I still say it's a matter of confidence. The pressure got to him. How many of the above-mentioned QB's played for a team coming off of a national championship? That makes a difference.
Yes, and the other players I mentioned struggled with that too, only they improved and had better wins and performances than Lee. All were freshman. How so? Shouldn't that momentum carry into the next season? If not, how does that impact his performance in surveying the field and going through his progressions? Throwing poor screen passes? Erratic throws?
And Lee might improve in the off-season, after he gets a chance to regroup. I get he sense that he's overwhelmed right now and it's affecting his game substantially. So, he'll either improve or he'll be supplanted next season. Either way, I think he's good enough to win these next three games and that's enough for the remainder of the season. Pressure, anyone? No team not named USC has come back after a championship season and lost fewer than three games in recent history. It's the pressure of living up to last year's standards, the big target on your back, and the revenge factor from teams you beat up on your way there.
I thought that comment was interesting, So I did some fact checking to see if it held up and here's what I found: Erik Ainge's FR Season did not show "improve". Instead it showed much inconsistancy. The first 3 games of the season he threw 8 TD's and only 1 INT. QB ratings of 155, 166, and 243. Then he laid an egg with 4 INT's, and 1 TD in his 4th game. Came back from that with a game 5, 2 TD. 0 INT performance. Then had a 1 INT, 1 TD game 6. Game 7 his QB rating dropped again below 100 with a 2 INT. 1 TD performance. 92 QB rating. Then his stats went up with a 1 INT, 3 TD game. Finishing his last game was a 0 INT, 1 TD game. . . By no means does that show "improvement". It shows he had potential, but "light switch on and off" keep happening to him too. Interesting enough, Ainge's worse can came when they asked him to throw the ball 37 times. Further proving my theory that young QB's need to not be asked to pass the ball a ton of times. Chris Leak: It was hard to find his game stat breakdowns for his freshman year, but here's how they look. 1st game 0 INT, 1 TD. QB Rating of 161. 2nd game 1 INT, 0 TD. QB Rating of 98. 3rd game he had 0 INT, 1 TD QB Rating of 199 (side point: he only passed 8 times in this game) Followed that up by having a 1 INT, 0 TD Game. QB Rating of 111. Then a 2 INT, 2 TD game. a 3 INT, 2 TD game. 0 INT, 2 TD game. 1 INT, 1 TD game. 0 INT, 1 TD game and a 2 INT, 1 TD game. QB Rating averaging in the ~130's. Before finishing out the season with a 0 INT, 1 TD game. 0 INT, 2 TD game. And finally a 1 INT, 2 TD game. Averaged a QB Rating of 132. Again, nothing substantually pointing to him showing vast "improvement" over the course of the year. He had some good games, and again some bad. Couldn't find David Greene's or Rex Grossman's game break downs to compare. Point is however that while Lee isn't playing at the level we'd hoped for, most Freshman QB's play the same way their first (and sometimes even second) year. Remember Lee didn't start playing football until his Junior year of Highschool. So he's been at a big disadvantage compared to most QB's. You're asking a guy that has only been playing a sport 3 years (1 year he didn't even see the field) to then turn around and lead his team to victory. Most QB's take 5 - 6 years of playing (4 in HS and 1 or 2 in college) before they're asked to do the same thing. Yet even with that disadvantage Lee has stepped in and compared with other Freshman QB's has not played as horrible as some seem to make it out to be.
Let me make this clear too: I wish Lee would stop locking on to WR's, stop throwing off his back foot, stop trying to force the ball into tight spots, stop over throwing / under throwing passes, be able to complete a pass where he has to lead the WR, and stop licking his entire hand before every snap too (has anyone else noticed that). Last night on Miles radio show he said CGC and others were working with Lee to help him stop making mistakes in games, that he doesn't make in practice. I always assumed that Lee had the same problems in practice as he did during the game. I thought that was interesting because it shows Lee is very capable of doing all those things, but for some reason when game time comes he's having trouble converting. This to me sounds like nerves / pressure. If the kid is able to hit a WR in stride in practice but not in game, it shows he's able to make the pass but mentally at game time he gets wound up too much. The only area that I differ in opinion with the posters that don't like Lee is that where they believe 9 games into his freshman season he should be ready, I believe that it will take longer. Potentially through his SO season too. While those who are against Lee feel he needs to be replaced by an even less experienced QB, I'm of the opinion that he should not. Use JJ in the role Hatch had, I'm fine with that. I think it might work out decent. But those calling for JJ to start, I don't agree with. If Lee has been in the system for over a year now, and he can't read defenses (an essential part of playing QB), what makes you think JJ who has been with the team only a few months is going to be able to do that job more effectively?
And, if he's nervous, and that's causing him to make mistakes, I'm SURE the Tiger Stadium crowd booing him is helping immensely.
No one said that Lee or any freshman has to be a hall of famer, but they should show some flashes of brilliance. Other than a couple lucky passes (mostly bombs and screens where the WRs and RBs do all the work), he's shown that he rarely makes a good touch pass over the middle. Throwing to the sideline has been sketchy (UGA, anyone?). I remember watching Aine as a freshman, and they were subbing in Shaeffer as well, if I'm not mistaken. You could just tell that Ainge was the better, more solid QB. Of all those QBs I listed, I would take their freshman play over Lee's play this season. I sure hope he gets better. Lee can barely throw a screen. I wish they'd just turn him into Danny Wuerfful and bomb it. That's the only throw he can make consistently. Most freshman aren't great, but most do NOT play this bad. He's thrown 6 pick 6's and is one shy of break a career record... AS A FRESHMAN. We still have 3 games left and his INTs keep piling up. We're not done counting, although I hope we are. This is an issue for me. Is it possible that there could have been someone else available (while recruiting) that played football a little longer? I remember CBS having a discussion during the Florida game or maybe the UGA game that said we could have gotten Colt McCoy. WTF? What if Lee has plateaued? I certainly hope not, but as a newbie QB, he isn't catching on. Getting a QB who barely knows the game may turn out, in the future, to be a poor choice. I would hope the next few QBs they recruit have been playing football for at least 5-6 years. It's hard to make Lee look worse than he does. Good God, I hope there isn't a sophomore slump for him.
Remember the QB situation when we picked up Lee. Flynn was the starter, RP was already being groomed as the replacement. And they had Hatch who yes was a walk-on at the time, but had ties to CGC. I think when LSU went after JLee they knew he was going to be a project. They knew he had only been playing for a few years, but his raw talent was enough that the coaches took a shot at it. Colt McCoy came out the year before Lee and why would we have gotten him? That year we picked up RP the #1 player in the country. If there's a bone to be picked, it's not with the recruitment of Lee. He was the no.7 QB in his class and a 4 star recruit. The bone should be the gap they had between MF and RP. LSU put all their eggs in the RP basket (not saying that it was a mistake at the time), and well. . .now they've gotten egg on their face. Had things worked out as planned, Lee wouldn't have started until his Junior year. I'm willing to bet if that had happened, we've have seen a much different Lee. My fear, like yours CP, is that this season has done too much damage to Lee for him to recover. Physically wise, Lee hasn't hit his plateau, but only time will tell if he'll be able to recoup from the damage to his psyche. That why I've said multiple times. Everyone should really cut the guy some slack. He possibly has tossed his career down the shute just to step up and take one for the team. He wasn't ready to start, everyone knew it, and yet he still took over the spot and has been fighting ever since. On a side note: While checking rivals for his rank and position placement I noticed his stats in HS. Jr year 40 TD's, 8 INT's. Sr year 31 TD's, 0 INT's. That's sick stats. That's the JLee I'd like to see.
This is your best post. Now, did Perrilloux shows signs of being a moron during/before they recruited him? Did he have a history of such things? If so, it's very disappointing that we got him. The reason I ask is because Gary Danielson was showing a graphic of all the QBs available during that time (Chase Daniels, RP, McCoy, and another), and if Perrilloux would have gone to Texas, McCoy would have come to LSU. (I'm tearing up as I type this) I don't know if that's true, and it doesn't really matter. Now we're stuck with a bunch of young guys. Thanks, Perrilloux.
Now that is a very interesting question. However, lets remember that Miles was late on the recruitment of RP. He probably didnt have the time or information to make a proper evaluation. Character needs to be recruited as much as skill, maybe even more so.
