My first post this year, really enjoy the board and everyone's opinions. The way the game played out was the best thing that could have happened for this team. Marcus Randall, as great as a guy that he is, was not going to lead us anywhere this year. You don't play players for being good people or 5th year seniors in big time college football. He is not a good passing quarterback. I posted the same opinion in threads after last year concerning the qb situation. If you have tivo or taped the game, look at these few things. 1. Pocket presence- Watch how when Jamarcus is in the pocket how he feels the rush while still looking downfield. He side steps guys and makes people miss instinctively. He gets back in his drop quickly and is so huge he can really see the field. He looks confident and comfortable. Randall has no feel for the pocket, looks rushed, and just doesn't have any feel for the play beyond the primary receiver. He basically has looked the same since 02. Plus, he's not nearly as tall as Russel which really helps with passing downfield. 2. The ball they throw- Randall can't even get a spiral on the ball with any consistency. He shotputs it, and the ball consistently has a downward angle which causes it to drop and be harder to catch. He is not accurate on short or deep throws. Russell throws a beautiful ball, has a huge arm and showed some nice touch last night. Pass to Green was perfect off his back foot. He threw some really accurate crossing routes hitting the receiver in stride. He threw some off the mark as well, but it was his first game. He'll only get better. 3. With the wide receivers we've recruited, we need a great paser to utilize their skill. With Randall, we're a running, option type team with an extremely limited passing game. With Russell we can run and throw downfield. If we drop a few this year due to his inexperience, I can live with that. He will be, in my opinion, the best qb ever at LSU and be the first pick in the draft when he comes out. OSU has a good team and played a great game. Well coached, solid D and a good qb. Definitely a top 25 team who will give sc a game in Corvallis. Also, the pac 10 is pretty good. When you can throw the ball well in college football, its a huge advantage. These teams out here can throw it and have spread type offenses. USC, OSU, OU, CAL are all top 25 teams. We beat a good team last night. I don't think the pac 10 gets its due in sec land as well as the sec not getting enough respect out here on the left coast. The defense is still really good and will not allow us to lose more than 1 or 2 games. Rain hurt us a little bit evening out the speed. Need to work on the kicking game. Still, exceptional talent with a great coach, now we win these type of games. We are an elite team, we'll have a great year, we may not win the NC, but with the Russell era begining there is another one out there soon.
