Big-time LSU football news: Hatch "more than likely" will start

I expected Lee to be the starter now, but not so much as I expected Hatch to NOT be the starter. He had a totally unspectacular High School career in the Las Vegas area then committed to BYU then decided to go to Harvard where he redshirted or sat out a year then went on a Morman 'mission' then showed up at LSU where he has suddenly morphed into a SEC caliber QB :dis:. I can't quite get my head around that.

 

I did not mean it in THAT way.

I meant that when Lee signed at LSU, no one expected him to be a starter in his 2nd year in the program.

That's what I meant.

His progression is right on schedule with what the coaches had planned for him when they signed him.

 

Well, that sounds like Saban's problem, more than JR's. From the get-go, I always wondered about Saban's and JR's chemistry with each other; they didn't seem to really get along.

I just can't imagine that JR wouldn't have come along a lot sooner if he'd been given the keys to the car. He always knew he was one interception away from being pulled. As we found out when he was truly the starter, he had a nice selective amnesia (Flynn was like this, as well.) He could throw an int in one series, and come out in the next and throw a TD pass or drive our team down the field for the game-winning score.

In '04, he simply wasn't given the chance to show all that he was.

 

One interesting thing to me is how LSUSports.net's player page for Hatch didn't say anything about him besides his name, #, position, height, weight, class, high school and hometown. In fact, in Hatch/Lee discussions I've read, I've seen it pointed out that Hatch was so irrelevant to LSU that they never even bothered to put together a write-up about him on his player page. So I've been checking Hatch's page now for weeks and weeks, wondering when LSU would finally give Hatch a write-up on his player page. Well, that day has finally come:

http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=5200&ATCLID=1148275&Q_SEASON=2007

The only thing I'm disappointed about is that the write-up says zero about his performance in high school.

 

About time.

 

Players' pages are usually done when the first get on campus, but that is for recruited scholarship players, not walk-ons.

 

Hatch was the star QB for Coronado during his junior year, and then transfered to Cimarron-Memorial for his senior year (Cimarron-Memorial won state championships in 1998 and 1999). Basically, during Hatch's freshman and sophomore years at Coronado, his coach was Ron Smeltzer. Coach Smeltzer transferred to Cimarron-Memorial and became the head coach there, and Hatch followed him to Cimarron-Memorial a year later.

Anyway, as a junior at Coronado, Hatch passed for 1,680 yards, 17 TDs (LINK). He also led Coronado to their first playoff victory in school history, by passing for 309 yards and 4 TDs in that game (LINK).

As a senior at Cimarron-Memorial, this is what I could find about Hatch's stats:

1,672 yards, 19 TDs (LINK)
1,648 yards, 19 TDs (LINK)
1,587 yards, 18 TDs (LINK)

Hatch was named 2nd-team All State at QB at the end of the year by Nevada Sports Network (LINK), the same group that claimed Hatch had 1,587 yards in those stats I just listed above.

Also, Hatch was the closer for the baseball team (LINK), and a National Merit Scholar (LINK).

 

I didn't look at his stats for his junior year but in his senior year at Cimarron - MemoriaL he was 79 for 160 for a .494 completion average on a team that went 5-5. True he was 2nd team All State in Nevada but Nevada is Las Vegas and the Reno area with not much in between. Still that is something and he competed in his environment so you can't fault him for that but I don't know how much to make of it.

I can't find anything from the recruiting services on him. Maybe you can, but I doubt if he was even rated. I'd be willing to bet there were hundreds maybe even thousands of High School quarterbacks in 2004 with more impressive records than Hatch.

 

Going back and reading my posts It sounds like I'm saying Lee is better than Hatch and should be starting. I surely don't know that and that's not what I'm saying at all. What I'm saying is we might be in trouble at QB. We'll see.

 

I'll tell you like I was told. Lee is a great QB and has a world of talent. But just like he could be the guy to win a clutch game for us, he could be the guy to blow it just as easily. It's not a matter of whether he's "good enough" of a QB to play as the started.. He's plenty talented.

The thing is, during the off-season, he didn't assume the leadership role on offense whereas Hatch did. Not only is Hatch controlling the offense better, he's taken about the same amount of reps as Lee and has a better feel for who to get the ball to in certain situations.