Who’s the man at LSU?

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Aug 24, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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With the LSU football season creeping closer, the dominant question on most fans’ minds remains the same.

Who will the Tigers’ starting quarterback be when their offense trots onto the field for the first time under the hot late-August sun against Appalachian State on Saturday?

The man who has the best feel for who it might be — and as much at stake with how that decision turns out as anyone except perhaps Les Miles — still doesn’t seem to have a firm grasp on the answer.

LSU offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Gary Crowton has spent more time than anyone with Andrew Hatch, Jarrett Lee and Jordan Jefferson since preseason camp began Aug. 4.

To nobody’s surprise, Crowton said all three will play this season to varying degrees and depending on particular situations.
Beyond that, though, Crowton is as eager as everyone else to see which of the three takes the lead role.

 “It’s my job to get these guys ready and even though it might be a bigger challenge this year than most, it’s really been exciting for me,” Crowton said.

“All of them work hard, they’re intelligent and they really want to be good. They do the things the quarterback is supposed to do. The experience isn’t there yet, but they learn in strides and it’s fun to watch their growth. You can feel their potential and watch them moving toward it, but until they do it in a game, it’s still just potential. I’m excited about getting them into game situations and re-learning about them.”

The process to decide which quarterback shoulders the lead role still has a ways to go.

Crowton said all three have shown signs of being capable of running the offense “the way I see it in my mind.”

“They’re all different people with different backgrounds and different personalities,” Crowton said. “They all have different talents and as we put the offense out there and teach them, we want to see who struggles with one thing and who gets something else and does it really well. We need to find out what each of them can do best and where they’re comfortable within the parameters of our offense. I see a lot of growth in all of them and think they can all continue to grow, and it’s kind of neat to watch.”

Neat for Crowton, but most LSU fans tend to view the quarterback position in a much different light.

Where Crowton might be satisfied with steady signs of progress and development, fans are prone to demand something more dramatic — big numbers, dazzling highlight-reel plays and most important of all, wins.

Not just wins, but convincing, lopsided wins that quarterbacks generally get more credit for than anyone else.