re: Jordan Jefferson vs Geno Smith

JJ was 10 for 16 last week. We called alot more than 16 passes last week. JJ just turned them into runs.

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People conveniently forget when quoting or lackluster passing yards that it is mainly because we don't pass often.

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theres a reason we don't pass often.

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AND WE SHOULDN'T WHEN WE PLAY INFERIOR COMPETITION.

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I dont understand this. why should you only pass when playing good competition? makes no sense to be one-dimensional.

you would think you'd like to get some real-game passing reps in when playing inferior competition.

I don't really buy into the idea that our passing #s could be significantly better right now if we passed a lot more. They would be better, but I don't think there would be a drastic change through these first few games.

Some people are saying we've run because that's all we needed to do against these opponents. That's not really true. We tried to pass it in the end zone and it got picked against Vandy. We tried to pass a couple of times in the end zone against State as well. Shepard dropped one and it looked like Toliver had a difficult time locating the other one (or it was slightly overthrown). So it's been JJ and sometimes the receivers that have lead to a decently ineffective passing game when it comes to scoring points and sustaining drives (though last Saturday was much better with keeping drives going).

Against Vandy, we didn't really run on them at will until the back half of the game. I think we were up by 7 going into the 4th. So it's not as if we were doing whatever we wanted offensively and having it work against them for the first 2 quarters. And State did a pretty good job against our running game until the 3rd quarter when we starting wearing them down some. We should have passed more in the back half of that game to try and get things clicking with the passing game. JJ was very accurate against State, but still taking too long to throw the ball. And the bottom line is that we need to throw it further down field more because our production right now won't get it done against the best of the best. I was very happy with the win and feel the coaches had the team well prepared, but feel that they didn't do a very good job of preparing for our future needs in regards to passing.

As for comparison of the 2 QBs, Smith has started off very well. That's a great completion % against any team. Their opponents have been pretty poor, but he does look very talented. Still, he hasn't faced teams that bring a lot of heat yet. So you have to wait until that happens to see what he's really like. He also has the NCAA's current career leading rusher with him on offense in Devine. I think the guy is at 5,000 yards total for his career in rushing, receiving and returns. So teams are focused on Devine and that open things up for the QB.

As for LSU - our running game has been pretty good too, but we don't have anyone at Devine status yet. JJ has been decent at best this year. He's gonna need to get it going now. He started off slow last year and finished much stronger. Hopefully, he can do that this year too. Our passing game should be much better right now.