With spring football starting March 20, I thought it might be appropriate to stir up the hornet’s nest by addressing the issue of LSU’s 2004 starting quarterback.
Ever since Matt Mauck put his name in the hat for the NFL draft, the question of who will be LSU’s signal caller in the fall has been debated back and forth around campus and Louisiana.
It’s almost like politics — focused mainly on two guys who haven’t taken a snap at LSU.
You have some people who are in the corner of JaMarcus Russell, the 6-foot-5 redshirt freshman from Alabama, who is rumored to be able to throw the football to the moon from his knees. Well not really, but he can throw it pretty far.
Then there are the Matt Flynn supporters.
Flynn, a blue-chip multiple-threat redshirt freshman from Texas, stands about 6-foot-2 and may not have the arm of Russell, but is blessed with good instincts and quickness.
Many LSU fans are pointing toward the April 24 Spring Game in Tiger Stadium as the backdrop for one of these two quarterbacks to distance himself from the other and emerge as the No. 1 man on the depth chart at QB. And one day, one of these guys will emerge over the other.
But before anyone gets too excited about what these two freshmen, who have never taken a snap in an LSU game, can do, there is another guy in the mix that people seem to be forgetting.
Whether you like to hear this or not, senior Marcus Randall is the No. 1 quarterback going into spring practice. He will emerge from the spring as the starter and barring injuries will be under center when LSU opens the season Sept. 4 against Oregon State in Death Valley.
Why Marcus? Why not?
In Marcus, you have a quarterback with a tremendous amount of Southeastern Conference experience, most of it coming in the 2002 season.
Randall started six games that season after Mauck went down with a foot injury and completed 87-of-181 passes for 1,173 yards and seven touchdowns and rushed for 348 yards on 73 carries.
In LSU’s 2003 national championship run with Mauck back at the helm, Randall got into nine games — mainly in mop up duty – and completed 25-of-40 passes for 403 yards and two touchdowns.
Randall’s critics say he is erratic and sometimes out of control at quarterback, pointing to his games in 2002 against Auburn and Alabama, which LSU lost by a combined score of 62-7.
What those critics don’t tell you is that he was instrumental in wins over South Carolina and Ole Miss. Against the Rebels in that game, he completed 13-of-20 passes for 179 yards and two TDs and was named SEC Offensive Player of the Week in LSU’s come-from-behind 14-13 win. He played well against Arkansas and in the first half of the Cotton Bowl against Texas before injuring his foot on a 76-yard run. And who threw the most famous pass in LSU history known as “The Bluegrass Miracle?” That’s right, No. 12 himself.
The critics are right, Randall was up and down in 2002. But given the circumstances when he was thrust into the starting lineup because of injury, I can sympathize with his highs and lows.
Randall is quick, elusive and a dangerous offensive threat when on the run, and he has had his moments throwing the ball too.
And with his current SEC experience and having spent another year in offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher’s system, the 6-foot-2 signal caller from Glen Oaks High School is the guy to beat out for the position.
This is not to say when things are said and done at the end of the 2004 football season that Randall will be the starter and that Flynn or Russell won’t emerge to take the job. But right now, the starting quarterback job is Randall’s to lose.