LSU vs. Auburn: Is Les Miles Ready to Open Up the Offense with Jarrett Lee?

Auburn's Jordan Hare Stadium is a place that LSU's quarterback Jarrett Lee is familiar with and he has fond memories of a night in 2008, when he was called upon to replace injured quarterback for Andrew Hatch. Lee handled himself like a veteran as he subsequently led LSU in the second half, and he threw a last minute touchdown pass to Brandon Lafell that gave LSU the victory over a very good Auburn team. 

After his great victory, Lee left Jordan Hare Stadium with nothing but good things going on his mind and both he and LSU felt they had the quarterback they expected to have when they signed him.

But, maybe the coaches had too many expectations of Jarrett Lee as Gary Crowton, the offensive coordinator, seemed to be calling plays that you would normally be expect a senior to make.

Consequently, Lee began throwing passes over the middle and interceptions began to come, and many of them were called a pick-six since they were returned for a touchdown.  

As Lee and the coaches tried to make corrections, the interceptions still just kept on coming, and Lee got the reputation for throwing pick-sixes as he threw seven such interceptions that were returned.

As the 2008 season went on, Lee continued to struggle and the fans were losing patience with seeing LSU losing games and they found Lee guilty of causing these loses.  So, the 2008 season ended for Jarrett Lee with an injury in the Ole Miss game. 

As Lee tried to mend from his injuries, the Tiger coaches had already started looking to another redshirt freshman called Jordan Jefferson.  Jefferson started out much as Lee did as he was selected the MVP of the Chick-fil-A Bowl as LSU resoundingly defeated the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets by 38-3.

Jefferson took over for Lee in the spring of 2009 and most Tiger Fans fully expected Jarrett Lee to just go ahead and transfer to some other smaller school. 

However, to everyone's surprise he continued to stay and work hard to be a Tiger and he refused to give up.  Most Tiger fans never expected to see Jarrett Lee play another down for LSU ever.

But, Jefferson struggled mightily with learning the system, executing the system, taking sacks, missing throws and not thinking or reacting fast enough.  LSU's offense failed miserably in 2009.

Coach Miles promised the Jefferson had learned and improved and he should have no problems with the offense. However, the 2010 season has proved to turn out the exact opposite as Coach Miles promised. 

With pathetic passing stats that are even embarrassing to discuss, LSU again looked to Jarrett Lee who was the guy that just would not go away. It was now time for all of that hard work to start paying off.

At first they called it the two quarterback system, but then Lee blossomed and you could just see the maturity he displayed as he led the Tigers to victory in both the Tennessee and Florida games with two touchdown drives in each game. 

If Jarrett Lee had not come on in the Tennessee game, LSU would not be an undefeated team today.

It is my opinion, from watching the McNeese game, I noticed that Coach Miles allowed Jarrett Lee for the first time to run an option read play and he gained seven yards.  Also, I noticed that Miles began to bring in Michael Ford and Spencer Ware the two freshman star running backs to spell Steven Ridley.  

I see these as steps where Les Miles is preparing to be able to step up the offense and mix the run and the pass, and I think he will also allow Lee to throw down field to Toliver and Randle for big yards and points.

After trying to figure out Coach Miles all year with his reluctance to play Jarrett Lee instead of the non-productive Jordan Jefferson, I just knew something has been going on with their plans, and I think we will see things open up this week. 

I could be wrong, but I see the signs showing that Les Miles smells blood in the water with that injured Auburn secondary and he knows LSU will have to put lots of points on the board because of the expected offensive play of Heisman Trophy candidate Cam Newton.

In order for LSU to win this game they will need both a great defense and a great offensive out put so I am looking to see coach Les Miles allow Jarrett Lee to open up the passing offense.