Jarrett Lee had not played a snap in college football this time last season.Now the sophomore has been through the peaks and valleys of the LSU starting quarterback job, and Lee enters 2009 as the No. 2 quarterback behind sophomore Jordan Jefferson.Lee compiled a 4-4 record in eight starts during his redshirt freshman season after then-sophomore Andrew Hatch suffered a concussion against Auburn, when Lee led LSU to a 26-21 comeback victory and its first win at Auburn in a decade.Although Lee completed 53 percent of his passes and threw for 1,873 yards and 14 touchdowns — all numbers that rank second in the history of LSU freshman quarterbacks — a statistic that grimly follows him into this season is his 16 interceptions, seven of which were returned for touchdowns.LSU fans hailed Lee a hero for bringing LSU back from a 14-3 halftime deficit to defeat Auburn, but blowout losses against Southeastern Conference  foes Florida and Georgia brought him back to earth, and many fans lost faith in him. He was booed at multiple home games, and some fans even cheered when he was injured in a 31-13 loss to Ole Miss.Lee said he keeps the trials and tribulations of 2008 in his mind as a new season draws near, but he said those moments were part of the growing process for him.”Getting thrown in there really helped me to become a mature player for this fall,” Lee said. “I look at it in a positive way in that it helped me build as a player. You try to look at the good things, but sometimes you just keep yourself focusing on the bad. In the back of my mind, I knew that was part of being a quarterback.”Lee said transferring away from LSU crossed his mind, but he said his teammates and coaches supported him all year.”Around January after last year and being a young guy, [transferring] was floating around in the back of my mind, but never once did I want to transfer,” Lee said. “I wanted to be here. I came to play ball here. The coaches were on my side the whole time … When a coach asks you to stay, you see how important you are to a coach.”LSU offensive coordinator Gary Crowton said he is encouraged by Lee’s offseason growth, and becoming more familiar with the offensive scheme will benefit him as he enters his sophomore campaign.”The best thing about Jarrett Lee is he’s not a freshman anymore,” Crowton said. “To be a freshman starting quarterback who hasn’t played, the experience of coming into those big games is a new thing, and there’s so much adrenaline going. They’re not used to being booed or having all the success either, but they learn to be more even-keel, and that’s what I’m seeing with Jarrett.”Glen West, Lee’s football coach at Brenham High School in Brenham, Texas, said Lee’s struggles as a redshirt freshman were new to him following an illustrious high school career. Lee was ranked in the top three quarterbacks in Texas and the top 15 nationally as a senior, and he completed 71 percent of his passes for 3,425 yards and 40 touchdowns as a junior.”You’re talking about somebody who hadn’t experienced much but success through his years in high school,” West said. “To be put into his situation as a freshman, he did very well at times. Of course he did make some mistakes; the problem with Jarrett’s mistakes when he threw interceptions was many of them were returned for touchdowns. I don’t know how much that has to do with the guy throwing the passes, but that magnified his situation.”West said he does not see Lee feeling extra pressure to prove his worth as quarterback this season.”The lesson Jarrett is living by day to day is his career is not going to be based upon who plays in the first games or even the whole season,” West said. “He realizes that at some point, he’ll have to make decisions to determine the fate of this football team.”LSU coach Les Miles said he expects the lessons Lee will carry from his first season on the field will ultimately make him a viable competitor at quarterback in 2009.”Certainly he had some development issues, but he’s more confident than he’s been, and he understands he was a little premature to play,” Miles said. “Last year was a necessary growing pain, but it was something that’s helped him gain experience on the field.”————Contact Rachel Whittaker at [email protected]