They did not make Justin McMillan available for interviews today, but he took all of the reps with the first team in practice while I was watching. Saturday will be his game, and barring injury or a complete disaster, he will go from start to finish.
I do not believe his progress has been smooth or he would have started or at least played against SMU. Instead, the staff re-committed to Jonathan Banks in the hope he would eliminate the killer mistakes that have plagued him this year. He did not, so now it is McMillan's turn, and he needs to make the most of it if he wants to be the starting QB next year instead of Keon Howard, who appears more suited to the offense this staff prefers. It is amazing how winning creates better chemistry. Most people refer to it the other way around, saying chemistry leads to winning. That's undoubtably true to an extent, but sometimes you have to win first to get everyone on the same page. It's the chicken or the egg story in terms of what comes first, and I guess I'm on the side that winning creates chemistry more often than chemistry creates winning. Or, to put it another way, good execution is more important than chemistry to winning.
We're at the point of the year where detailed practice reports are unnecessary. What happens in practice does not matter unless it is translated to games, and McMillan has to make the same throws against Tulsa on Saturday that he makes in practice, He should have more time to throw than Banks did against SMU because of Tulsa's anemic pass rush. That's good because he did not show a lot of poise in the pocket in the second half at Cincinnati when he was under duress. Hopefully that experience, his first extensive action in college, helped him get better.
Here are a few select quotes from today. I will have all of them later:
FRITZ
on McMillan's improved timing
"I think he's always had it, but the difficulty is just having knowledge of the offense. Now he knows where he is going with the ball. For a quarterback to avoid tough plays on a pass play, you've got to have a good idea where you're going with the ball prior to the ball being snapped. If that goes to crap, you've got to be able to have an escape route and know the next thing you're going to quick. You have a couple of progressions, boom, boom and either get rid of the ball or hey, they gave me one look and then played something else, I need to go to this guy now. He does a good job getting the ball out of his hand."
On first start
"He's played a lot of meaningful games in high school, but this is the first start that he's had at the Division I level. But he's played quite a bit for us here and he's worked all week as a starter, so I think he'll do a great job. The big thing I just talked to him about is don't worry about all the other things quarterbacks do for their team as far as leadership and this, that and the other thing, and he's done an excellent job of that, but the main thing is just concentrate and focus on doing your job.
High school crowd experience
"One of the games he played in high school he played in front of 48,000. He's played in some big venues, and though he didn't play very much with LSU, he was on the road a lot in games, so he's been to a lot of different places, so that experience is valuable."
On Dauphine
"He needs to carry the ball more. He needs to carry it more, no question about that. Sometimes you get in a game and you've got different plays and maybe it matches with another guy or whatever the case may be, and the big thing for Corey is when he's locked in and knows what he's doing, he's one heck of a player. We just have to do a better job of being assignment sound in everything that we're doing."
I do not believe his progress has been smooth or he would have started or at least played against SMU. Instead, the staff re-committed to Jonathan Banks in the hope he would eliminate the killer mistakes that have plagued him this year. He did not, so now it is McMillan's turn, and he needs to make the most of it if he wants to be the starting QB next year instead of Keon Howard, who appears more suited to the offense this staff prefers. It is amazing how winning creates better chemistry. Most people refer to it the other way around, saying chemistry leads to winning. That's undoubtably true to an extent, but sometimes you have to win first to get everyone on the same page. It's the chicken or the egg story in terms of what comes first, and I guess I'm on the side that winning creates chemistry more often than chemistry creates winning. Or, to put it another way, good execution is more important than chemistry to winning.
We're at the point of the year where detailed practice reports are unnecessary. What happens in practice does not matter unless it is translated to games, and McMillan has to make the same throws against Tulsa on Saturday that he makes in practice, He should have more time to throw than Banks did against SMU because of Tulsa's anemic pass rush. That's good because he did not show a lot of poise in the pocket in the second half at Cincinnati when he was under duress. Hopefully that experience, his first extensive action in college, helped him get better.
Here are a few select quotes from today. I will have all of them later:
FRITZ
on McMillan's improved timing
"I think he's always had it, but the difficulty is just having knowledge of the offense. Now he knows where he is going with the ball. For a quarterback to avoid tough plays on a pass play, you've got to have a good idea where you're going with the ball prior to the ball being snapped. If that goes to crap, you've got to be able to have an escape route and know the next thing you're going to quick. You have a couple of progressions, boom, boom and either get rid of the ball or hey, they gave me one look and then played something else, I need to go to this guy now. He does a good job getting the ball out of his hand."
On first start
"He's played a lot of meaningful games in high school, but this is the first start that he's had at the Division I level. But he's played quite a bit for us here and he's worked all week as a starter, so I think he'll do a great job. The big thing I just talked to him about is don't worry about all the other things quarterbacks do for their team as far as leadership and this, that and the other thing, and he's done an excellent job of that, but the main thing is just concentrate and focus on doing your job.
High school crowd experience
"One of the games he played in high school he played in front of 48,000. He's played in some big venues, and though he didn't play very much with LSU, he was on the road a lot in games, so he's been to a lot of different places, so that experience is valuable."
On Dauphine
"He needs to carry the ball more. He needs to carry it more, no question about that. Sometimes you get in a game and you've got different plays and maybe it matches with another guy or whatever the case may be, and the big thing for Corey is when he's locked in and knows what he's doing, he's one heck of a player. We just have to do a better job of being assignment sound in everything that we're doing."
