QB quandary drowning LSU’s progress

Published 9:48 am Friday, January 2, 2015

Forget about the touchdown at the end of the first half that LSU was denied in the Music City Bowl.

That should have been the least of the Tigers’ gripes with the Pac-12 officiating crew.

Notre Dame should have been flagged for taunting — virtually the entire game.

It was blatant, too.

There the Fighting Irish were, randomly and with malice aforethought, trotting out not one (1) but two (2) viable quarterbacks to run a workable enough offense that it gave LSU fits from start to frustrating finish.

Two quarterbacks.

What a concept.

But if you’re playing LSU, that’s not just taunting, it’s piling on.

LSU would give up its bowl bling right now for just one quarterback, anything that can get a legitimate passing game going.

Just one.

And the Tigers had to sit there for 60 minutes and watch Notre Dame snicker as it didn’t really seem to care whether Malik Zaire or Everett Golson was under center.

The Tigers have tried to be patient. Youth, and all.

But Zaire was an obvious, perhaps premeditated, slap in the face.

He completed 12 of 15 passes, most on third down it seemed, and he ran for another 96 yards.

The Irish also used Golson effectively, but it was basically’s Zaire’s game.

It was also ­— are you sitting down? — his first college start.

How does that work?

In fact, Notre Dame was basically in the same situation LSU was in last year when Anthony Jennings made his first start in the Tigers’ Outback Bowl appearance.

Both had played a little in the previous game for token experience.

The results were hardly comparable, which has to have LSU scratching its head.

But apparently this kind of thing happens all the time.

Ohio State made the College Football Playoff with its third-string quarterback.

Auburn used a converted defensive back to light LSU up for 264 yards this season.

Texas A&M had a true freshman throw for 294 yards in its bowl game.

Other schools make do.

But the critical position continues to drag LSU down as it has all season.

The amazing thing is how well LSU is still able to run the ball without worrying any defense with its passing game.

But the way the game is played now, you can’t get away with that forever.

It may have even cost them the heart and soul of their defense, coordinator John Chavis, who arrived in College Station on New Year’s Day to take the same job at Texas A&M.

It was telling, perhaps, that upon his arrival, Chavis told reporters that “I’m excited to play with a great offense.”

No kidding.

What a luxury that will be for The Chief.

Chavis had one of his most challenging seasons at LSU this year with a lot of defensive holes, particularly in the middle.

But a sophomore and a true freshman developed at the tackles, Chavis found the all-important defensive quarterback in middle linebacker Kendell Beckwith and — even if the bowl wasn’t a good example — finished with the SEC’s top-ranked defense.

The LSU offense, on the other hand, spent the entire season trying to work around the quarterback position.

The offensive line might have been the SEC’s best. They had more running backs than they knew what do with.

The remedial passing game never really progressed one iota.

That has to be the most frustrating thing, particularly having to watch Zaire shine in the same spot Jennings was in a full year ago.

Jennings had a year’s head start. Since Tampa, he has had a spring practice, a fall practice and 14 more varsity games.

And yet he didn’t really look any better in this bowl than the last one.

Really, where’s the progress?

“I can tell you that there was some indecisions that we would have liked to have had back,” head coach Les Miles said of Jennings after the game.

Granted, LSU’s passing game was also hindered by inexperienced receivers, who showed flashes of obvious talent.

But after a full season, it still seemed the only way LSU could complete a meaningful forward pass was for an opposing secondary to blow a coverage (see Harris’ 75-yard touchdown pass to John Diarse against the Irish, otherwise he was 6 of 13 for 76 yards).

The lightbulb never seemed to come on.

Miles said after the game that the quarterback competition will be reopened in the spring.

“I would like to pick another starter and it could be Anthony, or it could be certainly Brandon Harris,” he said. “The competition will have to continue there.”

Maybe Harris will be the answer.

The biggest knock against him is a legitimate question. Namely, how good can he be if, even as Jennings’ struggles continued? He couldn’t even get a brief look-see after his one disastrous start against Auburn.

Not to worry, LSU will find a new defensive coordinator.

The Tigers will replace whatever inevitable early losses they have to the NFL draft this season.

It’s a team that is ridiculously young and talented at almost every position. Ordinarily the future would look bright.

But if LSU doesn’t get that one position figured out, next season doesn’t figure to look much different than this one.

l

Scooter Hobbs covers LSU

athletics. Email him at

shobbs@americanpress.com

LSU quarterback Anthony Jennings (10) passes against Notre Dame during the second half of the Music City Bowl NCAA college football game Tuesday

Mark Humphrey