Day 2 of the Post-Perrilloux Era

I thank Poseur for covering for me on the Perrilloux situation. I was in court all morning and into the afternoon so I couldn't post the breaking news.

If you click the "Perrilloux" label attached to this post, you will see that I have been a big defender of Ryan Perrilloux in the past. I have defended him on the same basis that Poseur semi-defended him below, which is that while he hasn't followed the rules, he's never done anything so harmful as to merit outright dismissal.

But with news of a positive drug test, allegedly from cocaine, and whispers that this was his problem all along, I am in agreement that the time has come for Ryan Perrilloux to leave the program.

The question is out there of what this will mean on the field. Some are already saying that Ryan leaving is a positive, due to his lack of leadership skills and lack of respect in the locker room. All of that may be true, but he was a studly talent. Losing his production cannot help, unless one of the other quarterbacks is better than expected.

So who is out there? Well, the headliner is Jarrett Lee, a redshirt freshman out of Texas. Here is what I said about Jarrett Lee a year ago when he was just joining the team:

You can tell from his stats that he is tall, slightly built, and not particularly fast. His videos show a solid arm, but he won't be confused with Jamarcus Russell's cannon. He's got good touch, and looks like he's a QB in the Danny Wuerffel mode, which is not a bad thing. He throws with good touch and finds the open man. If you want a more recent comparison, I think he looks a lot like a young Drew Tate. In his last two years of high school, he threw for 71 touchdowns and over 6000 yards, but I doubt you're going to see any of JR's patented 50 yard heaves while leaning on his back foot. Lee is more of a touch passer, but his videos suggest he does that well.

Lee is a solid talent. I don't think he has all-world potential or that he is a "can't miss" prospect, but he's solid. He has a good arm, but he's no Jamarcus Russell. He has nice mobility, probably in the Matt Flynn mold in that respect, but he's not Russell Shepard.

Obviously, because Lee is a redshirt freshman, he has not played a down at the college level. If you believe practice reports, Lee throws a really nice ball, but is not necessarily developing as a quarterback as quickly as one would hope. If he's going to take the reins of the team, he will have to work on reading defenses and making decisions as the offseason progresses. Ideally, he is a guy we would have liked to allow to develop in a backup role for another year or two before giving him a chance to win the job.

The other prime candidate for the starting job is transfer QB Andrew Hatch. His story is pretty well-known by now, but I'll recount it anyway. Hatch is from Nevada and was recruited by Gary Crowton to go to BYU. When Crowton was fired from BYU, Hatch switched his commitment to Harvard. Then, after a year, Hatch went on a Mormon mission, and when he returned he transferred to LSU. He is a junior.

Hatch played a bit last year, in the Middle Tennessee State game last year. He was 1 for 2 passing with 9 yards. He has also rushed 4 times for 27 yards. He is known primarily as a runner. He does not have the arm that Jarrett Lee has, but he is somewhat bigger than Lee. With Hatch, we would not be able to have much of a downfield passing game, which would negate some of the strengths of our receivers. Demetrius Byrd, in particular, would be hurt by Hatch being the regular QB. He would give us the running dimension that Lee doesn't give us, however. He could step right into Perrilloux's role of running the option and not miss a beat.

Don't count out Jordan Jefferson though. He is an incoming freshman out of Destrahan. Watching his videos, it is my opinion that Jefferson has better tools than Jarrett Lee. He has a strong arm and good legs. If you watch his videos, be sure to watch his senior videos. They are light years better than his junior videos. He is not a Jamarcus Russell or a Ryan Perrilloux in terms of talent (few are), nor is he as dynamic as Russell Shepard (though he is a much better passer right now), but he has the tools to be a very successful college QB.

This is a talented kid. He may well be the QB of the future, but it is awfully hard to come in and be the man as a true freshman. Lee has one year of development, maturation, and education on Jefferson. That makes a huge difference at this stage of their careers. You would really like to see Jefferson redshirt rather than play immediately.

Ideally, you would like to give both Lee and Jefferson a chance to understudy for a little while and then compete with each other for the starting job. That would mean that ideally you would want a veteran like Hatch to take the reins for a little while while Lee and Jefferson learn. But Hatch may not have the arm strength to be the man, and we may have to go with Jarrett Lee, and if he fails turn it over to Jefferson.

I suspect we'll see a situational rotation of Hatch and Lee next season, unless and until one or the other of them really emerges, which is likely to be Lee.

Poseur: The Jarrett Lee Era Starts Now

Ryan Perrilloux’s decent is nearly complete in becoming the biggest waste of talent to go through the LSU program since Cecil Collins. Make no mistake, Perrilloux is a phenomenal player and LSU will be a worse team without him. But there comes a time when you finally have to cut bait. Miles gave Perrilloux chance after second chance, all of which Perrilloux has blown. After a failed drug test, Perrilloux had run out of chances. Miles hand was forced, and he showed his star quarterback the door.

An ESPN poll, while admittedly a non-scientific study, showed that almost 94% of 21,000 voters believe Miles did the right thing. You can’t get 94% of any group of people to agree on anything.

I don’t think Miles was wrong to give Perrilloux so many chances. His sins, though multitude, have always been more in the classification of general stupidity than truly harmful. But there were just so many slip ups that eventually, he had no good grace to fall back on when he tested positive, allegedly, for cocaine.

Perrilloux is looking to transfer to Southern, where he can play right away. And I really do wish him nothing but the best. I genuinely hope he can turn his life around because he is going full-throttle down a pretty awful self-destructive course. I’m not talking about not getting into the NFL, I’m worried he’s not going to stay out of jail. Hopefully, this is the thing he needs to finally straighten out and take control of his life. Because the road he is on right now does not end in a happy place.

Just ask Cecil Collins.

The Book on Perrilloux

I've talked before about how I think people overstate the case against Ryan Perrilloux.  Yes, he gets in a lot of trouble here, but it's always penny-ante stuff.  He's never been arrested, never been charged with a crime of violence, never been implicated in drugs, never been implicated in theft, and never actually let his grades slip so much as to be academically ineligible.  

I know at least one of my commenters says that's because a lot of other stuff he's done has been covered up, but that falls under the rubric of "unverifiable" and I don't know if we should put any credence in it.  The young man certainly draws a lot of attention, whatever he does.  You sometimes read threads on a message board that says things like, "I saw Ryan in class today.  He looked normal."

I recently read a fairly balanced article about the LSU program and in particular Ryan Perrilloux, by CNNSI writer Stewart Mandel.  He quotes Miles saying something I've said before here.  He said that critics in the media, and on the message boards I suppose, "don't know what goes on in our program."  He defended his handling of the Perrilloux situation, "The suspension itself was a tremendous punishment."

I often think to myself, why does this young man, who still has never done any truly unforgivable thing, draw so much ire from people?  I mean, the kid has never killed kittens or stuck a gun in someone's face (though some commenters may wonder if he has and we just don't know about it).  Yet, of all the discipline issues in the college football world, including another troubled young QB like Stephen Garcia at South Carolina, Perrilloux gets the most attention, and it's for things like skipping classes or trying to use a fake idea to get into a casino at 20 years old.  Why is he hounded?  Why is his every move watched by the college football media and fans to wait for his next failure?  

Why do people expect that failure to come?  Yes, in the last year, he has had a hard time staying out of trouble, but his previous two years at LSU was uneventful as far as we know.  Granted, in those years he was a 3rd string quarterback and not expected to play, but we never heard anything about any legal problems or suspensions for skipping class.  If he can stay out of trouble for his first two years, why not his last two?

And why is Ryan "LSU's Britney Spears", and analogy I like, by the way, because Britney (like Ryan) is expected to fail and constantly watched for signs of failure.

I think the answer is two-fold.  Ryan Perrilloux is disrespected as much as he is for two reasons, both of them being his own fault.  The first reason is his statement upon committing that he was hoping to win the start his first year and maybe win 4 Heismans.  That really set him off on the wrong foot with LSU fans and with the team, and set the tone for his whole career thus far at LSU.

The second reason is his implication in the counterfeiting operation.  He was never charged, mind you, and was never accused of being any kind of a ring leader.  We don't really know much of anything about it, but I think the most reasonable sounding explanation that I have heard is that some of his friends/family/associates were heavily involved and Ryan may have received some benefits from it and/or known about it.  Counterfeiting is a serious crime, but being on the periphery of it is not particularly serious in and of itself.  What made this so important for Ryan was just how strange it is.  You just don't hear about football players being implicated in this sort of thing, at least not until after their careers have been over for decades.

Without those two things, we have a high-level athlete who tried to gain entry into a casino illegally, got into an altercation with a bar bouncer, and skipped some classes and meetings.  Hardly stuff to write home about or even worry about if you ask me.  

This is not to suggest that those things didn't happen or that they aren't legitimately things that should be added to the Perrilloux equation.  I just think that those are the things that set Ryan Perrilloux apart from other young athletes who have gotten into a few scrapes of minor trouble, nothing to justify the scrutiny he has received.  I doubt anyone will ever actually forget those things, but if he can manage to get the other things turned around and stay turned around, he will be a special quarterback we can hopefully remember very fondly when his playing career here at LSU is over.

I Sure Am Glad I'm Not a Real Journalist

If I was, I might be forced to do something unthinkable, like issue some kind of apology or something for yesterday's post. In case you missed the news, the manager of the Kona Grill, where the Perrilloux incident reportedly took place, has denied any incident ever happened. This means, of course that we may never find out what, if anything, happened this weekend that has kept Ryan Perrilloux out of practice this week.

Of course, rumors abound yet again.

Among the more common rumors we've heard is that the Kona manager was bought off, meaning the incident happened precisely as reported, but is being covered up. You can believe this if you want, but I don't see a whole lot of purpose in executing a cover-up like this, so I don't think it happened.

The other rumor is the Ryan simply did not complete his required workouts in time to get to practice. A complementary rumor is that this may be a result of Ryan's baby being born during this time, perhaps prematurely.

The third rumor is that the Perrilloux suspension and the Shomari Clemons incident are linked. In case you did not hear, reserve freshman linebacker Shomari Clemons was issued a misdemeanor citation and summons to Court to answer to misdemeanor charges of shoving a police officer. He was not arrested (perhaps only through luck). We can expect a substantial suspension of Clemons.

Alright, we all know that Les Miles has never been particularly forthcoming about issues like this. We'll probably never get a definitive statement on what exactly happened this weekend with regard to Perrilloux that has kept him out of practice. But there are some things we know.

We know that Ryan still has never been arrested. He has never been accused of assault or other crime of violence, drug activity, theft of property or any other common crime football players get accused of. He has always maintained academic eligibility. The kid seems to be a magnet for troublesome behavior, but has never done anything truly outrageous that we know of.

I see no reason not to keep him around.

The Prodigal Son Prodigizes Again

Did you see how I just made up a word there? Prodigizes. I feel like the President.

Yesterday, word came down that Ryan Perrilloux would miss all of Spring Practice. WJBO reported it was due to an incident at a restaurant, and someone on another message board said that the incident was an argument between Ryan and the waitress.

The word "argument" can mean many things, from a simple exchange of words to an embarrassing screaming match. The poster did not elaborate. For the moment, let's assume that what happened was a moderate argument, by which I mean there were some raised voices and bad feelings but without any threats of violence or excessive scene-making. It may turn out down the road that this assumption does not hold, but we can deal with that when the time comes.

Assuming this to be true, I think it's a bad move to have suspended him further. I agree with the commentators who have said that an argument with a waiter is not a big enough deal to warrant this kind of action, but I want to go a step further.

First, a little background. As many of you know, I am an attorney. One category of people I often work with are parents who have had their children taken away from them by the state. Each case is unique, but there are some generalities that hold pretty often. People in this category often have poor conflict resolution skills (which is code for saying that they have short tempers or cry a lot more than you'd think). They also often have difficulty setting medium- and long-range goals for themselves and meeting those goals. Often, it's because they never have done it before.

Anyway, as an attorney, one of my jobs is to do my best to help them correct some of these problems. You can imagine that one obstacle I run into is that they are trying to do this immediately after the very emotional setback of losing their children to the State. For people whose coping skills are behind the curve anyway, this is a problem.

The next obstacle, and the one I see parallels to here, is that they often make a lot of progress for a while, and do very well, but have some minor setback some time before they are able to get their children back. This minor setback, which may be something on the order of having to move from one house to another due to a landlord problem, which ordinarily you might think would set them back only a little bit, discourages them and they lose hope. Then everything falls apart.

I am afraid this may happen with Ryan Perrilloux. By all accounts, he was making a lot of progress in the eyes of the coaches, even going so far as to be reinstated to the team. Now, due to some minor setback, he has been publicly embarrassed again and has suffered a setback in his effort to rejoin the team fully, all over something that would be no big deal if it was you or me. If Ryan is anything like my clients (and I suspect he is), this is a very dangerous time in his life. This is the time when he could be thinking, "I don't have what it takes to do this," or, "They expect more from me than from anyone else." This is the time when he may lose hope that this can work out, and stop trying.

All over an argument with a waiter at a restaurant. If I was Les Miles, and there wasn't more to it than this, I would have just let this one go and let him rejoin the team. Anyone at any time can get into an argument with a waiter at a restaurant. He may not have been in the right (But who knows? Maybe he was.), but it just doesn't seem serious enough to me to warrant the risk that this could really turn out bad.

I assure you this is not a topic I relish talking about. This is a difficult spot for LSU to be in, and I do not like seeing a young man with such physical gifts potentially not be able to use them to his fullest because he has trouble getting along with people and following rules. This story, however, will go a long way to setting the narrative for the LSU football program not only for this season, but into the future as well.

I Would Have Titled this "The Prodigal Son Returns" But That Name Doesn't Really Apply and I Couldn't Think of a Better One

Les Miles re-instated Ryan Perrilloux to the team earlier this week, though he has to complete a cadre of personal workouts on his own time before he is allowed to practice. He should return to the field on Monday.

Let's face it. Whatever you think of Ryan Perrilloux, one thing is undeniable: this team's chances of winning are a lot higher if Ryan Perrilloux is on the field.

With Ryan Perrilloux, the 2008 LSU Fightin' Tigers form a triumvirate with Florida and Georgia as the pre-season favorites in the SEC. With Ryan Perrilloux, LSU is clearly the pre-season favorite in the SEC West. With Ryan Perrilloux, LSU has an offense that promises to be as dynamic (and frankly, terrifying) as any offense in the country. With Ryan Perrilloux, we have a quarterback who can throw the deep ball, can beat you with his legs, can run the option, and can run the short and medium-range passing game. With Ryan Perrilloux, our receivers are likely to run wild. On ability alone, Ryan Perrilloux is a dark horse for the Heisman Trophy.

Without Ryan Perrilloux . . ., well, without Ryan Perrilloux no one really knows what we have, exactly. We know we don't have a quarterback who has taken a meaningful snap. We know we don't have an exceptional athlete behind center. We know we don't have anyone who could legitimately be called a Heisman threat, at least not this year.

I know as well as my readers do that there is more to being a quarterback than natural physical ability, and it is that "more" that Ryan may lack, including leadership skills and team-first attitude. We also know, however, that various members of the team have spoken out publicly that they do not think Ryan Perrilloux has reached the point of no return with them. You can ask, "What do you expect them to say" to which my response is that if they really don't want Perrilloux back, they probably wouldn't say anything at all.

It is healthy to be reminded, however, that Ryan Perrilloux has never been arrested, has never been accused of drug abuse, has never been accused of committing a crime of violence or a crime of theft. He has never done any one thing that could be labeled as truly lawless. Instead, he is a guy who seems to always do little things, like try to get into a casino with another person's license or skip too much class. Let's also not forget that the incident that got him suspended for the Bama game last year was at a time and place when he was out with his teammates, including senior leaders, in an incident that appears to have been initiated by overenthusiastic bouncers. For those reasons, I think the cries of "thug" are grossly misplaced.

Les recently changed Perrilloux's living situation. He is now rooming with my larger, much more athletically gifted cousin, Kirsten*. This fills me with good feelings, as being paired with a high character guy like Kirsten Pittman can't help but be good for Ryan.

I don't know the future. I don't know if Ryan Perrilloux will be able, this time, finally, to be able to continue his career without controversy. I hope so, for more reasons than one. I know it's entirely up to him. Les Miles isn't asking much of him. He just has to get to class, get to team functions, stay out of legal/academic trouble, and basically be a good citizen. If he does all that, he could end up as good as any quarterback we've ever had, and the Perrilloux-led Tiger offenses could be the most dangerous we've ever fielded.

*The author is not, in fact, related to Kirsten Pittman, though he would like to be.

Still On the Topic of the Week

I figure that there's nothing to say about what happened to the basketball team last night, except to say that it's clear this team has a LONG way to go to be competitive every night. We just did not have the guard play to keep up with Arkansas.

Leaving that sad topic behind, we return to the issue of LSU's quarterback situation.

I've read a lot of very strong opinions on this situation lately, mostly in the vein of "kick him off". People are saying he's a bad kid, a distraction to the team, a potential cancer, etc. This is all well and good, and everyone is entitled to their opinions, but there are some important things to keep in mind.

First, very few people on the message boards and probably no one in the media actually knows Ryan Perrilloux. We know what gets into the media, which are the screw-ups he makes. While his screw-ups are definitely a part of his personality, they do not make up the whole of his character. I'm sure with Ryan Perrilloux, as with most other people, there are layers there that are unknown to the general public.

Second, and for the same reason, most of the people commenting know nothing about the attitude and perspective of the team. We don't know how Perrilloux's transgressions are affecting the team. We can make some educated guesses, but they are just that. Only guesses.

The coaches know Ryan Perrilloux, and the coaches also have their fingers on the pulse of the team. Or at least they should. And they will be the ones to make the ultimate decision as to what is best for the team. I am sure they will be second-guessed by many people. Their decision, however, will be much more informed than any piece of advice they get off the internet.

I am fully cognizant of the fact that what I am saying could be used of an indictment of all commentary and criticism from the media or the blogs or the message boards. That's fine. This is all in good fun, but I try to recognize that my own criticism of the coaches comes from a place characterized at least as much by its ignorance as by its insight. That is true of all of us, and when it comes to questioning a kid's character or calling for great damage to be done to his future, we should all be a little more cognizant of that.

Update: This is perhaps my favorite message board post ever:

JLee has all the same traits and strengths of Matt Mauck and Matt Flynn. He has a better arm than both of them and is mobile, but not as fast as Flynn. Experience is overrated if you are not smart and do not have talent. He is two inches shorter at about 6-1, but in a spread-type offense (under Crowton) that is easily overcome -- this is not the NFL.

Lee is already purported to be on the sharpest guys they've ever had at QB. He reminds a lot of observers of the two Matts and Tommy Hodson and Alan Risher. Hodson and Risher had no experience and both did well with less talent around them. Hodson and Risher could and probably would have led our 2003 and 2007 teams to the title.

Indeed, even should RP return, I'm not so sure that Lee would not win the starting nod on his own merits. Talent, smarts, mobility, accuracy, consistency and leadership can overcome inexperience really quick. If Hodson and Risher are not enough examples, look elsewhere around the SEC -- there are many.

LSU will be fine -- maybe not BCS title ready this fall -- but asskicking ready, they will be.

Here is a picture of Jarrett Lee:



Here are pictures of the quarterbacks this poster compared Jarrett Lee to:









Here are some pictures of recent LSU starting quarterbacks the poster did not see fit to compare Jarrett Lee to:











I suppose we can all be thankful he did not bring out Jeff Wickersham comparisons.

I Listen to the Radio Sometimes

I got in my car to drive home last night right as Paul Finebaum was starting to talk to Bruce Feldman, author of Meat Market, about the slew of arrests and suspensions in the SEC lately. To recap for those not paying attention, Bama's freshman defensive lineman Jeremy Elder was arrested for armed robbery, Tennessee punter Britton Colquitt was suspended and forfeited his scholarship for an alcohol-related traffic incident, and LSU quarterback Ryan Perrilloux was suspended for violation of team rules.

Feldman went a long way to convincing me that it would be best if Miles were to cut ties with Perrilloux. I will attempt to paraphrase the substance of Feldman's interview:

While Perrilloux's situation is the least serious legally, it is probably the most significant in terms of impact on football. Miles is in a tight spot because he does not have another experienced quarterback on the roster, and while the LSU coaches like Jarrett Lee he is only a redshirt freshman and was not expected to have a big role in the offense yet. But Miles has to be careful because this is the sort of situation that could lead to rot from within. Last year's success was built in part on high character players like Hester, Dorsey, and Steltz, but now those people are gone. If low character guys like Perrilloux are allowed to get their way, it could lead to discord and conflict on the team, as other players will want to get treated like Ryan Perrilloux. Meaning, Perrilloux is allowed chance after chance to come back despite not following rules, when other players might be dismissed from the team for the same things.

The man makes a point.

Bruce Feldman has proven in the past to be an intelligent and insightful observer of college football. His book Meat Market is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the inner workings of a BCS-level college football program. His interviews on the radio are among the best and most interesting segments Paul Finebaum ever has. In short, he's one of those guys who, even if I disagree with him on some point, I'm going to listen to his perspective with an open mind.

In counterpoint, let's all realize two things:

1. Ryan's legal troubles are small-potatoes compared to some other people's; and
   
2. Miles has disciplined Ryan quite harshly in the past, to the point where I don't think you can say he lets Ryan "get away" with stuff.

He was suspended for about 6 months and made to do his workouts and drills outside of official team settings. He was not allowed to travel with the team to Bama last year. He's been embarrassed on multiple occasions both in private within the team and in public. No matter what happens from this point forward, the suspensions have probably cost Perrilloux any realistic chance of being a high draft pick, unless the unlikely happens and he suddenly turns it around and becomes a role model for the next two years.

It is my impression that Miles intends to allow Ryan Perrilloux back on the team if he can abide by certain rules between now and the time he is to be allowed back on. Those conditions and Miles' time table for reinstatement probably will never be discussed publicly. In the meantime, I expect Perrilloux to miss part or all of Spring Practice and possibly much more.

A time table like that would cut to the bone, both for LSU and for Perrilloux. If Ryan showed one on-field weakness last year, it was in game management, by which I mean he often struggled to get the team out of the huddle and properly lined up in time to get the play started. It's a correctable problem, but in order to correct it he will need repetitions under center. He won't be getting those repetitions if he's suspended.

Another long suspension I think takes away the problem of "rot from within" that Bruce Feldman discussed. A long suspension means that Perrilloux isn't getting away with anything. He's being excluded from the team and set back in his development.

And if, ultimately, we move on without Ryan Perrilloux, we are fairly well set up to do it. We have a very good offensive line in place to protect a young quarterback. We have several very good running backs to take the pressure off of a suspect passing game. We will probably have a strong defense that will allow our offense to play somewhat more conservatively than it otherwise would. We can move on without him if we need to, and I think if Perrilloux sees that, he may decide to fall in line.

Perrilloux Suspended . . . Again

At the risk of pointing out the obvious, this is bad.

Ryan Perrilloux has been suspended from the team indefinitely for unspecified violation of team rules. No one seems to know any inside story about the length of the suspension, but it is rumored that the team rules he violated concerned going to class and attending team meetings.

Some observations:

• Someone once told me that LSU would be really good next year if Perrilloux can stay out of jail. I responded that Perrilloux, as far as we know, has never been in jail. He's been investigated for connection to a counterfeiting operation, but never charged. He's been cited for using someone else's ID to get into a casino. He's been in the news for a conflict outside of an off-campus club. He's been suspended for missing classes and team meetings. He has never been arrested. He's never assaulted or attacked anyone that we know of. While the kid has some apparent stupidity problems, let's not overstate his lawlessness.
  
• My God this is colossally dumb. Let's look at this logically. While Perrilloux is a big part of LSU's future, he needs us at least as much as we need him at this point. Granted, we need him quite a bit. With Perrilloux, we're on the short list of national championship contenders. Without him, we probably aren't, but we're still contenders in the SEC. With us, Perrilloux has the prospects of an NFL future. Without us, Perrilloux has a big uphill battle to make a living playing football. To use an analogy to hunting, LSU is the wolf and Perrilloux is the rabbit. The rabbit is running for his life and the wolf is running for his dinner. Failure at LSU will mean the virtual end of Perrilloux's prospects of wealth and stardom, but it will mean only a temporary dip in LSU's prospects.
• Let's be clear, Miles did not kick Perrilloux off the team. He is suspended, not dismissed. Miles has shown a willingness to "sacrifice until it hurts" when it comes to Perrilloux, having already given him one very long suspension, but he's also shown a willingness to welcome him back and in good graces after it has hurt.
• One has to wonder what (if anything) is going through Perrilloux's head. He has to know as well as anyone that he's paid his dues on the field and the way is open for him to play and to excel. He's the heir apparent to the QB position on a team with a ton of offensive weapons at the ready. He has to know that, production-wise, few quarterbacks are ever set up as nicely as Perrilloux is now. I don't know how a kid sees that and decides to risk it all.

I do not think this is the end for Perrilloux. I've heard too many stories recently of Perrilloux still being on campus, still being active and around. If he was gone for good, he'd be.. uh.. gone. If Miles wanted him gone, he wouldn't be suspended. He'd be dismissed.

Keep in mind also, Ryan Perrilloux recently lost his father. I mean VERY recently. It doesn't excuse violation of team rules of this nature, particularly if they occurred before the death of Mr. Perrilloux, but I sincerely doubt that Les Miles is going to pile onto the kid quite that bad.

Ryan is a special talent. I sincerely believe we've never had a quarterback with as much natural ability for the position as Perrilloux has. And yes, I include Jamarcus Russell, who is admittedly very close in talent to Perrilloux, but Perrilloux's running ability makes him superior (physically). This is a guy who is probably our best shot at getting a Heisman Trophy in my lifetime to this point.

It is my hope that Miles will suspend him just long enough to keep him on the straight and narrow through the season. After the 2009 season, he can go pro and save us the drama for all I care, but I don't want to enter the season with a transfer from Harvard and a redshirt freshman as our quarterbacks.

SEC Championship Game: The Early Morning After

It's 4:30am and I can't sleep. This is absolute madness, but it seems to have all come down in LSU's favor, leaving us with a returning head coach and a trip to the national championship game against Ohio State. I don't even know what to say. I would say no one saw it coming, but that would be wrong. At least one person over on Tigerdroppings predicted it, but even he said he balked when given the opportunity to bet on it.

This crazy season had one more crazy day in it, didn't it? Today, for LSU fans may have been the craziest of all. Someone is going to write a book about this season one day. No, there will probably be two books. One about the season as a whole and another about LSU's season in particular.

Two highly improbable things happened today. Or maybe it was three improbable things. Or four.

The day started with Kirk Herbstreit reporting that Les Miles was certain to be the next coach at Michigan. I wasn't particularly surprised by this, but apparently Les Miles was, as were Skip Bertman and the players.

Second, Les Miles calls an impromptu press conference to announce that not only was the initial report erroneous, but that he was not talking to Michigan and was going to be the LSU coach for the future. He was clearly angry, and later said that players came up to him and said that they felt like he was just waiting to get on a plane.

When I saw this press conference, I thought, "Well that's great, but he did not say 'I'll be the coach for the 2008 season.'" While there were reports that he had agreed in principle to a contract extension, it was unsigned. Then in an interview with Tracy Wolfson before the start of the game, he said it. Unambiguously. He's going to be the coach next year. He later said he wanted to "challenge that person" who put out the information that he was going to Michigan.

So, instead of going into the bowl season looking for a new coach, which EVERYONE expected, we appear to have locked up our most successful coach in history for years to come.

Third, amid all the distractions and with our starting quarterback out and our best player not playing a lot of snaps, we went out and beat Tennessee. I know we were favored in this game, but I thought we were facing an uphill battle to win it. I thought our defense was reeling. I thought our team as a whole would be flat given the distractions. I had no idea what Perrilloux would do.

It turns out, our defense was excellent for most of the game. Our team played spirited football and really dominated the game statistically. Ryan Perrilloux started slow and ended slow, but in the long stretch in the middle he was terrific. We struggled to put the ball in the end zone, but the team moved the ball consistently with Ryan Perrilloux behind center. I sure hope those rumors of him leaving the team after the season are false. That kid is going to be a special quarterback if he can keep it together.

And finally, perhaps most improbably of all, it appears we're going to play for the national championship! Nothing is definite on this, but the BCS gurus think it's likely and the major talking heads are embracing an LSU-OSU matchup. This was of course all set up by Mizzou and West Virginia both losing. Missouri was half-expected to lose, but WVU was 28 point favorites over a Pitt team that was generally considered poor.

I didn't think it would happen even with wins by Pitt and Oklahoma, and it still might. We started the day at #7 in the BCS. Two teams ahead of us lost. Two other teams ahead of us did not even win their conference divisions. And one team ahead of us lost to us by 41 points early in the season. The BCS gurus think our computer rankings may be the strongest in the country, and the voters will likely put us ahead of the teams that failed to win their conferences.

I'm not a rah-rah kind of guy. I'm not going to blindly accept that we deserve it without analyzing it further, but I can say what we have accomplished.

• We won our conference, the toughest in the country.
• We scored big wins over Florida, Tennessee, Auburn, Virginia Tech, who all finished the season ranked, VT in the top 5.
  
• We beat South Carolina and Alabama at times when those teams were playing very well.
• Our losses were both in triple overtime to credible teams while playing with one or more of our best players injured.
• I haven't done an exhaustive study on this, but it strikes me that we probably had the most difficult injury situation of any decent team in the country. Our best player was a shadow of himself for the entire second half of the season. Our best offensive player missed several games with injury and couldn't finish the SEC Championship Game. One of our starting defensive tackles was lost for the year before the third game of the season. One of our key contributors on the defensive line was suspended from the team for the entire regular season. Our starting middle linebacker was limited against Arkansas. A starting cornerback busted up his eyes and had blurry vision for much of the year. Our starting quarterback missed two games to injury, including the SEC Championship Game, and was severely limited in several other games. Our backup quarterback had to play hurt for much of the second half of the SECCG. Our go-to running back got injured on the second-to-last play of the Kentucky game and wasn't available for a key 4th down, when his backup failed to get the 2 yards necessary to extend the game.

I'm not going to poor-mouth Oklahoma, Virginia Tech, and Ohio State, but I will say this: a team that fails to win its conference has no business playing for the national championship. Kansas, you beat nobody all season. Georgia, you finished the season very strong, but you did not even win your division, much less your conference. Georgia has definitely earned an at-large bid in the BCS bowls, but it does not deserve to play for the national championship. I would be saying the same about us if the roles were reversed. How can you be the best team in the country when you aren't the best team in your conference?

We'll know more tomorrow.

SEC Preview - Week 10

Sorry for not posting yesterday. I had been up from 3:00am to about 4:30am with the baby, and somehow or another my alarm never quite went off.

It's Homecoming week in the SEC, and there are even fewer interesting-looking games this week than last, but before we get to that, there's a little matter of a certain backup quarterback to discuss. He won't be playing against Bama, or even making the trip, but he's been cleared of wrongdoing and will be back with the team next week. This has apparently greatly upset some of the rumor-mongers on the boards, who think the police are giving him favorable treatment. The official story, however, is that Perrilloux did nothing illegal and that the bouncers (who have been fired, btw) hassled him wrongly.

I disagree with the people who fault Perrilloux simply for being out so late at night. The kid, despite all his problems, is still a college kid, and it's not like he was hanging out at some crack house. He was at a club, reportedly with half the rest of the team with him. Yes, I wonder what his pregnant girlfriend was doing there, but I can't fault the kid for simply being out late at night.

Anyway, onto the games this week.

Vandy at Florida, 11:30am Lincoln-Financial. I'm glad Vandy showed the sort of life I had been expecting of them a couple weeks ago against the Gamecocks. Do they have a chance against Florida? Sure they do. But is it a realistic chance? Well, I think it's a realistic chance if Tebow is still at well below 100%. The ESPN preview of the game makes no mention of Tebow's health, which is what you get from ESPN sometimes. Tebow at less than 100% is an ordinary player, and Florida with an ordinary quarterback this year is an ordinary team. Vandy is also an ordinary team, which means that if Tebow isn't Tebow-esque, Florida and Vandy are roughly even. Still, Vandy does not have a whole lot of athletes on defense, and I believe that even without Tebow's running, their secondary probably isn't much of a match for Harvin-Caldwell-Ingram.

Troy at Georgia
Northwestern St. at Ole Miss
Tennessee Tech at Auburn
ULaLa at Tennessee

Like I said, it's Homecoming week. I assume all of these games are the Homecoming games for their respective home teams. The biggest mismatch is TTU at Auburn. Tennessee Tech is riding a four game losing streak, including losses to Samford, Austin Peay, and Jacksonville St. Auburn can name its score. If you're looking for upset potential, how about Troy at Georgia? Troy is 6-2, including a win against Oklahoma State and tough losses against Florida and Arkansas. Troy is actually a pretty solid OOC opponent, and Georgia is set for a letdown. I'm not saying it'll happen, but if there's a trap game on this list, this is it.

LSU at Bama, 4:00 CBS. Yeah, you know about this one. In all the hoopla about the Perrilloux situation, the situation going on with Bama's offensive line has been strangely underreported. The University (not the team) has suspended 5 players from the Bama team over a scandal involving textbooks, including two starting offensive linemen. My understanding of it is this. Football players get a textbook allowance, and what they do is go to the campus bookstore and get their books, drawing from an account. What these five players did was get textbooks through this process, not for themselves, but for their friends. My understanding is that they did not profit from this, but were simply doing favors for their friends.

The result is that 5 players, including two starting offensive linemen and two frequently-used reserve players (a running back and a defensive back) were not available for their last game against Tennessee, and their status for this game remains uncertain. It didn't hurt them last week, as they ended up playing their best game of the season in the absence of those players. However, Tennessee's D-line is not nearly as good as our defensive line, and I don't think Bama wants to go through this game without their best 5 on the offensive line.

We'll know in the next day or so whether they'll be playing.

I'll have more on this game tomorrow.

South Carolina at Arkansas, 7:00pm ESPN2. Let's see. Kentucky has lost 3 of its last 4. Florida has lost 3 of its last 4. And South Carolina has lost 2 in a row after starting the season 6-1. The teams in the East that looked like the best now look very very average. South Carolina still has a chance in the East, but they have to win out and hope for help. They need Georgia and Tennessee to lose, but the good news is that there's a very good chance that will happen, as Georgia gets Auburn and Kentucky down the stretch and Tennessee gets Arkansas, Vandy, and Kentucky.

Obviously, when talking about Arkansas, you start with their running backs. We all know how good they are (hint: very very good), but the question is always how the other team's defense matches up. I think South Carolina's defense matches up pretty well. They've been solid all year, and there are good athletes at defensive line and linebacker, as well as at corner to help on the ends. Arkansas isn't a good enough team to beat you unless you let them run all over you, and I think South Carolina has a good chance of keeping that from happening. Arkansas does not have the passing game or the defense to really beat you in those phases of the game.

I think that if South Carolina comes out and plays, they will win. The question is whether or not this team is collapsing following these tough losses to Tennessee and Vandy. South Carolina is not a team that has a history of winning when times get tough. They have a gut-check this week.

South Carolina: Post Game

Alright, let's get one thing straight before I even read the message boards or anything. We just beat a pretty good team with our quarterback at well below 100% in weather conditions that made everything difficult. Flynn gutted out a performance and we got a big win against a team that I think EVERYONE is going to have trouble beating.

OK, we have that out of the way. What thought processes could possibly have been going through the coaches' heads to make them think Flynn should have been playing in the 4th quarter. Flynn ended the game 8 of 19 with 71 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception. Let's just say his GTQBPI is going to be ugly with those stats. He clearly was not even close to being his usual self, and Perrilloux has been nothing short of awesome when he's gotten to play. In the 4th quarter, Flynn did everything the coaches must have feared Perrilloux would do. He threw an interception and he couldn't complete a pass. He didn't run aggressively and didn't throw accurately.

Perrilloux was excellent in a limited role. With Flynn ailing, Perrilloux's role not only wasn't expanded. It was contracted. He only threw one pass, and honestly I don't remember it. He did nothing but run the ball or hand it off, but he did it well. I really do not understand why Perrilloux didn't play more.

In the last quarter, it became obvious that Flynn was handing off virtually every time, and would only throw on obvious throwing downs. In addition to that limitation, everyone knew he wasn't a threat to run anymore. Perrilloux would have at LEAST made USC play against the QB run, and he was probably a bigger passing threat as well.

Should the Flynns happen to run into this blog, I just want to say that they seem like very lovely people. They're great sports about their son looking like Matt Damon, which is hardly an insult. Matt Damon's a good looking fella.

Alright, before I watch replays, let me just say that the offensive line sure looked great for big stretches of this game. It was probably the best game they played all year, and we proved we can ride the running game to victory when the passing game isn't working, even against a pretty good team. South Carolina is definitely a bowl-calibre team, and looks like they may challenge for the East. I started the week questioning their #12 ranking, but I hope they don't lose it. They played against a buzz saw of a defense and a very capable offense and had long stretches of effectiveness against both.

Alright, Bama-Georgia has started. It's off to watch that.

Game Day: MTSU

OK, it's Game Day again, this time for the Blue Raiders of MTSU. This will be a first for GeauxTuscaloosa, a football game that I will not be seeing. As explained earlier in the week, I will not be able to be home for this game. I'll be at a wedding for a friend. Yes, it's a friend who isn't interested in football.

I won't be able to listen to much of it on the radio, but I may be able to catch the second half on the way home. That means there won't be any "First Replay" or "Second Replay" posts. I'll have to figure out other things to talk about.

I'll also miss all of the second most interesting game in the SEC this week: Alabama vs. Arkansas. I said we'd find out more about Bama with their matchup against Vandy, and we did. We found out that Bama is a legitimate bowl team who is a threat to beat any team on their schedule. This week, we will find out even more. We'll find out if they're a legitimate threat in the SEC West, or are they just spoilers trying to get to the Music City Bowl.

So, here's my schedule of the day:

Now to 11:30am: Avoid GameDay on ESPN like the plague. Do some errands. Walk the dog. There is no interesting 11:00am game, so skip that.

11:30-2:30pm: Mississippi State at Auburn: Here in Tuscaloosa, sports talk radio has been absolutely dominated by criticism of Auburn this week. The Auburn fans are very upset at how bad their team has looked the first two weeks. I think highly of Tommy Tuberville's coaching abilities, but there is no one to blame but him for the fact that Auburn has such a poor offensive line and a lack of playmaking wide receivers. He's been recruiting and coaching these guys for their entire careers, and if they didn't recruit good receivers and offensive linemen 3 and 4 years ago such that he does not have that wave of juniors and seniors ready to take the reins of the offense, that's his own fault. Auburn fans are right to criticize him for it.

If you're 7 years into your tenure as coach and a true freshman is starting on the offensive line, either that freshman must be incredible or you have a lot to answer for. It looks like Tubby has a lot to answer for.

With such an inexperienced offense, this is a team that is likely to improve considerably over the course of the season, but for right now they're vulnerable, and it's my conclusion from observing these teams that MSU matches up pretty well with Auburn. They have a pretty good defensive line that can take advantage of Auburn's inexperienced offensive front and a very good left tackle who may be able to neutralize Auburn's best player, Quentin Groves. If Michael Henig can avoid the mistakes that doomed them against LSU, they have a shot to win this game.

If MSU wins, it's going to be a VERY interesting week in Alabama.

2:30-4:30, Tennessee at Florida. This is a very interesting game, because we don't really know how good Florida is. They've beaten up on some weak teams early in the year, but haven't faced a real test. Then again, we don't know how good Tennessee is either. Their defense certainly looked very vulnerable against Cal, and now they're missing a starting cornerback to injury.

I think Tennessee will get its points. The questions are

1. Can Florida's inexperienced and untested defense hold Tennessee's offense to a reasonable number of points, giving its offense a chance to win the game?
2. Has Tennessee's suspect defense improved as a result of its embarrassment against Cal enough to hold Tebow and company to a reasonable point total to give Lamarcus Coker and Erik Ainge a chance to win?

4:30-7:00pm: Drive to Jackson, Mississippi. I don't know what, if anything will be on the radio.

7:00pm-9:00pm or so: Attend wedding reception: The wedding itself is a small, very private family affair to which I am not invited (neither is anyone else who isn't related, from what I understand. The reception is where the action is. I decided not to get a hotel, because my wife and child will not be there. My wife was invited, but it was not possible to bring the baby because the venue is an art museum, with no children allowed in the building. That would have meant we'd have to get a sitter for the baby, and the whole thing just seemed way to fraught with danger and difficulty. Therefore, I'm going alone, and I'm coming back the same night.

9:00pm-whenever: I will be driving home, hoping to catch the second half of the game on the radio. As I get closer to Tuscaloosa, WWL will likely go out, and I'll switch over to the Bama-Arky game if it's still on.

The rumors around the message board is that Flynn is walking around in a boot and either a) is not ready to go, or b) shouldn't play and risk more serious injury. If so, it looks like Ryan Perrilloux may get his long-awaited first start. Stay tuned.

Fall Practice Starts

It's now officially pre-season. Huzzah! Some new:

• Ryan Perilloux is back, baby! He's done everything asked of him during his suspension. He went to summer school and did well. He did community service work. He stayed out of trouble. He continued working apart from the team.
• True freshman Chad Jones will report to practice on Friday. He has not signed with the Astros and reports that the Astros have not really been trying to sign him. I'm not holding my breath on him being with the team until the August 15 deadline comes and goes, but this is encouraging news.

• Offensive guard/center Steven Singleton (pictured) has reportedly left the team. He was a massive redshirt freshman who was relatively far down the depth chart.

I have said before and I will say again that it is not such a bad thing when players leave the team, if those players are not anticipated to contribute. Singleton was a promising player, but it would have been at least a couple years before he was a contributor, if ever, and a bunch of solid players are coming up behind him at his position.

When a player leaves the organization, it clears a spot for a new recruit, who may end up being better than the one who left. The 85/25 rule basically requires players to leave if coaches want to keep signing 25-man classes. You can only have 85 scholarships at a time, but you can add 25 in any given year. If everyone stays 4 years, and some stay 5 years, you'll quickly lock yourself out of recruiting entirely.

Of course, too much attrition or attrition of the wrong people is a very bad thing. Losing quality players who you were counting on to contribute is a bad thing. It doesn't do a lot of good to sign a really good class only to have most of them leave because they kept getting arrested. But, a coach does his job realizing that SOME people are going to leave.

Anyway, it is now less than 4 weeks until the first game of the season, and I can't wait.

Some tidbits on players

It's no secret that two of our bigger problems the 2007 LSU football teams faces are depth at quarterback and depth at offensive tackle. These problems were created by certain players who managed to get themselves kicked off the team or suspended from the team. It now appears that one of those players just may unexpectedly make it back to the team.

Kyle Anderson was expelled from the team following allegations that he laid in wait outside of a local bar and sucker-punched a patron leaving it. His loss along with that of Zhamal Thomas, kicked off for burglary and identity theft, left LSU with a big hole in the two-deep at offensive tackle.

Now, however, Kyle Anderson may be coming back. He has reportedly had the most serious charge he faces reduced to a misdemeanor and has offered Les Miles to come back to the team as a sophomore walk-on, paying his own way. This is in the face of several D-1 programs out there offering Kyle Anderson a scholarship to transfer. His return would solidify the depth chart at offensive tackle. There is no word yet on whether or not Miles has or will accept his return on that basis.

There is some indication that Kyle's parking lot escapades were not an isolated incident, and that his dismissal was more about a series of problems than about this one incident. I don't know Kyle Anderson. I don't know anything about him other than what I've read and been told. For that reason, I trust that whatever Miles decides about Anderson's future with the team will be the correct decision. If Anderson's presence on the team will be a positive in the locker room, then his presence on the field will definitely be a positive, helping the team get the starters valuable rest.

There is still no word on Ryan Perrilloux. There is speculation that one of the conditions of his return to the team is that he complete summer school without incident and in good standing. Summer school has not closed out yet, and his return awaits that. But I don't know if that's really true or not. The other rumor is that Miles will wait on re-instating Perrilloux until the eve of Fall Practice, which starts on August 2nd. Most rumors have him eventually returning to the team, which is good for LSU's QB depth in 2007, and if he can stay with the team through 2008 or 2009, it will be good for those years too.

Document the Atrocities

This has been an exceedingly strange and difficult offseason for the LSU football team. There have certainly been some bright spots since the Sugar Bowl, most notably the 4 Tigers drafted in the first round of the NFL draft and the signing of a class that many believe may be the best ever at LSU. But other than that, we have dealt with a series of unfortunate or otherwise difficult circumstances.

• The hiring of former LSU coach Nick Saban by one of our biggest rivals, and the subsequent media storm. Technically, the hiring was announced on the day of the Sugar Bowl, so it wasn't strictly an offseason story, but much of the aftermath occurred in the offseason.
  
• While we signed a great recruiting class, the story was soured by the Joe McKnight and Luther Davis situations. To recap, Luther Davis committed to LSU, and then secretly took a visit to the University of Alabama and constructed an elaborate web of lies in an attempt to cover it up. Depending on who you believe, we either pulled his scholarship offer or he decided to de-commit and go to Bama. Joe McKnight, arguably the top prospect in the entire country and a Louisiana kid, decided to go to USC rather than LSU, and there was a big stink.
• Ryan Perrilloux's counterfeiting saga, wherein he was investigated by the Feds for suspected involvement in a counterfeiting ring. He has not been charged and it is believed he may have been cleared of wrongdoing.
• Kyle Anderson allegedly attacked a man outside of a bar, putting him in the hospital. Anderson, a backup OL, was kicked off the team permanently.
• Zhamal Thomas and Troy Giddens, backup OL and DB respectively, allegedly broke into an apartment, stole some stuff, and tried to use a stolen credit card. They were kicked off the team permanently.
• Ryan Perilloux allegedly tried to enter a casino underage using someone else's ID. Because of this and other transgressions, he was suspended from the team indefinitely, and his fate is not decided.
• LSU's live tiger mascot, Mike V, dies unexpectedly following surgery.
• Former LSU defensive end and a key member of the 2003 national championship team Marquise Hill died in a recreational accident on Lake Pontchartrain. Reports are that he died saving another person from drowning.

You could say that we're waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it already has. Several times. And we're not done yet. Next week, the Major League Baseball draft takes place, and we will find out more about whether we will likely lose star recruit Chad Jones, one of the jewels of this great recruiting class. He has said he will go play baseball if the money is right.

Let's hope all this is just prologue to a great season.

Accountability and Precedent

This doesn't seem like a particularly appropriate topic to bring up on Memorial Day, but darnit, it's what's on my mind right now. As most of you know, Ryan Perrilloux has been suspended from the football team over a misdemeanor charge of using another person's ID to get entry to a casino and is currently awaiting word on his LSU fate. Right now, the handwriting appears to be on the wall that Perrilloux will be allowed to remain on the team subject to some kind of suspension or other punishment.

This has some commenters upset. They think Miles either should banish Perrilloux permanently, or has to do so for some reason. The arguments seem to come in three flavors:

1. Ryan Perrilloux is a cancer who will forever be more trouble than he is worth.
2. Ryan Perrilloux must be expelled in order to express "accountability."
3. Ryan Perrilloux must be expelled because Les Miles has set the precedent with Zhamal Thomas, Troy Giddens, and Kyle Anderson. Failure to follow this precedent will show that more important athletes get favorable treatment, which will hurt Miles' credibility.

I don't really have anything to say about Argument #1, except to say that I don't know what Perrilloux is like personally, and I doubt the people who are making this argument know either. It's the 2nd and 3rd arguments that I have a real problem with and need to dispel.

It is not necessary to expel Ryan Perrilloux in order to achieve "accountability". This term is greatly misused in society, and not just in regards to athletics. As an attorney, I represent a good number of criminal defendants, and it's an argument that I see everywhere, always abused and always misused.

"Accountability" for wrongdoings means a) acknowledging the wrongdoing, b) making right on damage done, and c) facing appropriate additional consequences. It does not mean "facing the most oppressive punishment our consciences can stomach". People routinely get these confused. People say, "We must give him 20 years in prison, or there will be no accountability," as if 15 years in prison would be utterly lacking in accountability for whatever crime has been committed.

The key word in my three-pronged definition of accountability is "appropriate". When this is bastardized in to "barely conscionable", you get the kind of absurd results that make people say, "Ryan Perrilloux must be kicked off the team permanently for trying to illegally access a casino, otherwise he is just walking all over us." Would, say, a 2 game suspension not punish Perrilloux in any way? Will his criminal punishments not affect him in any way? Mere slaps on the wrist! No, Mr. Perrilloux's life must be permanently impacted in ways that may affect his future livelihood. Otherwise, how will he learn? How will our children learn?

Absurd, I say.

Now for Argument #3, which says that Miles set a precedent in expelling Thomas, Giddens, and Anderson from the team, and now must follow it by doing the same with Perrilloux. Honestly, this argument is so devoid of good reasoning that it is a wonder anyone has to bother to refute it. As an initial matter, it assumes that all athletes should be treated similarly under similar circumstances, an assumption I question.

But more importantly, precedent only holds under similar circumstances, and Ryan Perrilloux's situation is not remotely similar to the Giddens/Thomas/Anderson situations. It's not even close.

In the cases of Thomas and Giddens, they committed a serious property crime whereby they broke into a house, committed theft, and used someone else's credit crime. These are felony crimes with concrete, identifiable victims. Anderson allegedly laid in wait for someone before attacking him and putting him in the hospital. A violent crime with a concrete, identifiable victim.

Ryan Perrilloux, by contrast, allegedly used his brother's ID to enter a casino illegally. While I don't question the legitimacy of this as a crime, it is a crime a lot like drug use or underage drinking in that the victim and the perpetrator are the same person. It is a law designed to protect the Ryan Perrilloux's from themselves. It has no concrete, identifiable victim. Everyone is a victim and no one is a victim.

This is so plainly obvious that I wonder why anyone even brings up the prior "precedent" as such. Perhaps it's just a symptom of the growing sentiment among some people that all crimes are roughly equal and all criminals deserve to be treated the same, as if there are no grades to wrongdoing whatsoever. Sorry, but a marijuana user is not as bad as a home invasion rapist, and Ryan Perrilloux's actions are not as bad as the actions of the other three. They need not, and should not, be treated as if they are similar.

Now, if the team gets together and decides that Perrilloux's misdeeds along with his past misdeeds mean that he should no longer be a part of the team, I am OK with that. It is not strictly necessary under any analysis of "accountability" and "precedent", however.

Slow News Day No More

After complaining yesterday about slow off-season news, the LSU football team went and did something about it. I guess they showed me. I should have remembered that in the off-season, no news is good news.

Backup QB Ryan Perilloux was cited for a misdemeanor yesterday and suspended from the team indefinitely. He apparently tried to enter a casino using another person's ID. He is underage. Les Miles responded by suspending him, with no word on what the terms of the suspension will ultimately be.

Taken in isolation, this incident is not particularly severe. It is, as they say, a victimless crime, unlike the burglaries and assaults that plagued the team earlier this Spring. The law that Mr. Perilloux allegedly broke is in place not to protect people from theft or violence, but to protect Mr. Perilloux and those like him from themselves.

I think, taken in isolation, a brief suspension is in order. As the backup QB, probably the worst suspension you can give him is to suspend him for games against rent-a-wins like Middle Tennessee State, where a backup QB is otherwise likely to get a lot of snaps. Suspending him for Virginia Tech wouldn't really hurt him because he'd only likely play in the event of an injury to Matt Flynn.

"Taken in isolation" is a key phrase here. There is some indication that Mr. Perilloux has not been a choir boy in his time at LSU, and in particular has acted childishly on numerous occasions, all handled in-house and kept out of the press, but all with adverse consequences to him.

I trust Les Miles to get this one right, but I hope he is keeping in mind my argument that it is not necessary or even desirable to treat all athletes and all incidents the same way. Ryan Perilloux is very important to this team. He is going to be the only scholarship backup QB on the team who has gone through a Spring Practice. He is the heir apparent to the starting job next season.

If Ryan Perilloux is not available next year, and Matt Flynn gets hurt, our QB will be either a true freshman or a walk-on. Our chances of winning the SEC will be very small, and our chances of winning the National Championship will be nil.

If Mr. Perilloux has been THAT bad of an actor that he really needs to go, I'm fine with that, and I won't ultimately question the decision. I will however be very worried about the state of affairs on the football team.

Here's hoping Matt Flynn stays healthy.

LSU Quarterback Situation

On Friday, one or two people on TigerDroppings accused me of idiocy because I

a. Said that Blake Mitchell was a pretty good quarterback, and
b. Said that at this point I would probably take Blake Mitchell over Matt Flynn.

Then on Saturday, eyewitness reports from the LSU Spring Game said that Flynn looked pretty average and that Perrilloux looked below average. Suddenly, LSU Nation had a bona fide quarterbacking crisis. I wonder if my statement that I would prefer Blake Mitchell at this point would be more popular. I didn't read all the "woe are us" threads, but I doubt anyone made any mention of my day-old statements. On such a high-traffic, high-content site like TigerDroppings, memories usually fade pretty quickly.

Believe me, I was as surprised as anyone could be to find out, through a look at actual statistics, that Mitchell was the second most productive QB in the conference last year, measured on a "per play" basis. I would have guessed he'd have come out behind Leak, Ainge, and Woodson at least. But no; he was ahead of all of them, and behind only Jamarcus Russell. People scoffed. People mocked. People pointed out that Mitchell was benched halfway through the year.

People also pointed out that Mitchell had Sidney Rice to throw to. I don't buy that this made that much of a difference. After all, Leak had Baker, Harvin, and Caldwell. Ainge had Meachem. Woodson had... umm.. well, I'm not sure he had anybody at all. Mitchell was ahead of all of them. Also, Syvelle Newton also had Sidney Rice to throw to, and he ended up behind Mitchell too.

Anyway, enough about Mitchell. This post is supposed to be about Matt Flynn. Reports out off pre-Spring Game practices were that he was doing well. Reports from the game itself differ. I haven't watched one second of practice, so I don't really know. However, I know one thing that troubles me terribly: No SEC team will be starting a QB who took fewer meaningful snaps in 2006 than did Matt Flynn. If that's not a potential team weakness, I don't know what is.

Only one other team will be replacing their full-time starting QB, and that is Florida. Florida at least has the benefit of having gotten Tim Tebow significant meaningful playing time in 2006. Don't get me wrong; Tebow still has to prove he can perform every down and deal with the inevitable adversity that comes with being a starter. For a sophomore, however, he has quite a bit of competitive experience.

Flynn, as a 5th year senior, has significant practice experience going against some of the best defenses in the country. He has a lot of mop-up duty experience. He had a very good game against Miami in the Peach Bowl two years ago. He had some other less than spectacular appearances in his career as well. I ultimately think Flynn will be a very good QB, but we can't overlook the fact that his level of responsibility has never been what it will be next year, and he is NOT the quarterback that Jamarcus Russell was. Russell was special, and could do things that a defense had never seen before. Flynn is a more conventional talent. There are bound to be some growing pains as he improves.

The good news is that he will have what may be an exceptionally good running attack to lean on while he gets accustomed to being The Man. And he will have an exceptionally good defense erasing any errors.

The media looks at our 3rd string quarterback

And of course, the media gets it wrong. I swear I'll get back to my Recruiting 101 series, which already has the next two installments written, but things with more immediacy keep coming up, and I'm not interested in turning this into a multiple-post-per-day affair quite yet. Anyway, I give you your sports media:

Matt Hayes

Perrilloux hasn't come close to reaching expectations; he struggled to connect with former offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher and had little grasp of the offense.

What were Perrilloux's expectations? Was he expected to win the starting job over a guy who would become the #1 overall NFL draft pick? Was he expected to beat out another very talented quarterback who had been in the system for two years longer than he has been? Maybe Perrilloux expected to do that, but I don't think anyone else did.

He also apparently "had little grasp of the offense". How does Matt Hayes know this? Did he glean this from the 4 passes that Perrilloux attempted at the end of blowout wins last year? Does he have "inside sources"?

I wish I didn't have to play the "race card", but people make it so easy when they talk about black quarterbacks. Here are some things I have never heard said about a black quarterback, except among people who follow the person closely:

• He grasps the offense quickly
• He reads defenses well
• He makes good decisions in the pocket
• He's a pure drop back passer
• He's a coach on the field
• He's a "field general"
• He's heady
  

Notice any patterns? Notice how Matt Hayes' comments fit into the pattern? Ryan Perilloux has spent his career at LSU stuck behind more experienced players who are also very talented. I'm sure it has been frustrating for him at times, considering throughout his recruitment he was considered a can't-miss immediate impact player. Well, a team can only play one quarterback at a time, and Perrilloux fell behind two players who who were very very good (#1 overall NFL draft pick) and more experienced than him. Quarterback is a position that takes a long time to truly learn, and Perrilloux has been behind guys who had more time to learn it.

We don't know how good Perrilloux will be, but even if he turns out to never be a starter for LSU (doubtful), Matt Hayes will still be wrong. He's wrong because he's talked about things he knows nothing about, and he's heard from "inside sources" (I'm guessing), things that completely jibe with quarterback racial stereotypes. And he believed his "inside sources" despite a complete lack of first hand knowledge of the situation.

Hayes doesn't stop there. He shows further ignorance by saying:

Meanwhile, LSU signed star recruit Jarrett Lee last month, and coach Les Miles says he will recruit two more quarterbacks next season. In other words, it's now or never for Perrilloux, who will begin spring drills behind senior projected starter Matt Flynn.

He's right that Jarrett Lee is a "star recruit", one of many star recruits signed by LSU on National Signing Day. The strong implication here is that Miles recruited Lee because he was disappointed with Perrilloux, and needed a fall-back quarterback to be available.

Left unmentioned, though highly relevant to the issue of why we recruited another quarterback, is the fact that right not Perilloux is the only quarterback on the roster who isn't a senior. We have 5th year senior Matt, walk-on senior Jimmy Welker, and that's it, except for maybe some other walk-ons. If we didn't recruit a solid QB for the 2007 class, we would not have a single QB who had been through a Spring Practice other than Perrilloux available for the 2008 season. Our backup quarterback in 2008 would necessarily be a true freshman, which is a recipe for disaster if Perrilloux was to get hurt.

If you want to know if Les Miles is confident in Ryan Perilloux's ability to be a starting quarterback, consider this. Perrilloux was the only quarterback signed by LSU over the 2004-2006 period. In 3 years, LSU recruited one quarterback: Ryan Perrilloux, putting us in the position of having Ryan Perrilloux as the only quarterback on the roster who will have been on the team longer than a year at the start of the 2008 season. Do you think Les Miles, who is a smart coach, would allow this to happen if he didn't have confidence that Perrilloux was learning the system at an expected rate?

This isn't saying that Jarrett Lee will not come in and beat out Perrilloux. It is certainly possible that this will happen, though I think it's unlikely. Of course, if Perrilloux eventually falls behind Jarrett Lee, Matt Hayes will take the credit for bringing you the inside scoop. If Perilloux becomes an all-conference performer after Matt Flynn graduates, Matt Hayes will say either

• nothing, or
• that LSU fans should be thankful that Perrilloux managed to "turn it around", even though for all Matt Hayes knows, he was doing fine all along.

One of the common theme of this blog will be that the sports media is generally pretty foolish and unaccountable. Consider this the first installment of that series.