LSU v North Texas By The Numbers

by Poseur on Sep 16, 2008 8:36 AM CDT in Football Comment 9 comments

9:17 – LSU’s time of possession in the first half. Now, I believe TOP is one of the more overrated stats in football, but this is just ridiculous. North Texas had the ball for nearly two-thirds of the first half. Really, what this meant is that LSU scored really quickly and when there was no quick score, LSU threw a lot of incompletions.

0 – Sacks allowed. Second straight game without allowing a sack. OK, it’s just App State and North Texas, but the line has given our quarterbacks plenty of time to throw their poorly timed passes. Sorry, bad vibes.

163 – Trindon Holliday’s return yards. We have found our punt returning, and really, it was a pretty obvious choice. Really fast guy with good hands? Why wasn’t he the guy earlier? Even throwing out the 92 yard touchdown return, which was pretty awesome, Holliday had 71 yards on 3 returns, for an average of 23.7. Which is still really good. It wasn’t just one great return. He did it all night.

2 – Punts inside the 20. The punting game is one of the big concerns of this season, and Dalfrey had two nice directional punts and no touchbacks. Field position is going to be a big deal this season as LSU breaks in a quarterback and relies on the defense to win games. Long punts are nice, and Dalfrey booted a 46 yarded, but those coffin corner punts are huge. That’s a good sign going forward.

3 – Snaps taken by Jefferson, burning his redshirt. I’m completely mystified why he came in to take those meaningless snaps in the last minute of play. There was no benefit to it. I’m a big Miles supporter, but I do think he has mismanaged the quarterback situation early this year. This is just another instance of the general confusion concerning our quarterbacks. What is the plan?

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don't panic

Do you think Les Miles is stupid?

Neither do I.

He wouldn’t throw away a redshirt on something meaningless unless he were stupid. So far, Jefferson hasn’t done anything significant, but we’ve only had two games, and Miles has had the greater task of finding a starter. Most of the serious and expendable snaps had to go towards that. Don’t panic. Just wait. If you think Miles is stupid, then expect Jefferson to be wasted. If you think he’s not stupid, then Jefferson will have a purpose for this season.

by uberschuck on Sep 16, 2008 9:50 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I have a few different theories about JJ.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if all of this talk about JJ was intentional false hype to make the Auburn defense have one more thing to gameplan against. Miles is that sneaky. Granted 3 snaps aren’t going to make a whole lot of difference, but it is one more guy that AU knows can run from the QB position that they need to take into account. I would look for JJ to come down with some kind of season ending “nagging shoulder injury” and him being able to red shirt still.

As for Trindon,

Really fast guy with good hands? Why wasn’t he the guy earlier?

He doesn’t have good hands, that’s the problem. He never catches well in practice lining up as a WR (which is why he doesn’t play WR) and the coaches didn’t trust him catching punts until now. He’s made strides recently and you saw that product on the field Saturday.

by LSU Jonno on Sep 16, 2008 11:49 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I have another one.

I dont think Poseur is panicking, I dont think Miles is trying to send a message to Lee, and I dont think JJ is going to all of a sudden get hurt.

If I had to bet, it would be that Miles and Crowton aren’t sold on Lee and Hatch being able to get the job done and that JJ’s grooming process (ie QB insurance) is starting. Lee and Hatch are still the ones competing for the starting job, but watch and see if JJ isn’t slowly inserted in more and more,and if by 2/3rd’s of the way through the season Hatch and Lee haven’t solidified themselves as the clear starter, we see JJ being mentioned as competing for the starting position as well. But if Hatch or Lee step up and look awesome next week and the week after.. JJ might “hurt a shoulder”. I just dont think one of them will. Hopefully Im wrong.

by nepomo on Sep 16, 2008 1:30 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I should say I do not have a problem with lifting Jefferson’s redshirt. What I do have a problem with is lifting the redshirt in the last minute of a blowout. If Jefferson was going to get some meaningful snaps and get to run the offense, then by all means, play him. But it seemed like using up his eligibility just to do it. I hate haphazard decisions. And while I am a huge booster of Miles and wouldn’t trade our coach for anyone else’s (really), that doesn’t make him immune from criticism. I can disagree with his handling of the QB situation without thinking he’s a moron.

On that subject, I don’t get the feeling it’s been an open tryout. It’s Hatch’s job unless he completely screws up or Lee plays great (neither of which has happened). They’ve treated Lee like a backup who needs a lot of reps to get experience.

by Poseur on Sep 16, 2008 2:45 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

From an eligibilty perspective

If Jefferson doesn’t get some good quality time under center in more than a few games this year, they just wasted a year of his eligibility. So, my question is, why play him? Everyone knows they aren’t stupid. Hatch and Lee arent graduating. Whats the rush? If Perriloux was a model student/player and was still on the team, no way JJ gets in last game. He is being red shirted for sure. Now barring some freak injury, we have two freshman (eligibility wise) and a sophmore. That is not efficient. To me this smells of low confidence in either Hatch, Lee, or both. Think of the possible scenarios. (future recruits excluded)

If Lee is the starter, Hatch and Jefferson are competing for second string until JJ’s senior year (Hatch will have graduated).
- that is basically just wasting JJ’s college career. why not redshirt him and let him do what Flynn did

If Hatch is the starter, Lee and JJ are duking it out for for their 3 years of eligibility until one emerges his senior year.
- either JJ or Lee end up with a pretty small uneventful career as a backup for their life at LSU. Again its a waste to have them in the same year. Why not stagger? Unless, they just think Lee is no good and need JJ to be the backup asap.

Something is just not adding up. Granted, playing at a great school like lsu is a risk for an athlete. There is a possibility that you will not play much if at all if you go there because of the talent level being so high across the board, but we are not so flush with talent at QB that we can be reckless with players (nor would they just on principal).

So, Im of the opinion that the coaches are either A. reckless or B. pretty concerned about one or both of Hatch and Lee
I’m leaning towards B. They think that JJ is better than at least one of them. Maybe both. In playing him now, JJ will become the backup they can fall back on or the starter.

by nepomo on Sep 16, 2008 4:32 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

I think the likely dissatisfaction would be with Lee. Hatch is not supposed to be here (starting QB for a major program), but he’s the placeholder who can hopefully manage the game ala Matt Mauck. He’s not expected to be the big-time QB. Lee, however, is supposed to be a big-time guy, and you would think the idea is Hatch runs the offense until Lee is ready to take over.

Go watch Lee’s play against North Texas. He managed his first-half drive pretty well, but he was doing the same thing Hatch would have been (short swing passes, etc.). When he tried to play like a big-time QB, he failed badly. Bad misses downfield in the second half, and then came his final drive. I think it was obvious that Miles wanted him to show his stuff and finish off a drive. Why would we go for it on 4th down with three minutes to go up 41-3 if not as a trial for Lee? He screwed that pass up horribly, then Jefferson is trotted out to take the final snaps. I can’t imagine that was coincidental, and either giving up on Lee or sending him a message would explain why you burn Jefferson’s redshirt for those three plays.

At best, I have to think Miles and the gang are worried that Lee might not come around this season. I’d be surprised if Jefferson is made No. 2 now, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Hatch get all the snaps at Auburn.

by Cap'n Ken on Sep 17, 2008 1:49 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Back in July

I went to the Lady Tiger Football camp and Miles said during a Q & A that JJ would not be redshirted.

by shelby924 on Sep 17, 2008 9:01 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, he's been saying that

He said it a lot before the season started, but then when he didn’t play against App State I wondered. I think it has something to do with the new clock rules taking plays away. It’s harder to get the players in the game when there aren’t as many snaps to go around.

Richard Pittman

by Richard Pittman on Sep 17, 2008 11:39 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs