WBRZ - Baton Rouge

You've heard it all before, and you're hearing it again.  It's time to move on.  Nick Saban made the phrase famous seven or so years ago, and it's making a comeback following LSU's latest loss to the former coach.

Les Miles said it's time to move on Wednesday night following four days of complaining about officials calls or lack there of from the Alabama game.  The Tigers got "jobbed" by poor officiating both on the field and in the replay booth.

But like Cher said in Moonstruck, "Snap out of it."  No amount of crying and moaning is going to change the score, and there are no "mea culpa's" rolling down from Birmingham.  It's history, just like LSU's BCS Bowl game chances.

What lies ahead now though, is still something very much worth fighting for.  With three games remaining on their schedule LSU has a very good chance at winning all three and finishing the regular season with a 10-2 record.  That would mark the fourth time in five years that LSU finished with double digit wins.  In fact should LSU go on to win their bowl game, they would finish with an 11-2 record, the same record Les Miles started his LSU career with in his first two seasons.

While the double digit win record would be great, and a better bowl game would also be awesome, there is still something else that would give LSU more traction in the SEC arms race.  An 11-2 finish would prove that LSU could not only compete with, and even lose to, the two of the top teams in the country, but that they could rebound and still have a successful season following those losses. 

LSU fans are fearful of, and Bama fans are prematurely thinking the mantle has been passed to Alabama for the foreseeable future.  Well that may be and easy summation considering Alabama has beat LSU for the last two seasons and then gone on to represent the SEC West in the Championship game.  But a rebounding like the one possible this year would go a long way to proving that it's not so much a shifting of power, but more about who makes the plays on one single Saturday during the fall when these two teams meet.

I feel that these two clubs will be the yin and yang of the SEC West for years to come.  When one is up, the other will be down, each team graduating talent, and then reloading for another run.  Bama may have gotten LSU's goat this season, but they will graduate their talent, their linemen and their running backs and then LSU will have their turn of the wheel.  The question isn't when will it happen, but rather will LSU have moved on and be poised to once again compete with the top teams in the country.