BATON ROUGE, La. -- Anthony Jennings and Brandon Harris are well aware of the general narrative about LSU’s prospects this season. The Tigers’ two quarterback contenders don’t even think it’s unfair.
In fact, both players seem to agree with the notion that the Tigers can contend for a playoff spot and a national championship if -- and this is a big if -- they get more consistent play at quarterback.
“It’s not going to be an ‘if,’ ” Jennings said after Tuesday’s practice, the Tigers’ second workout of the spring. “We are going to be consistent. There’s no other way that we can get around it.”
The implication obviously fired up Jennings, the incumbent who drew plenty of criticism a season ago while completing just 48.9 percent of his passes as LSU stumbled to an 8-5 record. He looks around at the three starters returning on the offensive line, the talented-but-youthful receiving corps and a developing superstar in the backfield in Leonard Fournette and realizes that LSU has the pieces to be explosive on offense.
If ...
“[The criticism is] definitely reasonable,” Jennings said. “You look at the guys that were in the national championship. Those guys were elite quarterbacks. That’s what we have to have. Jameis Winston: elite. Lost one game in college. Marcus Mariota: Heisman Trophy. Cardale Jones: I mean, he was elite. The time that he had in the game, he was elite. So elite quarterback play is obviously a big piece in getting to those games.”
But while those guys were helping Florida State, Oregon and Ohio State grab playoff spots, what was happening at LSU?
“I would call us one of the weak points of this past year,” Harris said. “I don’t think we need to go out and get a quarterback or anything like that. I think we have quarterbacks this year in place, and I’m looking forward to using that as a challenge to show people this coming season.”
Harris struggled mightily in the lone start of his freshman season against Auburn, a game where LSU failed to convert a single third down. He carried lofty expectations into last season after enrolling early in 2014 and outplaying Jennings in LSU’s spring game.
But he can admit now that he still needed time to develop.
“Looking back, I would say I wasn’t ready,” Harris said.
Now entering his second spring, Harris believes he knows what he’s doing. He doesn’t need a teammate to help him call the occasional play in the huddle, and he’s getting on the same page with the skill players around him. Perhaps he’s better prepared to truly challenge Jennings for playing time.
“Time is the biggest thing and now we’ve improved with the timing and everything like that,” Harris said. “So I’ve just improved from learning mentally, realizing our coaches are there for a reason and overutilizing them. And obviously your technique can always get better and that will help you with being more accurate.”
Throwing accurately is likely the biggest obstacle standing between 2014’s underwhelming passing game -- LSU tied for 119th nationally by completing 50 percent of its passes -- and the one that Harris believes will be more consistent and explosive this fall.
Jennings said he needs to improve his completion percentage by at least 10 percent because, “60 percent passing, I think, in this offense will win a national championship.”
Knowledge of the system helps, as does last season’s on-field experience -- even if it was often rocky for the two quarterbacks.
But they’ve spent an offseason listening to questions about whether they are good enough to help a talented LSU team fulfill its potential. They can either allow those doubts to drag them down or spur them to productivity that LSU’s offense lacked last fall.
“I’ve been listening to this stuff since the last game of the season, during the season. It’s fueling my fire,” Jennings said. “It’s definitely valuable. Even if they weren’t saying that, I’m still going to come in here and get better each day. We lost five games. That’s not good enough. Losing one game is not good enough here. So those losses, they fuel me to get better each and every day here.”