LSU Football: Is Les Miles Destroying The LSU Offense With Jordan Jefferson?

The present LSU quarterback situation began in 2009 when Jordan Jefferson was thrust into the position to lead the Tigers.  But, he was considered a project that would take time to develop and consequently the offense suffered mightily and finished the season rank 112 our to 120 FBS Div 1 schools. 

Most thought that Jefferson would learn the system and become more confident and productive as the year went on, but actually he just got worse and showed no progress and even regressed in almost every phase of the position. 

A big question that always comes up to me when I think about Jordan Jefferson is  " Why did Gary Crowton and Les Miles recruit and sign a quarterback that would require them to spend so much time teaching the basics skills of the quarterback position".       

Les Miles has brought in some great receivers, defensive players, and running backs, but he has miserably failed to recruit a top ranked quarterback to throw the ball and execute is plans.

How could a $ 3.75 million dollar coach find himself in such a position of not having the brains of his team ready to run and execute all of his plans.  Everything begins and ends with the quarterback, so filling that position should have been a major priority for he and Crowton. 

I mean LSU was the 2007 BCS National Champion, and their stock was sky high at the time, so why not go after a five star ,bright, intelligent, and highly regarded quarterback that could come in and continue to build on the success of the program.    

This year's LSU offense under Jordan Jefferson's leadership is beginning to set new standards of ineptness each week as Jefferson seems to come up with new ways to help this team sink further down as an offensive team. The team is now totally one dimensional at best as the passing offense is virtually non existent.  

Take away the great defense and the special teams play of guys like Patrick Peterson, and Josh Jasper, and LSU would not be at 4-0 today.  

Steven Ridley and the other running backs have given LSU the only offense they have.  

Jefferson's poor play is now beginning to settle in on the entire offense, as I saw the frustration in the face of the receivers like Terrance Tolliver and Russell Shepard when they came off the field after Jefferson either throws high, low, behind, and into and between double coverage.  

Jefferson just reflects someone that has totally lost confidence and is very confused as to what he must do.  He lacks the skills of the quarterback position and now he even runs like a man very unsure of what he wants to do.

Continuing to play Jordan Jefferson is just a further reflection of Les Miles and Gary Crowton's inabilities to run a program like LSU's.  Consequently, their indecisiveness and refusal to take action and give Lee the opportunity is costing LSU any chance they have of ever developing the passing game.

Since they have chosen to move Russell Shepard to wide receiver, they have left themselves again with no other option but Jarrett Lee.  I don't think they ever gave Shepard to chance to prove that he could or could not be the quarterback since he was not allowed to even attempt a pass last year. 

LSU will not be able to get away with playing and winning games like they have been when Alabama, Florida, Arkansas, and Auburn come up on the schedule.  These teams will do their share of scoring and unless LSU can keep up we will see another very disappointing conclusion to the 2010 season.   

Anyone with eyes can see Jefferson is no where near catching on to anything and LSU is now becoming a laughter when you talk about offense.  

Les was hearing the Boos and he was like resisting the will of the crowd, which is generally a sign the coach is on his way out.  When you start to attack the fans (the paying customers) then you are signing your own exit papers, and Les made several comments in the BR paper this morning criticizing the fans for booing. 

Booing is not what I consider a good sportsmanship thing for fans to do, but sometimes the fans just lose patience with the coaches and they voice their dislike in the only way they have and that is to boo a situation in hopes the coach will see their displeasure.  I don't think the fans were booing Jefferson as much as they were booing Coach Miles for his lack of action in correcting the quarterback position.

To complicate the quarterback matters further,  Les Miles has been abusing Jarrett Lee by baiting and taunting him with words like Jarrett Lee works hard and deserves a chance to prove himself.  

And then you see J.  Lee putting on his helmet and throwing warm ups as he thinks he is going in and then only to find that on the next play he has to take his helmet back off as Jefferson goes back in. 

What could Jarrett Lee be thinking about when Les Miles keeps dangling the plum in front of him and then taking it away again.

Lee knows he could have moved on to another program,  but he chose to be a man and stuck it out here thinking he could get another chance to prove himself. 

Then Lee finally does get his chance and he goes in and really thew for a first down but a penalty called it back.  The very next time LSU gets the ball,  Jefferson goes back out to kill the clock.

I was thinking what an insult that must have been to Jarrett Lee to think that the coach wouldn't even let him kill the clock.  Boy, that is sure a good way to help his confidence.

Who would blame Jarrett Lee if he just walked off and said enough is enough.  If that happened then what kind of shape would LSU be in  ?  

Couple this with Les Miles' pulling of the scholarship of Chris Garrett his only other scholarship quarterback before the season.  It makes  you wonder what in the world is he doing with this major problem he has.

I even wonder if Chris Garrett may have been considered a questionable quarterback recruit in the first place.

If Les Miles keeps holding down the LSU offense by refusing to make a change and be fair to Jarrett Lee even in the face of the total failure of Jefferson at the quarterback position, then I say turn up the heat as high as you can on the" Hot Seat " for Les Miles.