LSU has the pieces for a title run. For Les Miles’ sake, the Tigers better make one.

Check out the advanced-stats glossary here. Below, a unique review of last year’s team, a unit-by-unit breakdown of this year’s roster, the full 2016 schedule with win projections for each game, and more.

First things first: Baton Rouge and a lot of Acadiana are currently dealing with the effects of historic flooding. Much of the region has been declared a disaster area, and thousands have seen their homes flooded or outright destroyed. (SB Nation contributor and And The Valley Shook co-manager Billy Gomilla is among them.) My thoughts go out to those in the region, and if you’re interested in helping in any way, I recommend starting with this NOLA.com link.

(Reminder: It’s always a good idea to read as much as possible into the organizations you’re donating to.)

This is a mere football preview, and I will therefore talk about football now. But just in case we needed another reminder, football is just a sport.

Let’s recap approximately the last nine months of Les Miles’ career:

Miles was forced to come to grips with his coaching mortality last November, then survived.

He is beloved and embattled. He heads into 2016 with high expectations and excitement ... and he’s basically one bad quarter away from ending up right back atop hot seat lists.

This is all very strange and, yes, very LSU.

Regardless, LSU does appear loaded and experienced. The Tigers still have Fournette, and two of the biggest issues of 2015 -- shaky run defense and shaky quarterback play -- could be rectified by the hire of Aranda and further seasoning for junior signal caller Brandon Harris.

Injuries are piling up for the front seven on defense, and the Tigers are just an injury or two away from playing a lot of freshmen at receiver. There is still plenty that could go wrong.

The vibes around this program are confusing, but on paper, LSU is ready for a run.

The upside is undeniable; we saw it for about three-quarters of last season.

This is Bill C’s daily preview series, working its way through every 2016 team. Catch up on the SEC so far!

I was nearly appalled at the thought of firing Miles over what amounted to three bad weeks.

LSU could expect to field an improved defense and its best offense in years in 2016. Odds are decent that the Tigers still won’t be as good as Saban’s Crimson Tide next year.

Does that warrant a change? From an outsider’s perspective, no way in hell. Coaching changes are terrifying crap shoots. And LSU should know that as well as anybody. The Tigers have become permanent members of the ruling class because they nailed two straight hires: Saban in 2000, Miles in 2005.

But that’s hard to do. LSU might be two-for-two, but the Tigers are also two-for-five.

This is college football we’re talking about. Lost perspective is assumed. When a rival -- one coached by a man you used to employ -- is doing better than you after beating you in a national championship rematch, you start to think crazy thoughts, like, “I’m so sure we can do better that I’m willing to pony up an eight-digit buyout to roll the dice.”

Make no mistake, though: These were three really, really bad weeks.

Now, most teams play better in wins than losses. That’s not exactly uncommon. But the difference here was stark.

The response to this was interesting. While the defense was a clear cause of LSU’s poor play -- you can’t allow 6.5 yards per play to good teams and expect to keep up -- most of the blame seemed to get placed on quarterback Brandon Harris. “Les Miles can’t develop quarterbacks!” became an overbearing narrative.

To be sure, Harris was awful in November. But it was more of a funk than yearlong awfulness.

Harris wasn’t ready to poke holes in elite defenses like Alabama and Ole Miss. (And it bears mentioning that Texas A&M’s defense was No. 2 in Passing S&P+.) But he was also a true sophomore. Even with a superhero at running back, a first-year starter is usually going to struggle against Alabama.

Note: players in bold below are 2016 returnees. Players in italics are questionable with injury/suspension.

I get it. I watched him in November, particularly against Alabama (6-for-19) and Texas A&M (7-for-21). I understand the concerns about Harris.

But I also watched him against South Carolina, Florida, and WKU, when he completed 63 percent of his passes for seven touchdowns, no interceptions, and a 186.9 passer rating. And I watched him in the Texas Bowl, proving fully capable of torturing a defense so fully focused on stopping Fournette.

Yes, there were issues, but that is to be expected. Eight SEC teams primarily featured first-time starters at QB in 2015, and among them, LSU was fourth with a Passing S&P+ ranking of 32nd. And none of the three teams above the Tigers (No. 2 Ole Miss, No. 15 Alabama, and No. 27 Georgia) was starting a true sophomore.

In four to five non-sack carries per game, Harris ran efficiently, and for most of the year he provided passing vertical enough to overcome inefficiency. When you’ve got Fournette, you are allotted a little margin for error, and Harris was an awesome complement for much of the season.

The next step in his development is obvious. LSU’s 2016 fate will be determined in part by his ability to avoid outright duds and do a little more damage against good defenses. That means quicker reads, occasionally more accurate throws, etc. It means normal development, in other words.

The “Can’t develop QBs!” meme has been interesting to watch. LSU had one of the most devastating passing games in the country in 2013, and Jarrett Lee and Jordan Jefferson developed well enough to combine for a 147.6 passer rating as seniors as LSU went to the BCS Championship.

“Miles can’t develop QBs!” really comes down to “LSU’s first-time starter has struggled against Alabama for two straight years.”

I think there was another factor in how we viewed Harris’ 2015 performance: we resented him in some way for blowing it for Fournette.

Fournette, an all-world recruit who has lived up to his hype nearly from day one, needed help that he didn’t get late in the year. And fair or unfair, he was swiftly eliminated from Heisman contention because of it. He finished with 2,206 combined rushing and receiving yards and 23 touchdowns but fell to sixth in the voting.

Regardless, Fournette is everything he was supposed to be, and we get him for one more year before he leaves to make actual money. What he did to Auburn last year, he will probably do to someone else. He might do it a lot.

Fournette injured his ankle recently in practice, which reminded us of debates about injury risk and the ethics of forcing someone to play amateur football for three years even if he was pro-ready at 18. The injury doesn’t appear serious enough to keep him out. Here’s hoping we get plenty of opportunities to see a healthy Fournette in LSU’s Mardi Gras colors this fall.

The line appears solid, with three returning starters and a couple more with rotation experience. But for Fournette and the run game to click, they will obviously need the passing game to come through in key moments. Harris is under pressure, but the receiving corps has some pretty big question marks.

The main question: What happens if Malachi Dupre or Travin Dural get hurt? The top three backup wideouts are gone, and LSU got little from the tight end position last year.

Dural injured his hamstring against Ole Miss and then gained weight in the most understandable way (Popeye’s addiction), but it appears he’s fit and ready.

Ducre and Dural combined to average a solid 9.3 yards per target over about 11 targets per game. For their careers, they have averaged 19 yards per catch with 23 combined touchdowns. They are spectacular play-action weapons, but there will come a time when they need to make plays against a defense that is actually having some success against Fournette. Can they? And can Harris get them the ball? (And who’s the No. 3 target? Tight end Colin Jeter? Sophomore Jazz Ferguson? A junior like D.J. Chark or Russell Gage?)

Kevin Steele’s only LSU defense wasn’t bad. The Tigers ranked 29th in Def. S&P+; they boasted an elite pass and passing downs defense and dominated the first quarter, giving the offense a chance to build a cushion. But the run defense was a little too leaky, and for one reason or another, LSU gave up huge ground in third quarters -- opponents averaged 2.1 yards per carry with a 126.0 passer rating in the first quarter but 4.4 and 168.7, respectively, in the third.

Steele was hired away by Auburn, and one didn’t get the impression that Miles was fighting too hard to keep him. And in need of a new man to lead the D, he made a spectacular hire.

In 2010, Aranda took over as Hawaii’s coordinator and improved the Warriors from 109th in Def. S&P+ to 78th. He took over the Utah State defense in 2012, and the Aggies improved from 96th to 12th. He followed head coach Gary Andersen from Utah State to Wisconsin 2013, and his first Badger defense improved from an already impressive 16th to 14th. After brief regression to 29th in 2014 (thanks in part to a complete rebuild of the front seven), Wisconsin surged back to eighth in 2015.

Aranda’s Wisconsin defenses were aggressive and efficient; the Badgers ranked 16th in Success Rate+ last year but also prevented big plays and stiffened in the their territory, allowing only 3.3 points per scoring opportunity. They were well-rounded and intense, and while there were a few former star recruits, the caliber of athlete was nothing like what he inherits in Baton Rouge. His 2016 defense will be experienced and fast, and thanks mostly to good size up front, it appears the Tigers should transition from 4-3 to Aranda’s 3-4 with minimal pain.

Though lineman Christian LaCouture is lost for the season to injury, LSU returns a vast majority of last year’s two-deep in the front seven and loses only one defensive back. This could be fun to watch.

It’s been a good news, bad news situation in fall camp. Losing LaCouture hurts, and outside linebacker Isaiah Washington is out as well. Fellow outside linebacker Corey Thompson is expected to miss a few weeks with a fracture near his ankle.

But the addition of JUCO transfer Travonte Valentine offsets some of that loss. Valentine wasn’t expected to reach eligibility but did, giving the Tigers a serious hoss to hold down the nose guard position.

Valentine is a favorite of SB Nation’s recruiting analyst, Bud Elliott, who told me this: “Valentine is one of the most physically gifted huge defensive tackles to come out of high school in recent years. A rare athlete who can be explosive at 330-plus pounds, like an Albert Haynesworth. If he picks up the defense quickly and is in shape, he could be an instant difference-maker in the best division in college football.”

Valentine gives Aranda flexibility. Other potential nose guards like Davon Godchaux and Greg Gilmore could flex to end if need be, and he could occupy enough blockers to free up not only linebackers but fellow lineman Lewis Neal, who emerged as a strong pass rusher last year.

Run defense will be the key, though. Linebacker depth has taken a hit, but if players like Kendall Beckwith and Duke Riley can flow to the ball well, and if LSU suffers fewer run glitches, a dominant pass defense will take it from there.

About the only negative thing I can find to say about the LSU pass defense is that the Tigers could have held onto a few more interceptions. They had only one against ranked opponents (and in the SEC West, they’re going to face plenty of ranked opponents), and their ratio of INTs-to-breakups was a bit on the low side.

That’s a pretty mild concern. With what should be a pretty strong pass rush helping out, LSU’s secondary looks dynamite. Safety Jamal Adams is dynamic, and the top three returning cornerbacks (Tre’Davious White, Kevin Toliver II, and Dwayne Thomas) combined for 6.5 tackles for loss, one interception, and 18 breakups in 2015. And with Jalen Mills missing the first five games of the year, senior Rickey Jefferson got plenty of reps to prepare for succeeding him in 2016.

The LSU defense faces the opposite scenario as the offense -- if the run D holds up, the pass D will dominate. It might regardless.

It felt odd to see LSU combining mediocre punting with nearly nonexistent returns, but that was the case for the Tigers in 2015, who got only four kick returns of 30-plus (75th in the country) and one punt return of 30-plus and allowed a nation’s worst 18.9 yards per punt return. Granted, not many of Jamie Keehn’s punts were actually returnable, but those that were ended up very poorly for LSU.

Keehn’s gone, and place-kicker Trent Domingue transferred over the summer, but this probably isn’t the worst time for a special teams reset (even if the return men are all back).

For reasons good or bad, this is going to be fascinating. This LSU team is more experienced and put together than any since 2011. Even with the late-season funk, the Tigers still finished ninth in S&P+ last year, their best finish since, again, 2011.

There will be plenty of opportunities for LSU to slip up before November. The Tigers have between a 69 and 80 percent chance against Wisconsin, Mississippi State, Auburn, Florida, and Ole Miss, and S&P+ says the odds of starting 8-0 are only about 16 percent.

Still ... this feels like a one-game schedule, doesn’t it? Or at least, it feels like LSU’s season begins on November 5, when Alabama visits town.