QBs top question on Tour

• By SCOTT RABALAIS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: May 21, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:10 a.m.

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From stop to stop this spring on the LSU Tiger Tour, the questions for coach Les Miles always keep coming back to the Tigers’ inexperienced quarterbacks.

Quarterback questions are nothing new no matter who occupies the position, whether it has been Rohan Davey or Matt Mauck or Marcus Randall, or the three-headed monster going into 2005 with JaMarcus Russell, Matt Flynn and Ryan Perrilloux.

One thing Miles tries to do is assure the adoring but anxious fans about the quarterback situation now that Perrilloux has been sent packing to Jacksonville (Ala.) State.

“We’re going to have one in every formation,” Miles said Monday night, drawing laughs from the packed house at LSU’s Lod Cook Center.

Come Aug. 30 against Appalachian State, it won’t be a laughing matter. The Tigers will have to start someone — likely either sophomore transfer Andrew Hatch or redshirt freshman Jarrett Lee — who between them have thrown two passes for LSU (Hatch was 1 of 2 for 9 yards vs. Middle Tennessee).

If Miles or offensive coordinator Gary Crowton, who was also in attendance Monday, are nervous, they aren’t showing it.

Crowton insisted the lack of experience isn’t a lemonade out of lemons situation.

“If we had just gotten here I might have said that,” said Crowton, entering his second season at LSU. “But because of spring ball where they all got reps and they traveled all last year, I think they’ve got a good start on where we need them to end up.”

With Perrilloux suspended for all of spring practice before being reinstated and finally booted from the team May 2, Hatch, Lee and walk-on redshirt freshman T.C. McCartney got all the work at quarterback.

Both Hatch — a former walk-on transfer from Harvard now on scholarship — and Lee bring complimentary talents to the position.

“What’s good is they both have their strengths,” Crowton said. “They push each other, which is what you want right now, so when the season comes around they’re ready to win games.”

When Crowton was head coach at BYU, he offered Hatch (6-foot-3, 214 pounds) a scholarship after Hatch attended his summer camp.

“Hatch is big and can run,” Crowton said. “He’s got some escapability and a good arm.