LSU football has a problem.A major problem. But it’s not where a lot of people think it is.It’s not the LSU special teams, which has been the overall strength of the team all season.Believe it or not, it’s also not the LSU offense, which has put up 20-plus points in every game this season.So for those of you out there who are into the whole Monday morning quarterback thing, direct your insults toward the Tigers’ real problem spot — the defense. Leave redshirt freshman Jarrett Lee and the offense out of it. In two years, Lee will be one of the best quarterbacks to lace ‘em up at LSU.Lee, despite being a popular culprit for blame by fans, really isn’t that bad. If I told LSU fans before  the season that Lee would have two more touchdowns than interceptions for the season through seven games, I’d be willing to bet 95 percent of people would have taken that in a heartbeat.Sure, he makes a few freshman mistakes, but that’s because he is just that — a freshman — and he will be one all season.For a guy with just a redshirt year under his belt, he has held his own and is ahead of where JaMarcus Russell was at this point in his career. For all the tremendous things Russell did in his career — and I will be the first to tell you I think he is the best quarterback in school history — he was equally terrible in his first season.Remember Russell’s first career start in 2004 at Florida?The line? Six-for-10 with two picks and no touchdowns.At least Lee threw a pair of touchdown passes to go with his two interceptions when he visited The Swamp for the first time.The second point to make about Lee is although he makes a lot of mistakes, let’s not forget he was never supposed to be on the field at this point in his career.The blueprint for Lee was to see the field for the first time in either his redshirt junior season, or at the very earliest his sophomore season if quarterback Ryan Perrilloux was good enough to test the pro waters early.Perrilloux’s numerous shenanigans forced Lee on the field earlier than anyone thought. He would be the first to tell you he sometimes thinks about how different his life would be if he would have been able to ease into the transition from high school quarterback to starting in the best football conference in America.”I try not to, but sometimes in the back of my mind, I think about that,” he said last Monday. “I try to act like a veteran, but sometimes it’s kind of hard.”If you need another example of why LSU fans shouldn’t panic, just look across the sidelines from Lee at Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford. Stafford was not exactly Tom Brady-esque in his freshman season and threw just seven touchdowns compared to 13 interceptions.Lee’s current numbers through just seven games already surpass Stafford’s, as the LSU freshman has 11 touchdown passes and nine interceptions.Russell was a little more cautious in his first season and had nine touchdowns with four interceptions, but he also only hit 50 percent of his passes. Lee is currently hitting at a nearly 60 percent clip.But Stafford is doing fine now — just ask LSU’s defensive backs — and Russell turned into the top pick in the NFL draft. So if Lee follows the same learning curve those two did, he should progressively get better in the second half of this season and explode into a full-blown gun slinger in his sophomore and junior seasons.But for the time being, LSU fans need to take a few deep breaths and focus their gripes elsewhere to the ‘vaunted LSU defense’ that has allowed more than 100 combined points in meetings with Florida and Georgia.Because it seems like when you score 38 points against a Southeastern Conference defense — like LSU did on Saturday — you should win easily, right?Apparently not.—-Contact Casey Gisclair at [email protected]