I know better than to link to Guilbeau, but Jesus Christ on pogo stick...
Yes, Jordan Jefferson looks better than Jarrett Lee, but, again, it would be hard not to be. Jefferson provided a calming effect for the LSU offense late last season.
He was steady and virtually mistake free. He threw only one interception through 73 attempts on the season. Lee, meanwhile, threw 16 interceptions in 265 throws, which is an interception every 16 pass attempts.
LSU can win with Jefferson, but, please, he is no JaMarcus Russell. He is no Matt Flynn or Josh Booty either...
... Lee, who started eight games last season and hopefully learned something through his trial by fire, could end up beating him out later this season. That is doubtful, but it is possible.
No, Richard did not have an insider in the newsroom, so he didn't time his Jarrett Lee article to counter Guilbeau. But when I mentioned jackasses who rip on Lee out of spite, this is what I'm talking about. An LSU writer taking a shot at Lee is as hackneyed and clichéd as a comic making a joke about airplane food.
Let's take a few of those comments. The unnecessary pot shots at Lee? I'm just going to chalk that up to a columnist trying to be funny... And if the floatation device doesn't work, you can always use the Salisbury steak!... Jefferson does look better than Lee, but Lee did have some positives last year. He still throws a prettier ball, for whatever that is worth. He doesn't take as many sacks as Jefferson, and he's better in the pocket. I'd rather have Jefferson, but Lee isn't worthless.
And what the hell is up with listing Russell, Flynn, and Booty? That list makes no sense whatsoever. I can't even criticize it because I have no idea what it means. Russell was a terrific quarterback (who fans and the media ripped until it was so obvious he was our best quarterback since Hodson that it became too stupid to keep ripping him). Flynn was a decent quarterback who gets serious bonus points for winning a national title. Booty was, um, one of the biggest disasters in the history of the quarterback position at LSU.
And honestly, who the hell thought this?
And LSU fans are starting to think that Jefferson is great, just like they thought Lee could beat the Union army last August.
I've met exactly zero people who thought that about Lee. Zero.
Here's the terrible thing: I agree with Guilbeau's basic point. Hey, I'm not sold on Jefferson either. But it takes a special kind of column to get me to violently disagree with something I agreed with before I started reading.
The point should be that Jefferson's numbers weren't that great last year so perhaps we're expecting a bit too much out of the guy. It should not be that Jefferson is questionable because Lee sucks and has almost no chance of improvement. In a column in which Guilbeau tries to convince me that Jefferson is a question mark, he spends most of the time just ripping on the backup quarterback. Please, just stop.
This was an absolutely horrid column, Glenn. You can do much better. Leave the cheap shots to the bloggers trapped in mom's basement.