RE: Bolden...I was listening to 104.5's Audio Vault this morning...

and I enjoy anytime Gordy Rush comes on. I feel like the staff trusts him and he has good insights into what's going on internally within the program. He's also unafraid to give you a look inside and also be somewhat unvarnished with his opinion of what he's seeing.

So listening to his segment with Cullotta yesterday about Bolden & what he made of the situation was especially interesting.

He & Moscona evidently went back and cued up tape of the kid in HS. He was a 4-Star player, the 2nd best "dual threat" QB in America if I'm recalling correctly. What he relayed about what he saw was really informative.

Slender in comparison to JJ. Wouldn't be the type that would lower his shoulder and look for an extra yard as JJ had the ability to do once he'd tucked it. Still a little more natural running the zone-read & option plays compared to JJ. His HS ran a Spread Offense with zone-read incorporated into it.

Also went on to say that he was a much better and more polished passer than JJ & then politely hinted he may not have had the best tutoring at the collegiate level out of PSU QB Coach Jay Paterno. Might have also been a duck out of water running their traditional I-Formation offense which struggled the past few years.

The analysis from the review was that he would obviously have a package of plays prepared that would include the zone-read as he seemed adept at it and while we run a complex offense he could have said package and be effective.

All in all a great 15:00 of listening this morning. What I took from what I heard:

-More than ever, I'm convinced Miles loves the zone-read and forces it into our system.

The connections the kid had in HS-where he ran zone read and inside zone plays-were the ones that reached out to the LSU Program to inquire about a transfer. He went to HS in Michigan. Michigan HS connections=Les Miles. Les wants to inject that aspect into our offense and will obviously take any chance he gets to do so.

It also makes me think that he was heavily involved with sticking to the option-based bullsh!t we saw on 1/9. I can't be sure and I won't ever be till he decides to invite me to Voo-Doo BBQ. But the tea leaves simply read this way to me.

Who knows I could be wrong though.

The next thing is that we will more than likely see this kid in an opportunity when either Mett or Rivers could get a look. I'm absolutely against not prepping these two cats as much as we can early on. Simply put they need experience. Mett could've gotten way more last year but didn't (Thanks JJ/Miles).

This year Rivers needs to be prepared so that if Mett isn't around in 2013 for whatever reason, we aren't back at Square one with a 3rd year kid in his Sophomore season that has even less experience in game situations than we do heading into 2012. I hope all of you agree with the sensibility in that.

Bolden playing this year means he's a two year guy and yes he's an insurance policy. Which really takes the pressure off the theory that we can hold onto both AJ & Rettig in this class at QB, which are both far, far more important than Bolden is to the long-term future health of the position and our program.

So in a sense him playing while a negative short-term in developing experience in our starter and experience in our depth will at least ensure that the long-term health of the depth chart & the program at QB isn't affected negatively.

But in summation: Don't be surprised-not one bit-if you see this kid running zone-read early on in the year. Maybe even some short-side option keepers.

Just because we like the matchup. Maybe even to give the DC's something more to prepare for.

/groan.