Les Miles let LSU down by not playing Jarrett Lee @ Alabama

Looking back at the 2011-2012, LSU Fighting Tigers football season, there is a great sense of pride and joy at the accomplishments. The top team in the land for most of the season, 13-0 at one point. Undisputed No. 1 and much feared for much of the year. But alas a final test failed.

Alabama is a great team -- and they showed it in the BCS Championship Game. But who would have thought they were 21 points better than an LSU team that had been averaging more than 38 points a game?

We all know what happened throughout the season and even before it. Starting quarterback Jordan Jefferson was having an awesome spring camp and people said he would likely start the season. Then came the bar fight. Then Jarrett Lee stepped in and led the Tigers to 8 straight victories in convincing fashion.

When the team traveled to Bryant-Denny Stadium on November 5, Lee was shaky. He threw two bad interceptions, one which leading to 3 points. Then that was it. He was benched.

"I just felt we could get something going with Lee," coach Les Miles said. It was a plausible excuse. Jefferson was the more mobile of the quarterback and took vicious hits that he surprisingly got up from each and every play.

The next game and so on, Jefferson would start. The Tigers continued to roll. But then things got weird. The Tigers would be up big in the third quarter and then the fourth, yet Jefferson wouldn't see any playing time.

At first it was proper to dismiss this as "feeling Jefferson out" for the long haul. Lee had started in eight straight games. It was time to let Jefferson get off a little bit.
But then what was once construed as weird, seemed more and more just down right mean. The end of the Arkansas game with the Tigers up by 30-some points, Lee stayed in until the final seconds. It didn't feel right to the Tiger faithful. That game was Senior Day, the last time Lee or Jefferson would play in Tiger Stadium.

 Same thing against Georgia. Tigers were up big and Lee came in only to shake hands as the final seconds ticked.
By then it was clear that either Lee had did something wrong, or Miles had simply lost faith in a young man that had given his all to the school and program.

Even now, the Tiger faithful still don't know what really happened as to why Lee didn't see the field late in the season. Miles had always challenged both quarterbacks to compete against each other, only this time he had clearly picked a winner.

Still, as any coach, he had the right to play whoever he deemed best suited to provide a spark.

So in the Alabama game, the LSU faithful, the Alabama faithful, the TV folks, the whole world, knew that Jefferson was struggling so bad that he would'nt be able to run or throw his way out of this one.

The Bama defense had bore down on him and had knew his every move. It was clearly time for  a change. Everyone knew it. But Miles. Even former NFL quarterback and current TV analyst Shawn King knew it was time for a change. Not Miles.

His excuses, this time, don't fly. The Tigers didn't cross midfield til midway through the fourth quarter. Lee should have been in midway through the third.

No good reason exists as to why Miles didn't play Lee. And the damage goes beyond one blemish on a football record. Recruits and players already on the squad can't help but think, 'Wow, this man has shown that if you mess up one time, in one game, you could be benched for the reason of the season.'

LSU lost more than a game when it lost to Alabama. In alot of ways, it lost respect for itself.

Will Jarrett Lee EVER get any meaningful playing time?

It got egregious in the Arkansas game. Ahead, 41-10, LSU coach Les Miles continued to insert Jordan Jefferson after the game was way out of hand and victory over the No. 3 Razorbacks was all but assured.

Jarrett Lee, the No. 2 rated passer in the mighty Southeastern Conference strapped his helmet on and just stared at Miles, waiting for, at that point, obligatory playing time. After all, it was Senior Day. Lee's parents, as were all the mothers and fathers and available relatives of the undefeated LSU Tigers, in attendance.
But Miles, being Miles, didn't let Lee in until less than 2 minutes remained in the game.
On Saturday in the SEC Championship, LSU was up big-time over Georgia 35-10 even as the third quarter drew to a close.
To start the fourth quarter, who was it again? Jefferson.
So, the question begs itself: Why isn't Lee getting any meaningful playing time?
This is a guy who staked LSU, in its most important football campaign in five years, to an 8-0 start before throwing two bad interceptions at Alabama.
His punishment since that time? About 5 minutes P.T.
Tops.
Is there something deeper? Did Lee's father possibly curse Miles out after the Bama game and the coach see fit to send a message? We don't know.
Whatever the offense, Lee's time in the game has been reduced to Token Time. Garbage.
While Lee has only thrown for more than 200 yards once (against Mississippi State) he was completed more than 70% of his passes an astounding five times, including 90% against Northwestern State.
For comparison, Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, the likely Heisman winner and No. 1 pick in next year's NFL draft, has completed 70% of his passes in five games also.
Jefferson, a constant threat on the ground, has only completed 70% of his passes in two games, including one in which 100% of his passes were caught (against Ole Miss).
Will Lee get some valuable P.T. in the BCS game against likely opponent Alabama, especially since having a horrible showing against them on November 5?
Time will tell.

LSU wins SEC Title, will play for BCS National Championship

LSU is back in the BCS title game.
After defeating the Georgia Bulldogs, 42-10, the Tigers await their opponent -- Alabama or Oklahoma State.
Saturday night, the Tigers looked like the could handle both of them as Tyrann Mathieu turned in an MVP and maybe Heisman, performance, running back a punt 62 yards for a touchdown, setting up another score with a fumble recovery and whipping No. 14 Georgia

LSU (13-0) gets to play the BCS title game in New Orleans. The team on the other side of the field will be announced Sunday night.
Will it be the mighty Tide, whose only loss was a3-point defeat to the LSU Tigers? Or Okahoma State, who dropped a 2-overtime thriller to lowly Iowa State?

LSU tramples on Auburn, 45-10

 Rueben Randle caught two bombs and Auburn looked like it was hit by them.


 No. 2 LSU rolled Saturday in a 45-10 trampling of the Auburn Tigers in Baton Rouge.


 Jordan Jefferson and  Jarrett Lee, both had superb games and displayed their long balls as the Tigers rolled to their eighth-straight victory by double digits.


"It just seems like no matter who goes down or who's out, we have guys who are ready to step in … and not just to fill a spot but to go in and dominate," said LSU center T-Bob Hebert.
"I almost feel like everybody else makes a bigger deal about it than we do," Hebert said of the periodic lineup upheaval, and the public scrutiny of the misbehavior that has caused it.
"It's not distracting to us. This team is so good about staying focused, one-track mind, not letting anything on the outside get to them because we don't want to have any regrets."
Somehow, some way Alabama has overtaken the Tigers for the No. 1 spot in college football. Nothing a little head to head comp can't settle.


NOW, WHAT SAY YOU, BAMA???

LSU's 24-21 win against Bama one for the ages

When Jordan Jefferson and Jarrett Lee aren't confused, they're pretty good.
Case in point, Jefferson's 75-yard slant to receiver Rueben Randle.
Another case in point: Lee's 47-yard lob to Randle on a 3rd down play late in the game.
Maybe the Tigers should call a timeout before every play, then they'd have confident quarterbacks under center.
Whatever you call it, LSU's 24-21 win against the defending national champs Alabama Crimson Tide was a major statement and huge win.
It meant that the Nebuchadnezzar-like (grass-eating) Les Miles doesn't have to take a back seat to any coach in the SEC.
It meant that Nick Saban can be outcoached.
It meant that LSU should be a top 5 team, schedule-wise.
But all that is for another day.
Now, LSU sits just a game behind undefeated Auburn Tigers, who need to lose to Georgia next week then Alabama for LSU to get a shot.

Alabama 24 - LSU 15 (sigh)

LSU got beat up by Alabama on Saturday, plain and simple. There were no theatrics, no strange plays. Don't blame the officiating, don't even blame the coaching.
The better team won. Period.
Nick Saban has Alabama looking every bit as good as the 2003 national championship Tigers. If you remember, they would knock quarterbacks out of the game, and would totally shut you down for long periods of the game.
In the 4th quarter, LSU had 9 yards.
Super sophomore eJordan Jefferson was knocked out of the gam; so was senior running back Charles Scott, rwho's season is ove.
It was just alot of hard, hard hitting, and most of it was by boys in Maroon jerseys.
Don't get me wrong. LSU's defense accounted for itself. It just couldn't stop Mark Ingram when it needed too; and Julio Jones, quiet for most of the night, caught LSU with a second-string safety guarding him. Toast.
LSU is still a good team, but like a purple and gold-encrusted blueberry pie in the oven for a mere 30 minutes, it just aint ready yet.

Well, Saban Has Did It: Undefeated Regular Season

I've got to give it up to him. Nick Saban is the evil genius of the SEC.
He is becoming what Steve Spurrier was without the sarcasm and sass.
He's crafted in short order a machine that is threatening to win a national championship in his 2nd season.
As an LSU fan, I can't help but be reminded of how he turned the LSU Tigers into world beaters the same way he has done with the Tide.

And make no mistake, they aren't just beating people; they are shellacking teams.
What they have done is simply put together the best regular season in the SEC since Auburn's unrewarded 2004 campaign. (Tuberville, we'll miss you). But what stands out to me, as the Tide gets ready to take on the once-lost Florida Gators this Saturday in the SEC title game, is how many blowouts Bama put together. Not many teams were even in the game in the 4th quarter.
As much as I don't like what Saban did to LSU, I respect him as a coach and I respect the way he prepares young men to play the game. I especially like how he recently defended Slyvester Croom, Tuberville and Philip Fulmer.
All that said, Tebow is
still Superman.
Florida 35 - Bama 13