The LSU football program presented six quarterbacks on its roster six and a half weeks ago — two of them pegged as quarterbacks of the future.Fast forward to today after the departures of Chris Garrett and Zach Lee, and the Tigers are down to only two scholarship quarterbacks, finding themselves scrambling for another quarterback for the 2011 recruiting class.A pair of walk-ons — junior T.C. McCartney and freshman Barrett Bailey — sit behind juniors Jordan Jefferson and Jarrett Lee.LSU currently has one recruit to replace the two departures after receiving a verbal commitment from three-star prospect Stephen Rivers, younger brother of San  Diego Chargers quarterback Phillip Rivers, in early August.”The great opportunity will be to the next quarterback in this class that comes in with two seniors having to play their last year and a spring and a fall to prepare to be the starter,” LSU coach Les Miles said on Aug. 17, the morning after Zach Lee signed a baseball contract to play with the Los Angeles Dodgers for $5.25 million.Miles admitted he didn’t recruit another quarterback earlier in the year because at the time, Zach Lee had signed his letter of intent and Garrett was still on the roster.But it’s back to the drawing board for Miles and his staff after Garrett transferred Aug. 4 to Northwestern State.”There’s significant  pressure because most of the quarterbacks are already committed,” said Rivals.com recruiting analyst Mike Scarborough. “Quarterback is a position where most of those kids get it over with early.”Pressure or no pressure, LSU could struggle to land a viable signal-caller for several reasons.The top 17 pro-style and top six dual-threat quarterbacks have already given verbal commitments to teams, according to Rivals.com, leaving LSU with little to work with.
One name LSU fans could be hearing about in the future is Jacoby Brissett, a four-star recruit out of Dwyer High School in West Palm Beach, Fla.”He’s a guy who can kind of mix it up and get out of the pocket … and he hasn’t talked up LSU a whole lot, but they’re on his teams of interest [list],” said Shea Dixon, managing editor of TigerSportsDigest.com. “I think that will be the first guy they hardcore press.”Beyond that, LSU may have to either pry away an already committed quarterback or turn to the junior college route, although Miles didn’t dismiss Bailey as a quarterback of the future.”We were really thrilled that he chose to come to school here and turned down scholarship offers,” Miles said. It also doesn’t help that the LSU offense finished 112th out of 120 teams in yards per games last season.”Those kids primarily look at LSU, and they have a perception problem, where LSU is predicted to finish in the West, how that offense has looked the last two years,” Scarborough said. “They’re all sitting back and wanting to see how LSU does  this season.”If LSU were to add another quarterback to accompany Rivers, then both players could redshirt their first season next year when Jefferson and Jarrett Lee are seniors. But if LSU has to wait until 2012 to land a marquee player, then a redshirt year would presumably be thrown out the window.Regardless of the desperate need for a quarterback, Miles reiterated he will be looking for quality, not quantity.”It has to be the right guy,” he said. “It’s not like were going to go out and get a number. It has to be someone who has the ability to quarterback in the SEC.”—Contact Sean Isabella at [email protected]