LSU living right as another opposing QB out

BATON ROUGE — Other than losing its scheduled season opening game to weather last month, LSU has been playing on rabbit’s feet while its opponents keep cracking mirrors.

On Saturday, the Tigers will play against a reserve quarterback for the fourth straight week.

No. 6 LSU (5-0, 3-0 SEC) on Saturday hosts No. 8 Florida (6-0, 4-0 SEC), one of the hottest teams in the country. But on Monday, the Gators lost starting quarterback Will Grier for the season as he was suspended by the NCAA for testing positive for a performance enhancing drug. This after LSU just received an extra home game on Saturday and beat South Carolina 45-24 in Tiger Stadium in a game that was moved from Columbia, South Carolina, last Wednesday because of rampant flooding in the area.

A redshirt freshman from Davidson, North Carolina, Grier beat out sophomore Treon Harris, who started the final six games last season and the 2015 season opener. Grier completed 20 of 33 passes for 208 yards in a 21-3 win at Missouri Saturday and is No. 6 in the SEC in passing efficiency with a 145.4 rating on 106-of-161 passing for 1,204 yards and 10 TDs with three interceptions. He is ninth in the league in total offense with 220 yards a game as he has rushed for 116 yards.

“I took an over-the-counter supplement that had something in it,” Grier said at a press conference Monday. “I did not check with the medical staff before taking it. I really hope that people can learn from this, learn from my mistake. I’m really sorry to everyone.”

The news broke a wave of blue and orange momentum under first-year coach Jim McElwain, who had inherited a program that was 11-13 over the previous two years and was not expected to do a lot this season. Florida was heading into its first top 10 pairing against LSU since 2012 as a 4.5-point underdog. After the news of Grier’s suspension, the point spread jumped to a touchdown or more.

“Look guys, this is hard,” McElwain said at the press conference. “We feel for him. We feel his pain.”

Florida plans to appeal the decision, but in the meantime Harris will start. On the season, Harris is 19-of-27 passing for 269 yards and two touchdowns through four games with 58 rushing yards on 12 carries. LSU has not played against a quarterback who started the previous week since it beat Auburn and quarterback Jeremy Johnson, 45-21, on Sept. 19, and Johnson was benched the following week.

No less than five quarterbacks for LSU opponents have been hurt this season in the weeks prior to playing the Tigers, but the somewhat inexperienced backups have done well.

Now, Grier is out.

“I just heard about that,” LSU senior linebacker Lamar Louis said Monday. “The game plan hadn’t been introduced to us, so we really hadn’t looked into that. But things happen. It’s college football. It looks like things might be going our way.”

LSU coach Les Miles tried to be more guarded, but did not know what quarterback he would be playing against.

“I’m certain they’ll have a very capable guy,” he said. “We’ll have to go back and see who that is.”

Harris did rush for 338 yards on 75 carries in nine games and six starts last season. LSU had started preparing to play against him last season as he was announced as the starter early in the week, but then did not play.

“Most of the time, the second team quarterback can operate the offense as is,” Miles said. “So we would expect that their best plays or their core plays would be the same. And I would suggest that the passing would be the same. It would just be a different quarterback doing it.”

And LSU’s pass defense at times this season has made backup quarterbacks look like starting quarterbacks.

“Harris is a mobile quarterback,” outside linebacker Deion Jones said. “We have to prepare for that.”

Asked if playing another team that just lost its starting quarterback is an advantage, Jones said, “I don’t know. The backup quarterbacks have come in and still got after us. They still kinda get after us.”