re: Patience is a virtue: QBs tend to get better with more years in college

Your post was a wall of text, but I've been saying this to everyone I talk to.

However, the more and more we see sophomore and freshman QBs coming in and having early success, the more and more we put those expectations on all young QBs and the QB coaches to develop them.

The real problem, though, is that teams like Alabama consistently have upperclassmen playing the position. Look at your numbers. Since 2007, Alabama has had a third year guy or older playing the position. LSU, on the other hand, has struggled with trying to find consistency in the QB position precisely because, or at least in part because, of the youth at the position. For whatever reason, we have too often had sophomores and freshmen playing QB. I was hoping that Harris would be the start of something with Franks coming in behind him to start as a Junior, but it looks like that may not happen.

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Patience is a virtue: QBs tend to get better with more years in college

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Yes, most get better with more experience.

Also, though, most improve throughout and individual season, getting better as the year progresses.

At LSU, our QBs have a bad tendency to regress as the season goes on.

You get an A for effort and an up vote.

just like Herbstreit and all these other analysts pontificating to LSU fans what we deserve and should be happy with. look around - EVERYONE has a QB.

I would love to agree with all of this and be on the Harris is going to be awesome train. But football isn't just stats, it's putting points on the board. It's making first downs when you need to make first downs. You can put stats up where our offense would look like major league competitors. Unfortunately, we all witnessed this train wreck or pop gun offense as it's called. How many 3 and out's? It's not the idea that Harris can improve, it's the idea that even when he improves, how awful will he still be? I had high hopes for him, but his only accuracy seems to be 50yds down the field.

Yes, maybe he did have an ok completion rate, but was it when it mattered or when we finally pounded the cupcake team we played into submission with LF? I seem to remember a few games where we came out chunking the ball, only to have to abandon it and start our ground and pound.

In the early games we could put some blame on the receivers, but in reality I'm sure they didn't expect their qb to throw for 15 yds with the same velocity as his 60 yd throw. The only good news was that he was throwing the shorts so hard that even the defense couldn't catch it.

So again, it's not if he can improve, I'm sure he will. Will he improve enough to give LF the breathing room he needs to run the ball? The real question is why do we have such dismal QB play at LSU?

Wait. I just realized half of this is from my thread a couple days ago.

Hey man, I appreciate all that time you took. It looks really nice. But the whole premise is the same as "water is wet".

I would say "Thanks captain obvious", but you put a lot of effort into it. And really it is nice to see someone try and bring some positivity to these parts. Do you know what I took away from your wall of stats?

We most likely will lose 2 games with any Les Miles coached team. That means it's very unlikely for us to get back to Atlanta. Also, if you really want to boil Les Miles' success down to any one aspect it doesn't concern the qb issue.

The only way Les Miles has won anything of significance during his tenure of 11 years is when he has had an elite level defense.

It doesn't matter how much Harris improves because even if he sets records like Mett we will not win anything significant because we will not have an elite defense next year.

But let's keep rallying the troops about how we will improve at the qb spot. It won't make a difference.

I bleed purple and gold, and I've enjoyed the run. Unfortunately for me, I'm stuck on the Apathy Train.

I'm afraid that there's a lot of us stuck on it together. We want to get off, believe me we do. Problem is that is moving too fast and shows no signs of slowing down.

Sal,

I've been following this thread for the last couple of days. I've heard so many times that LSU is incapable of developing QBs for so long, I blindly followed along and figured it to be true.

To develop- to grow or cause to grow and become more advanced, advanced or elaborate.

Thanks for letting me know; we've been "developing" QBs all the time. It's funny; looking at the stats; I believe JJ left LSU as the 2nd highest completion % at LSU. But to hear the rant talk; he was a bum that could t move the ball past the 50!

I agree, but we need to recruit more QBs

If we need an upperclassmen to run the offense, we shouldn't be recruiting like we are gonna have a Freshman take over.