The most memorable mess was the
Josh Booty-Rohan Davey-Craig Nall debacle in 1999, a Gerry DiNardo blunder which
Nick Saban fixed the next season. Although Saban did juggle Davey and Booty
throughout the season, he handled the situation in the most delicate of ways and
came out smelling like a rose. Davey had a breakout game in the Peach Bowl to
end the season virtually assuring himself the starting job a year
later.
As successful as Saban was in
dealing with Davey and Booty in 2000, he dropped the ball in the mess that
became the 2004 season, in which Marcus Randall, JaMarcus Russell and Matt Flynn
were all battling for the same job. He remained loyal to Randall while everyone
knew Russell was the most talented. Flynn spent most of the season on the
outside looking in as Randall and Russell flip-flopped literally from week to
week.
Although new head coach Les Miles
had other fish to fry last season in his last year at Oklahoma State, the first
year coach has undoubtedly been briefed on how to handle the Russell-Flynn (and
soon to the be Ryan Perrilloux) situation he faced this spring and soon to be
August camp.
While Miles is pretty tight-lipped
as it is, the Bo Schembechler protégé has grown even more vague when assessing
the two quarterbacks in the wake of spring practice.
“I don’t think we will name a
starter or designate who will be the starting quarterback for some time,” Miles
said. “The competition is really too close to call at this time.”
In the Tigers final spring
scrimmage, Russell spent most of the day running with the first team offense.
Looking very much like the front-runner (despite Miles’ assessment), Russell
completed 17 of 30 passes for 223 yards and four touchdowns. Flynn threw for
more yards (234) and a better completion percentage (17 of 29), but threw no
touchdowns and tossed a pair of interceptions.
“I think it is just snaps,” Miles
said of Russell. “I think there were times where you could see that he needed to
throw the football away. There were a couple of times where he should have
scrambled, using the clock. I mean, it is just experience. It is just giving him
the ball and letting him the quarterback for extended numbers of snaps. The same
is true for Matt Flynn.”
One thing Miles said Russell did
well was his ability to improvise on the spot. Standing 6-5 and 248 pounds,
Russell is more agile and athletic than people think his sizeable frame would
allow.
“I think he has improved,” Miles
said. “He understands formats. I think Jimbo has done a really good job cueing
him in and allowing him to play within the system.
“I think he ad-libs well and when
he does, I think he ad-libs with more limited options. In other words, those
guys who ad-lib with everything in the playbook, they don’t necessarily make
great decision whereas when you are able to put a criteria on scramble with one
play, throw away on another, the opportunity to get a first down, scramble and
throw, you cut down on the possibility of making a bad play worse by forcing
something. If he can ad-lib under certain criteria, which he is showing me that
he can, it will in no doubt benefit us.”
Russell said he was pleased with
his performance in the scrimmage, but gave a great deal of credit to his
teammates around him.
“I thought I did a good job today,”
Russell said. “There were some things we threw in there like a day or two ago
and I think we picked up on them rather quick. I thought everyone played well
good, the linemen, the running backs. I think we had a great day
today.”
The Mobile, Ala.
native attributes his maturation as a quarterback to his gaining more knowledge
of the offense.
“I think I improved in the fact I
know more about what’s going on,” Russell said. “I am much more aware of the
offense more than last year. Getting that experience last year really helped me
a lot and then what I got this spring and this summer, it will help me even
more.”
“Things are coming to me a lot
simpler now since I have now been here two years and with this spring under my
belt. It (the offense) is like a second nature for me now.”
Flynn, who saw his most extensive
amount of playing time during last season’s CapitalOne Bowl game against
Iowa, said the
one thing he has learned most this spring is how to make quicker decision while
in the flow of the game.
“I think that I have come a long
way this spring with my decision making progress under the gun,” Flynn said.
“The scrimmage that we had today has helped us, putting stepping stones down
sharpening our decision making skills – both me and JaMarcus.”
Flynn added that his and the
offense’s ability to rebound from mistakes was one of the positive things about
this spring.
“I think one of the things I liked
is that after mistakes we made, both as a unit and myself personally, we came
back and made some plays,” Flynn said. “I think we both did a good job on check
downs and getting the ball down the field, spreading it around to
receivers.
“I think I improved significantly
both physically and mentally, but more mentally than anything making reads,
check downs, making checks on runs, things like that. I have really worked on
trying not to make the same mistake I did the day before.”
The coaching staff has changed
dramatically since the last time either one of these players took the field.
Aside from retaining the services of offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher and
offensive line coach Stacey Searles, the entire staff, including a new head
coach, has arrived. Flynn said the transition hasn’t been too
dramatic.
“The coaching staff has kept all of
the terminology basically the same so I don’t think it is a different system,”
Flynn said. “He (Fisher) is calling the same plays and the same formations as he
would last year so it really hasn’t changed all that much. We have tried to open
it up a little more this spring. We have tried to run every play we have so we
can have something to build and work on this summer so we can have it on the
books, have it on film, so we can watch it.”
Russell said one of the most
distinct differences is that Miles is affiliated more with the offense whereas
Saban was a fixture on the defensive side of the ball.
“Coach Saban was a defensive guy,”
Russell said. “He is a great coach. Coach Miles is an offensive guy. He has an
offensive mentality so he is over there a lot more. He is a little more laid
back.”
“He kind of oversees the whole
offense,” Flynn said. “If it is a play where you have to do something different,
he will come up to you and talk to you. He is a real personal, one on one, type
of guys who will look you in the eye when you talk to him and tell you what you
have to do and what you did wrong.”