A Little Jarrett Lee For Ya…

OK, watch this. It’s a highlight film of LSU’s new starting quarterback over the course of his career.

See if you notice somethin’. All us nutria down here in Barataria have it pegged.

And here’s a little more, where there are actually some other plays as well…

Anything jump out at you?

Watch it again, and look at his feet.

Lee’s footwork stinks in pretty much all of these throws. And he’s making good throws even with bad footwork a lot of the time.

Now consider this – here’s a quote from Steve Kragthorpe, who is LSU’s quarterback coach this year (he replaced Gary Crowton, the number one gripe about whom was that you could send your QB’s to hang out with a pack of wolves and they’d get better coachin’-up on technique and so forth) at the press conference after he took the job.

“To me, coaching the quarterbacks is about two things — you play with your feet, and you play with your head. You’ve got to be able to make quick decisions with your head, put the ball where it’s supposed to be put, get the ball in the playmakers’ hands.”

Here’s the video…

When he said you play with your feet, he wasn’t talking about running the option. He was talking about escaping the rush, sure, but more than that he’s talking about footwork. Mechanics. Technique. Because you really can’t have a great throwing motion unless you can throw off a solid base.

Or at least it’s really hard to be consistent. Which is a big issue for Lee, or at least it has been in the past.

What’s the rat’s point, yer prolly askin’. OK, fine. First, don’t call me a rat. I ain’t no rat. But second, here’s Lee, who but for his crappy footwork (which is somethin’ Crowton had four years to fix and never did squat about it) could really be a good quarterback – he’s got a hell of a quick release, his arm is damn strong like his head coach would say and you can see from those clips that he’s got some sand to him. Kids who don’t have balls don’t go into Auburn as freshmen and beat Auburn with a touchdown pass, or go into Gainesville as juniors and do similar. What he needs is to read defenses better than he did as a freshman – and that’s gonna happen – and throw with good mechanics.

And what if Kragthorpe is able to coach ol’ Jarrett up on the footwork? What happens if Kragthorpe can make this guy into a finished product?

The Hat is talkin’ up Odell Beckham and Jarvis Landry in a major way, and you’d have to be a dork not to be excited about what Rueben Randle can do. LSU has the receivers, and they oughta have the line. Lord knows they’ve got the running backs.

We’ll find out Saturday, but don’t be surprised if Lee ends up lookin’ like a worldbeater out there – assuming, that is, that Kragthorpe has given him a good foot massage in the offseason.

Figuratively speakin’, that is.

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