Want it or not, Miles has QB controversy

Published 9:43 am Wednesday, April 20, 2016

If Les Miles didn’t want an LSU quarterback controversy, he should not have had a spring football game.

Come to think of it, that wouldn’t be a bad idea for society’s common good? No spring game, that is, not the quarterback controversy.

But it does seem traditional, so the Tigers follow the herd and subject you to one anyway.

And, voil?, you get a quarterback controversy.

It’s not really a “controversy” per se, at least in the sense of some raging firestorm that a coach has to put out before the message boards burn up and torch him.

Any other position and it’s your garden variety “competition,” which is always considered a good and healthy thing for any team.

But football quarterback is the most important position in all of sports (unless you’re Alabama), the only position where it’s considered tacky for two or more to share it, and it’s the one, as you know, that has confounded LSU and held the Tigers back the last two seasons, as well as some others.

So at that position, yes, it’s a controversy — and coaches contribute to it.

Any other position, you earn your keep play by play.

Jimmy Jack misses a block, Johnny Joe goes in and let’s him rest a spell and think about it.

But quarterback … no, you’ve got to stand by your quarterback. The entire team chemistry supposedly could be at stake.

Think about it. What’s the single most egregious coaching thing Miles has done in his LSU tenure? The one stubborn misstep that fans will never understand or forgive?

Right. The 2011 national championship game when Jordan Jefferson stunk up the Superdome while backup Jarrett Lee remained bolted to the bench.

It still enrages Tigers fans — and they knew Lee wasn’t likely to do any better.

But we’re getting off track.

LSU played a spring game last week, which meant all eyes were on the quarterback(s).

Not much of what goes on in LSU’s practices leaks out to the public, so the spring game, such that it was, is about all you’ve got to analyze.

It’s a tricky exercise, to be sure, fraught with deception and filled with mismatches and held-back good parts and a lot of liberties with the usual football rules.

But it’s all you’ve got, so you’re forced to overanalyze it, always with a keen and hopeful eye out for that glorious quarterback controversy (competition).

Most LSU people probably thought they saw one, at least the makings of good one brewing last Saturday between incumbent Brandon Harris and newcomer Danny Etling, the Purdue transfer.

Apparently not.

Miles had already played spoiler the week before the game with his pronouncement that Harris “looked ready to be the LSU quarterback.”

As opposed, you presume, to just taking the snaps at the position as he did a year ago.

Then, after the game, he was quick to remind everybody that “We’ve given time in the passing game, and I think it showed.”

He went on to give Harris some added responsibility, anointing him as the “leader” of the team for its offseason, voluntary workouts that all agree will decide whether this is just a very good team or a truly elite team.

If the Mad Hatter can keep something under his hat — particularly a quarterback decision — he generally likes to string out the suspense as long as possible.

So maybe it’s a done deal.

But, as much as I caution against reading too much into spring games, right now it’s all we’ve got.

And what I saw was this:

Harris looked fine, sure. I won’t argue that he hasn’t improved, or that there’s not every possibility of him being a restaurant-quality SEC quarterback.

But I sure didn’t see anything not to like about Etling. There were no red flags that would preclude him from competing for the spot.

The arm was certainly there, and he looked comfortable with everything he was doing.

More so, there was a lot more athleticism that anybody had let on previously. Sneaky athletic, sort of in the Matt Flynn mode, it looks like he could do anything Miles likes his quarterbacks to do.

It sure sounds like Harris is the guy, and, yes, there’s no law that says he can’t get better.

But, at the least, I’m not sure it’s a sink-or-swim-with-Harris deal this time around.

As long as Etling is there, he is that classic fans’ favorite player if the starting quarterback falters — an unknown commodity as the backup.

That wasn’t the case last year.

It was apparent from the start that Harris was going to play no matter his travails— and fans seemed cool with that, having seen plenty enough of backup Anthony Jennings the previous season.

So Etling’s mere presence should be enough to at least keep Harris on his toes. You have to think he will at least be an option.

Whether that constitutes a controversy, we will just have to wait and see.

l

Scooter Hobbs covers LSU

athletics. Email him at

shobbs@americanpress.com

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