re: Why didn't Jordan Jefferson play earlier in the season?

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Lee also had more pressure with every pass he threw

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He did? See, one would expect that a productive ground game would mean that Lee had less pressure to move the ball down the field for his team. Scott was churning out 5-6 ypc in quite a few games this year. I don't think anyone expected a RS FR to carry this offense, but most people were a bit put off by the way our starting quarterback was not only turning the ball over at a high rate, but also consistently spotting the other team points.

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In his first game and a half of SEC play JJ has completed less than 50% (including all of his drops and throw aways) of his passes and led LSU to a 0-2 record against Ole Miss and Arkansas (the worst defense in the sec). In his first full game as a starter he led LSU to 9 total 4th quarter yards.

In his first game and a half of SEC play Lee completed almost 60% of his passes (including his int's and pick 6's) andledLSu to a 2-0 record against Auburn and Miss State.

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This is absolutely true, but I think it's evident that Jefferson's mobility and relative lack of costly mistakes more than make up for that ~10% difference in completion percentage (and let us not forget that Lee was 40% against Tulane, with a monster ground game; Lee's performance in the first half against Alabama was similarly dismal considering the outstanding play of the rest of the team in the same time period). It is unfortunate that Jefferson was either not ready or at the very least not trusted earlier in the season, as it would've been interesting to see what he could've done when the offensive line play was worth a shite.

I have seen enough from both quarterbacks, not just statistically but in demeanor and decision making, to conclude that Jefferson is the best quarterback for Gary Crowton's offense at this point in time. I make no assumptions as to what strides either quarterback will make in the offseason, or as to what impact Russell Shepard will have, but I know that for the upcoming bowl game I will be much more comfortable seeing Jefferson at QB.