Achilles heel in 2016, as seen most clearly during a 16-14 loss to Wisconsin that completely erases all of the goodwill accumulated during an otherwise positive offseason.

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It’s just a tired and old refrain: LSU with the talent and experience and athleticism to win championships but without the system or sideline leadership needed to even be a true factor in the race in the Southeastern Conference.

It’s days like this that remind you why the university nearly fired Miles late last season — because it wasn’t working, and teams and programs that stand still tend to fall to the back of the pack.

As a program, LSU has ceded miles of ground to Alabama, to the point where comparing the two programs does the Crimson Tide a disservice. Here’s a question: Is LSU closer to a national title today than Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, even Auburn or Texas A&M?

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This was forgotten during the offseason. LSU has a quarterback, it’s been said — and then Brandon Harris goes out and completes 12 of 21 attempts with two interceptions in the loss to the Badgers. The offense is ready to take the next step, it was suggested — and the offense gains all of 257 yards, 138 of those from Leonard Fournette, who could not get in the end zone.

It’s embarrassing. It’s also comical and laughable, this idea that LSU would suddenly turn into a title contender after winning a combined 17 games during the past two seasons.

So what is LSU in 2016? The same as LSU of 2014 and 2015 — it looks like a team that does nothing with one of the most talented rosters in all of college football. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it is. But don’t cry for the school or its program, which willingly elected to bring back Miles rather than change course. They wanted it; they got it.

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