http://www.sportingnews.com/cfootball/ultimate/sec//articles/20021119/440224.html LSU sticks with Randall as starting QB November 19, 2002 Print it BATON ROUGE, La. -- These are tough times for Marcus Randall. That's because these are tough times for the LSU offense. When LSU doesn't do well, the quarterback is the first target for unhappy fans. "I'm going to just try to keep doing what I've been doing," Randall said. "The pressure comes to the offense because you've got to score points to win games and we haven't been scoring." LSU has lost two of its last three games since Randall replaced the injured Matt Mauck at starting quarterback. Against Alabama, Randall completed just 6-of-17 passes for 39 yards and had a key fumble that stopped LSU's most promising drive. Randall was pulled in the fourth quarter for redshirt freshman Rick Clausen, who finished the game completing 3-of-6 passes for 26 yards. Being replaced bothered him at first, Randall acknowledged, but he still feels he's the leader on the Tigers offense and will get better. "We haven't been real effective as an offense," Randall said. "I take that for myself and the rest of the team and just go out and try to get better, find the problems and fix them and keep moving on." The LSU offense needs to improve and there needs to be more consistency from the quarterback, coach Nick Saban said. But he does not plan to replace Randall. "We do not anticipate any changes, but we're going to work with both of our quarterbacks and develop them the best we can, utilize the talents of each one, relative to what they can do to contribute to the success of the team," Saban said. "That's no different from what we've done the last three or four weeks." Not all the offensive problems are because of Randall, Saban emphasized. Poor pass blocking, bad route running, dropped passes, and the lack of a strong running game against Alabama all contributed to the problems. "I think we have to get more consistent play offensively and that probably starts right there," Saban said of the quarterback situation. "But we also have to dominate the line of scrimmage, control the ball and use the strength of our team, which to me is to be able to run the ball effectively and make plays in the passing game." The problems on offense are not from a lack of effort or inattention on Randall's part, Saban said. "It's Marcus' competitive nature to want to do well," Saban said. "He puts a lot of pressure on himself to do well. Sometimes I think he tries too hard and it might be affecting his performance to some degree." It has been hard to not take it on himself to try to make every play work, Randall said. He's learning to use the players around him. He has also learned to shake off the last play and the last game and look ahead. Saban hopes the fans will do the same. He hopes they will remember that Randall is young and learning. "This is all just not about the quarterback," Saban said. "Marcus Randall, I've always said, is a young quarterback and everybody around him has to play well and help him."
Actually - Randle has proven he can perform against weaker defenses . .he looked really strong vs. USC and judgeing by the stats . .looked pretty good vs. Kentucky. Ole Miss does not have a stong defense like Bama and Auburn and you may find that Randle is exactly what you need to counter the Manning. Who knows. . at least he has experience. The key for most teams to beat Ole Miss is to outscore them. I'm not sure LSU can outscore them with a new QB. . .however, with Randle, Toe, and Davis . maybe
Chuck, good point about starting a new QB. I think a few big plays may decide this one. We'll need to have a game with some long offensive plays as we did versus Kentucky, because if we can't get the running game going consistently, we won't have much else. We'll have to have a good game defensively, but I think we can limit Eli's production. After last week, though, I'm a little worried that their passing will set up some draws which seem to go for long yardage against us.
my overall thoughts . I think LSU can run vs. Ole Miss . .it will be important for your offense to stay on the field. It will also be important for LSU to score early. Eli is notorious for having poor 1st halfs only to follow up with awesome 2nd half performances. IF you can run the ball (which you should) and IF Randle settles down and plays like he did vs. UK or USC . .you should pull this one out.
not to take away from Randal, but for the kentucky game...his stats are a bit misleading. he struggled most of that game....i think he finished with 260 yards..some where around there? a 70 yard TD came from a shovel pass (basically it was a toss or a handoff..just forward) to Devery Henderson and he just out ran everybody for 70 yards. ...another 75 yards came from the hail mary. thats 145 yards off the 260. like i said...im not trying to take those away from him...bc they most certainly happened, but...as far as drop back passing...not even close. "we're" gonna have to do something about this.
Re: Actually - Considering the shovel pass and the Hail Mary made up a lot of those stats against UK, I think they were pretty misleading though.
