The LSU football team will have one less familiar face when it resumes practice in March.
Freshman quarterback Barrett Bailey has left the team, he and Michael Bonnette, sports information director, confirmed Tuesday.
Bonnette said Bailey told LSU coach Les Miles he wanted to be a normal student, and will not attempt to play football elsewhere.
Instead, he’ll stay at LSU on a TOPS scholarship.
“It wasn’t anything personal,” Bailey said. “It didn’t have anything to do with the coaches.”
Bailey, who grew up in Baton Rouge, dreamed of playing football at LSU. Former offensive coordinator Gary Crowton recruited him during his senior season at University High, where he threw for 2,000 yards and 17 touchdowns.
LSU couldn’t offer an athletic scholarship, but Bailey accepted a preferred walk-on spot with the Tigers over offers from Alabama-Birmingham and Northwestern State.
“I always wanted to be at LSU,” Bailey said. “I wanted to be here no matter what happened.”
Bailey said he made the decision partly because of Crowton’s resignation.
“He recruited me, and that had a lot to do with it,” Bailey said.
Bailey spent the season at No. 3 on the depth chart, but saw the writing on the wall with so many offseason changes. In addition to Crowton’s departure, LSU signed quarterbacks Zach Mettenberger and Stephen Rivers, doubling its
quarterbacks on scholarships.
Mettenberger, a four-star recruit from Butler Community College, has enrolled and will compete for the quarterback spot in the spring. Rivers, a three-star recruit from Athens, Ala., will enroll in the fall.
Walk-on quarterbacks have never gotten much playing time under Miles. Harvard transfer Andrew Hatch started three games in 2008, but he was the exception to a list of walk-ons that have come and gone.
Hatch played two seasons at LSU, in which he completed 26-of-47 attempts for 286 yards and two touchdowns. After Hatch, only Jimmy Welker and T.C. McCartney got playing time, limited to handoffs and the Victory formation.
“With the new recruits coming in … it was the right time for me to leave,” Bailey said. “I enjoyed my time with the team. It was a great experience, and I don’t regret it.”
 
 
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Contact Katherine Terrell at [email protected]