Les Miles: El Starter no importa

Les Miles ha declarado que el status de "starter" significa muy poco en LSU aún cuando se refiere a los quarterbacks Jarrett Lee y Jordan Jefferson.

"It's not significant to me, nor has it ever been, to name anybody anything," Dijo el HC el lunes antes de que LSU #1 del país reciba a Western Kentucky el sábado noche.

"It will always be about: In this series in the game, which quarterback gives us the best opportunity for victory, I expect that both quarterbacks will play."

Lee fué el "starter" en la victoria por 9-6 de LSU sobre Alabama y técnicamente Lee está 9-0 como titular, pero en el partido después de que Lee lanzará 2 intercepciones en pases consecutivos, salió a jugar Jefferson que acabo jugando la mayoría del encuentro. Jefferson jugó 47 snaps mientras que Lee estuvo limitado a 11. Eso puede llevar a que muchos piensen que Jordan recuperará el puesto de titular que perdió cuando fué arrestado y suspendido 4 partidos tras una pelea de bar en Agosto.

Jefferson, who runs the option, has not passed much this season. For the season he is 12-of-20 for 190 yards and two touchdowns. However, half of those passes and half of those completions came against the Tide. He also rushed for 43 yards in the game.

Blackwell said Jefferson showed commendable poise in a game with far more tension than anything LSU had experienced in winning its previous eight contests by double digits.

"He's a guy who's handled more adversity than anybody on this team," Blackwell said. "He's been indicted. He's been investigated and all that, so coming in and playing late in the Alabama game was not a big deal for him.

"We always look to our quarterback for leadership, regardless of who it is, and Jordan did a great job of keeping everybody calm in tight situations and getting the play call in. He was really effective for us."

However, Blackwell and right tackle Alex Hurst both stressed that Lee should not be judged on one lousy game when he had been productive most of the season.

Lee was completing 63 percent of his passes for 1,250 yards and 13 TDs through his first eight starts and was leading the SEC in passing efficiency to that point. Even now, he is second in the league in that passer efficiency and still has a relatively low three interceptions in 162 attempts.

"He makes a couple of bad throws. That's it. That's how I see what happened," Miles said of Lee's performance in the Alabama game. "We need to get him going again. I think his contribution in this season has been so significant ... he is a very, very capable quarterback and certainly we need to have him be that guy."

Hurst said both quarterbacks, who are seniors, have good chemistry with the entire offense and that the team likes the fact that each has different strengths, giving the Tigers the ability to exploit the differing weaknesses of various defenses.

"We can kind of mix and match, keep opponents off balance," Hurst said.

He also said that while fans may get nervous after seeing a key player stumble, members of LSU's offense would likely be the last people to lose confidence in Lee.

"Jarrett led us great in the first eight games of the season," Hurst said. "Our pass efficiency is up, but when you play this game long enough at quarterback, you're going to throw a pick every now and then.

"Nobody's perfect in this game, but I'm sure Jarrett wants to bounce back from it and hopefully this week he can go out and redeem himself."