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Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Time to go Tebow with Perrilloux

BATON ROUGE - It was a good idea to stick with Matt Flynn in LSU's early-ugly, 34-9 win over Tulane Saturday.

Flynn was obviously not performing well in the first half as he completed just 8 of 18 passes.

Counting his game against South Carolina, that made Flynn 16 of 37 for 43 percent with an interception and a touchdown over six quarters.

LSU coach Les Miles, who has often inserted backup quarterback Ryan Perrilloux in the first half this season, stuck with Flynn the whole first half despite LSU trailing 9-7 until three seconds remained in the second quarter. He was trying to get Flynn right. He was giving him repetitions against a light opponent that LSU would eventually overwhelm. This made sense. Flynn gathered himself and finished the Tulane game in decent fashion, completing 16 of 29 passes for 258 yards with another interception.

It will not make sense Saturday night against No. 9 Florida should Flynn flounder in the early going. In fact, Perrilloux should enter the game early on regardless of how Flynn is doing. The dual quarterback system has worked well this season. LSU will need it to beat Florida.

Perrilloux is 26 of 31 passing over his last four games for 381 yards and five touchdowns with one interception. Like Flynn, he's missed on a few passes here and there. But he needs to play and he needs to pass. Perrilloux has only thrown four passes since completing 20 of 25 for 298 yards and two touchdowns when he started and played the whole game against Middle Tennessee on Sept. 15 as Flynn nursed his injured ankle.

Miles bristled at a question Monday concerning Perrilloux's lack of passing in the last two games.

"That is enough (passes)," Miles said. "That is what the team needed from him. We need to sharpen the skills of all our players, not only Ryan, but all of our quarterbacks (meaning Flynn since no one else played)."

You don't sharpen guys against teams like Florida, Kentucky and Auburn the next three weeks.

They need to be sharp already, and if they're not find someone who is. That could be Flynn this Saturday. His ankle may be close to 100 percent by then. But it also needs to be Perrilloux, who can pass and throw. Flynn obviously is not the runner he was before the ankle. He still needs to be the starter, though, because he is a strong leader of the team, and a change there could do more harm than good. Just rotate them and stick with the hotter hands and feet.

If Miles was not playing Perrilloux against Tulane to get Flynn right, that was good. If Miles was not playing and passing Perrilloux more to throw off Florida, that was also good.

If you're Florida defensive coordinators Charlie Strong and Greg Mattison this week, you've got to be wondering which Perrilloux LSU will use - the Middle Tennessee Perrilloux or the running Perrilloux. I'd say use both a lot. Use Perrilloux like Florida used Tim Tebow last year only more.

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