LSU brought in Cam Cameron as offensive coordinator to help fix a stagnant passing attack that ranked No. 94 in the nation a season ago.
If Saturday’s Spring Game is any indication, the Tigers are on the right track.
Senior quarterback Zach Mettenberger led the White team, mostly comprised of starters, to a 37-0 victory against the Purple squad. Playing only the first half, Mettenberger finished 12-of-19 for 236 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
“Offensively, we threw the football well, rushed it well,” said LSU coach Les Miles. “Again, it’s more of the statistics against the second team defense which might be a little thin — but still guys who needed to catch the ball did, and the guys who needed to throw it did.”
Mettenberger didn’t start the game great. He overthrew a couple of open receivers down the field and finished the first quarter just 5-of-11. The White team settled for a field goal and two punts on its first three drives.
Junior wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. said the offense did not dwell on the early misfires because it knew there would be more opportunities to come with Cameron’s system.
“We all had an understanding of ‘let’s just get the next one,’” Beckham said. “We missed that one, and we can’t get it back so we can’t keep looking back on it. We ended up connected on a few deep ones later.”
On the White team’s first drive of the second quarter, Beckham ran through a double team and Mettenberger found him for a 50-yard gain, setting up his 15-yard touchdown pass to sophomore tight end Dillon Gordon three plays later.
The defense played one-on-one coverage on Beckham on the first play of the next drive, and Mettenberger took another shot deep down the field. Beckham made the catch, broke a tackle and walked into the end zone for a 79-yard touchdown.
“We did all right today, and we can get better from here,” Mettenberger said.
Cameron gave each quarterback the freedom of calling his own plays. Each quarterback wore a wristband of scripted plays and they called the play based on the situation.
Miles said the purpose of Cameron’s decision was not to give the quarterbacks control of the offense but to gain insight into how his signal callers think through a football game.
“It’s an exercise that allows you to see what the quarterback thinks, how he views the game plan, what he would call, how he would operate things,” Miles said. “It’s one that will improve the quarterbacks having done it. It fills in for a quarterback some of the things they need to have accomplished before they go into the gameplan.”
Mettenberger said Saturday was the first time he ever had full autonomy to call his own plays. He acknowledged he struggled with it at first but grew comfortable as the game went on.
“Coach Cam did that to see how our head was in the game with down and distance management,” Mettenberger said. “I think all of us did really well with that.”
LSU sophomore running back Jeremy Hill (33) takes a hand off from senior quarterback Zach Mettenberger (8) Saturday, April 20, 2013 in the National L Club Spring Game in Tiger Stadium.
