That may be so but for some reason we seem to run out of time-outs before the end of each half in almost alll the big games. His decision making, in conjunction with Miles' brain freeze, cost us in the Tennessee game last year and the Auburn game this year.
Don't have any idea where you're getting your info, I assume its gut instinct and p&g colored glasses, but he is the 4th rated QB coming into the draft (potential candidates). That won't get him in the 1st round.
The Tennessee game was the worst. That's when almost all of LSU land thought Miles was way in over his head taking this job. Luckily, his game management has improved somewhat.
Well, I know that he's rated as the #1 Junior QB. Of course Quinn will be before him, but I find it hard to believe that Drew Stanton would be drafted before Jamarcus. Troy Smith is debatable, but I think come draft time, JR's upside would be too hard to pass up. If he comes out he'll be the 2nd QB taken. Behind him will be Smith, Stanton, and the kid from Houston (Kevin Kolb I think). Of course no one knows for sure what would happen, but this is my best educated guess. There's quite a bit of shuffling that goes on in the days and weeks leading up to the draft. Anything before the combine is pure speculation.
QB projections (rough general estimates) 1. Quinn (top 2 pick) 2. Brohm (top 8 pick) 3. Stanton (anywhere from mid first round to late 2nd round) 4. Smith (he's all over the map, early first to mid 3rd round) 5. Russell (anywhere from early 2nd to early 3rd) 6. Kolb (mid 2nd to mid 3rd) I did see one publication with having Russell going to the Bucs at the 7th pick. Of course, like you said, its all speculation.
I agree with your projections on Quinn and Stanton (although I've seen Stanton mostly in mid-late 2nd round). Troy Smith is tough to guage as there really isn't any consensus at to where he will go. However, from what I read on Russell he is likely the 2nd QB taken. No worse than the 3rd QB taken. Likely somewhere in the late 1st round. I don't know where you've gotten your info on Brohm. I know that Mel Kiper has him behind both Russell and Colt Brennan as far as Junior QB's are concerned. He may be behind Henne as well.
I have perused about a dozen mock draft publication onlines, so I figure it would be a decent measuring stick. This just in, Mel Kiper is not very good at prognosticating drafts, even though he makes a living at doing it. Of course ESPN employs him, so take that for what it's worth. Another talking head, basically, with a bad hairdo.
Several of these publications don't even list Russell because he is an undeclared junior. Even so, the buzz is that LSU could have 3-4 possible first rounders: Landry, Russell, Dorsey, and after the last few games, Bowe. Russell's QB rating is too high to be considered a poor decision maker, and the knock against him that he can't win the big game just got shot down by looking at the Tenn & Ark games. The quality that continually gets mentioned about Russell is that he does not get rattled and always has a calming effect on his team. That coupled with his many 4th quarter comebacks shows a maturity that most college quarterbacks never develop. The only thing that will keep Russell at LSU this year( besides an adequate insurance policy ), will be the lure of our favorable schedule next year, possible NCG, possible Heisman, and possible top 5 in draft, which would all = tremendous $$$. If Russell has a good-great game in whatever bowl we go to (especially vs Michigan ), his stock will certainly garner a first round pick. I wish him the best, but feel comfortable with the qb's we have backing him up. I guess it all speculation and we will certainly know soon enough. Do we really have to wait an entire month to see them play again???!!! Think I will go nutz!! :helmet::helmet:
Of course JR's year and relative success has been a very contentious subject on this board. It's a mixed bag that definitely got a boost with the Arkansas game. Up until then, you could easily argue he hadn't stepped up in the big games and that he obtained most of his tremendous stats against really poor competition. And I think that would be a fair assessment. You look at the Tennessee game and you basically saw the 2 diametrically opposing sides of JR in the same game. On one hand he drove down the field and scored a very clutch last second touchdown, something he has definitely has had the knack for in his career at LSU. On the other hand, much of LSU's undoing during that game was directly caused by JR himself. His very erratic play in the first 3 quarters put us in the hole we were in that he himself got us out of, ultimately. Therefore, the "mixed bag" result as I described. The Arkansas game was that game management type game that I personally had been waiting to see in a game of critical importance. He threw for 200+ yards, a couple of TDs with no interceptions. And LSU would not have won that game had he been erratic. To his credit, he shined brightly in that game. I refer to that game as JR's stepping up to that next level. What he does on a massive national stage in hopefully the Rose Bowl against a very formidable opponent will go a long way in determining how he himself feels his chances are as well as how NFL scouts view him. I'll just put it this way, I hope he goes to the NFL. That would tell me that he performed so masterfully in the Rose Bowl that it warranted his departure to the next level. And if that is our last memory of him, he will forever be immortalized as one of the all time greats to don that LSU uniform.
