LSU coach Les Miles addressed his decision to keep senior quarterback Jarrett Lee on the bench during the BCS National Championship against Alabama and other recent issues plaguing the program during a press conference held Tuesday at the Football Operations Center.
Miles said although he felt the team needed a mobile quarterback to move the ball against Alabama’s suffocating pass rush at the time, which starting senior quarterback Jordan Jefferson provided, he would play Lee “without question” if he could go back to Jan. 9.
“We gave great thought to Jarrett,” Miles said. “Hindsight being 20/20, I’d call the first play differently and the 15th play differently and right on through. We did what we thought was our best opportunity at victory, and we did it as a staff.”
While the quarterback controversy was nothing new by the end of the season, rumors of bickering between players and coaching staff emerged after the team’s loss to the Crimson Tide. Miles took time to quell these allegations.
“If I’m a player that didn’t play a lot in that game, I’d be sick, because you certainly have the feel and the want to make a difference,” Miles said. “I have to be very honest with you, there has never been any player-coach interaction that was negative, in my mind, before or after the game.”
Junior wide receiver Russell Shepard was one of those players, seeing action in just three snaps and tweeting his frustration following the game. Miles said the personnel grouping he wanted to feature worked against Shepard and he would have “loved” to get to him, had the team gained offensive momentum during the game.
Miles said he told Shepard to “continue [his] craft” and to be patient with his success when persuading him to return to LSU after considering a departure for the NFL draft following the national championship.
Shepard will benefit from a shift in offensive philosophy with a highly touted junior college quarterback in sophomore Zach Mettenberger likely taking the reins next season.
“We will throw the ball more,” Miles said. “We will lose a characteristic of a quarterback that can move his feet and run by design. We’ll have a guy that will scramble, but certainly will throw the football, by percentage, greater.”
 
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