LSU QB Derby sprints into spring game
BATON ROUGE – Anthony Jennings is not coming out and saying he is the starting quarterback, though LSU coach Les Miles has said the returning starter has held the slight edge.
And Brandon Harris is not coming out and saying he is the backup, though he clearly was last season except for the one game in which he started.
Jennings, a sophomore who has started 13 games since the bowl game of the 2013 season, and Harris, a more highly recruited and more highly thought of freshman who played only sparingly last season, enter Saturday’s 1 p.m. spring game at Tiger Stadium in a dead heat — just like they did last year.
“Obviously, I don’t think this is going to determine the quarterback race, but we’re going to obviously look back at this game and see kind of what happened,” Jennings said Thursday during a media session.
“I think it’s been an open quarterback battle,” Harris said. “I don’t know what the reps have been off the top of my head. I may have taken more reps, I don’t know. I’m in there a lot. Him (Jennings) pushing me has really brought out the best of us.”
Rain is in the forecast for the late morning and early afternoon, so that could hinder the passing performances of both quarterbacks. There is also always the chance that LSU coach Les Miles could keep the playbook vanilla and the passing attempts down as he has done in past spring games with struggling quarterbacks, such as Jordan Jefferson and Jarrett Lee.
“Just run the team, use the tools at hand, run the offense for us, let it work,” Miles said. “Take care of the ball, move it aggressively – those kinds of things.”
Harris showed much more flash in the spring game last year as Miles did let him throw. He completed 11-of-28 for 195 yards with three touchdowns and had two impressive scrambles of 57 yards, but he made six errors, according to Miles’ count. Jennings was 9-of-17 for 157 yards with two interceptions that were returned for touchdowns.
“Obviously, we can’t run everything we’re going to run,” Harris said. “So, it’s going to be a limited system, but it’s another opportunity to go out there and get better. Our fans get an opportunity to come out and watch us play. That’s one thing we look forward to. I just hope it doesn’t rain out.”
Miles said starting jobs at any position cannot be won during a spring game.
“But they can affirm the spot that they have, and they can make a play that allows that coach to say, ‘He needs to make that play on Saturdays,’” he said. “It’s really for those guys that have already made an impression that just need to confirm it.”
According to Harris, Harris has made an impression with his improvement this spring.
“It’s not even close,” he said. “I think for everybody who wants to see how much I’ve improved, they just need to come to the spring game Saturday, and they’ll see. It’s like me and every other player that’s young —it’s when you hit that maturation stage when you can improve.”
Jennings, who finished 13th in the Southeastern Conference and 106th in the nation in passing yards last year with 123.9 a game and was 13th in the SEC and 96th nationally in passing efficiency at 118.3, promised improvement.
“Obviously, I’ve improved over the last year or so,” he said. “I want to come in and execute. If I do that, I think coach will be happy. I’m going in the direction I want to, but I’m not there yet. I feel comfortable. I’m going to play loose. You can’t play scared and not try to make mistakes and things like that. Can’t really think about it too much. Can’t think about the fans or people and what they’re going to say.”
Harris said fans will enjoy watching an overall better offense on Saturday.
“I think this spring, we’ve drastically improved,” he said. “I can remember last year, it took us to the ninth or 10th spring day just to get a touchdown. We’ve been able to go out and execute and score this spring. So this will give the fans an opportunity to see what we’re going to look like in the upcoming season. We’ll be getting more completions. I don’t know what the completion percentage was last season as a group, but I know it wasn’t very good.”
LSU’s team completion percentage in 2014 was 50 percent — 48.9 percent by Jennings and 55.6 by Harris.
“We’re just continuing to build our entire offense to where we can go out on Saturdays and be able to combine everything we’ve been doing,” Harris said, “and not be a below-average offense.”
NOTES: Ruled out for Saturday’s spring game because of injuries are safety Corey Thompson (knee), defensive tackle Quentin Thomas (bicep tear) and tight end JaCory Washington (knee). … Defensive tackle Travonte Valentine, a 2014 signee who never qualified academically, will not play after missing all of the spring for academic reasons, though he is in school. … The White team is favored to beat the Purple in Saturday’s scrimmage as it has most of the first teamers, including some of the team’s best players - offensive tackle Jerald Hawkins, guard Vadal Alexander, guard Ethan Pocic, tailback Leonard Fournette, wide receiver Travin Dural, defensive tackle Devon Godchaux, outside linebacker Lamar Louis, cornerback Tre’Davious White, safeties Jalen Mills and Jamal Adams and middle linebacker Kendell Beckwith.