I know we all like to blame Perrilloux and Garrett and Lee, but why, in Miles' 6th year here, after all the other guys' players are all gone, we have no real QB? Why do other well-established and well-respected football universities like Florida, Oklahoma, USC, Texas, Ohio State, etc. (a couple who have had controversy as well) not only seem to reload at the QB position but usually reload with either a Heisman candidate or a potential 1st, 2nd, or 3rd round pick? Even less respected schools like Boise State, Houston, Stanford, Texas Tech, Missouri, etc. consistently have impressive QBs, and some of which turn up in the NFL. Sure, some of these guys are system QBs, but some probably could have been coached into whatever scheme as freshmen. There are several of these players who would be great Tigers, despite not playing in the SEC. I know LSU is just as enticing a school as these others, so why the struggle? Other than Russell, what QB at LSU has been taken within the first 3 rounds of the Draft, or let alone be considered for a Heisman? Why has LSU, within the past few year, picked guys that have either bailed out, left for another sport, or failed to improve? Is it recruiting? Is it total ineptness to assess QB talent? Honestly, I'd just be happy to consistently have a QB that is a confident leader and capable passer, but it would nice to get a guy that would be our Peyton Manning or our Tim Tebow. I thought Zach Lee could have been the guy. Oh well. You'd think with all of the buzz about Crowton being a genius, we would have had a lot of QBs licking their chops. What QB wouldn't want to throw to this receiving corps? Unfortunately, as another poster put it, by the play of the QB you'd think they are a pedestrian group. Maybe that plays a roll. The lack of production, whether it's the WR's fault or not, leaves a potential QB thinking, "Man, that's looks like it would be a big struggle." Either way, I hope something clicks for both JJ and JL. I just want to see them become something other than Southland Conference QBs.
I know you've already seen my answer...but I'll give it here...in brief. Nobody knows what kind of offense we run. If there's a great pro style QB, he's more likely to wind up at friggin' Arkansas than at LSU, because of Petrino's scheme. If there's a great dual threat, he'll more likely wind up at Michigan. The 'schemers' at those programs have established a 'scheme', and are very successful at employing it. LSU has no established 'scheme'. Let it be known that I could not possibly care less what 'scheme' LSU chooses. Just choose a 'scheme', and get the personnel in place to effectively run it. You can't have a couple of pro style QBs if you're gonna TRY and run a read option and vice versa.
For starters, do you REALLY know exactly what the fans of those programs like Florida, Oklahoma, USC, Texas and Ohio St think about their QB depth? For all we know they have 2 players at the position that can really be under consideration to play--same as us. Texas had the same starter for the past 4 years. ...and Vince Young before that. The jury is out on this new kid they have. Seems adequate though. Ohio St hasn't produced 1st round NFL QB's. Troy Smith is no better than what we've had in Baton Rouge and Pryor is that dual-threat style that Ohio St has had for a long time now. USC has more violations than you can shake a stick at. Care to even begin to guess why/how blue chip QB's always landed in Los Angeles??? You mention Florida. But the Gators had their run of NFL QB's when Spurrier was there lighting up scoreboards. Tebow IS a talent, but he was in the Gators own backyard and Urban Meyer had an offense that a player like Tebow wanted to be in. You can't tell me Chris Leak "wowed" you and Brantley has certainly had his struggles--as has that entire Gator offense. The only program you listed that has done a phenominal job at the QB position is Oklahoma. Give credit to Stoops. Have we been unlucky with our recruits at the position? You bet. But don't loose sight of the fact that the players we lost (Zack Lee specifically) could have been a huge talent, but we can't help it if he doesn't want to turn down 5.5 million to play baseball. And Miles does have a QB commitment in this class. A kid by the name of Rivers....his brother plays for the Chargers of the NFL. People overlook that. Sure, it's easy to single out iconic players like Peyton or McCoy or Tebow. But those types don't ALWAYS come around and they certainly don't fall like apples from a tree.
The spread option that Crowton uses and was hired for made perfect sense when Perrilloux was going to be the QB of the future at LSU. He was a great physical package as a mobile threat QB who could also throw fairly well when needed (VT '07). When Les had to dismiss Perrilloux that plan went to hell. There had been no serious attempt to bring Hatch or Lee along, so we were stuck in the worst possible situation with 2 unprepared QBs. When Les dimissed all those O-linemen things went from bad to worse. LSU suddenly had 2 pocket QBs in an offense that had no real pocket to work in. Crowton has spent an entire season and 2 games trying to turn lead into gold by trying to make Jefferson into what Perrilloux should have been. But the kid ain't got the tools for that, and Crowton doesn't have the first clue how to fix the situation. So we have this cluster-f of a hybrid offense you see now. I try to be fair to Les and give him the benefit of the doubt with Perrilloux's recruiting. After the complete bungling of the Garrett/Zach Lee situation, there are no excuses for this. Honestly, why we were going after a 2 sport athlete for a QB schollie is beyond me. If Mainieri wanted to go after him for baseball that's fine and good, but QB is a position that demands total dedication, not divided loyalty and twice the risk of injury. I can't defend Les' decisions on this.
I agree. Personally, I prefer a pro-style offense. We've always had a great amount of talent at the RB position both at LSU and in the state (which is no coincidence that LSU's had good RB's).
Exactly. Look at the string of QBs. Before Young, it was Simms, right? Even though he blows in the NFL, he was good at Texas. I didn't say they did. I said they "usually reload with either a Heisman candidate or a potential 1st, 2nd, or 3rd round pick." And I disagree about Smith. He may not be much in the NFL, but the dude was a gamer and fun to watch. He won the Heisman, bro. I think he was way better than what we've had in Baton Rouge in recent memory. I agree about Pryor, though. I haven't been overly impressed with him. I see what you're getting at, but even without the violations, QBs line up to play for USC, like d-linemen line up to play for LSU. Not sure I believe violations were the reason for the string of QBs at USC. From Palmer, to Leinart, to Sanchez, to Barkley... They were/are all solid college QBs. I've yet to see Brantley play, but I'm willing to bet that Urban Meyer will get things rolling pretty soon. And who cares if Tebow was in his back yard and Meyer had a system he wanted to play in? We don't have a QB here or a system he would want to play in? According to Fish, apparently not. Chris Leak wasn't amazing, but overall, Florida has had a pretty good lineup of QBs. Even so, I was one of those rare people that didn't see why Florida fans hated Leak. He didn't wow me, but I thought he was under appreciated, especially in '06. Even with their QB mishap (was is Rhett Bomar who was suspended?), they still reload. Going back to Josh Heupel, they've been relatively consistent. Then why do we recruit a guy so heavily, casting other recruits by the wayside, and sign a player who could potentially jump to another sport? Much like lsudolemite said, even if you don't consider the potential of him jumping to pro baseball, why recruit a guy at the QB position that is a dual sport guy? It increases the risk of injury and could possibly slow down comprehension of the offense (that apparently JJ still can't get). It's not like he's a 4rd string RB/punt returner (Holliday) or 4th string WR (Mitchell). Yeah, I guess in 2 years, we'll finally get to see what he can do. That'll be 8 years into Miles' tenure. Of course they are, but I'm saying it would be nice if one would come along for LSU. You know, be the Patrick Peterson of the QB position. Good post and I agree wholeheartedly about the Zach Lee situation.
No program sniffs USC's when it comes to QB's in the last few years. They've sat an SEC transfer starter for what, 3 years now?
You know better than to pick on Mitch. His mom will take your favorite knife, cut your balls off and hand 'em to you.
