BATON ROUGE, La. — This was inevitable. Whether it be TJ Finley, Max Johnson or Myles Brennan, few expected LSU to complete the 2021 football season with all three returning scholarship quarterbacks (plus 2021 signee Garrett Nussmeier) still in that room.
Maybe the timelines are going faster than expected. Maybe the pieces in play are getting trickier, and head coach Ed Orgeron has a battle in finesse on his hands in the coming months. But make no mistake, Finley officially entering the NCAA transfer portal on Thursday is a sign of one of Orgeron’s more impressive feats since taking over at LSU.
He’s built the deepest LSU quarterbacks room in decades. A room that talented usually means players will transfer. LSU went through the spring with:
- A fifth-year senior (Brennan) who threw for 371 yards per SEC game
- A high-pedigree sophomore (Johnson) who took down Florida on the road as a true freshman
- A 6-foot-6, high-upside sophomore (Finley) who went 2-3 as a true freshman, way ahead of schedule
- A top-100 prospect early enrollee (Nussmeier) who looks like a future star
We don’t have to go too far back to remember years when the hopeful savior was a transfer who lost the starting job at Purdue in Danny Etling, or years when a generationally talented team in 2011 was making do with Jarrett Lee and Jordan Jefferson. Orgeron and LSU were in trouble at quarterback before Joe Burrow arrived in 2018, and even Burrow was someone who had never started a college game.
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The bar has risen, and now LSU is reaching a point in which it can lose Finley and still have a good room in 2021, then add five-star commit Walker Howard in 2022 before also being in the mix for five-star prospect Arch Manning and others in 2023. As long as LSU doesn’t wreck the ship, it could have unprecedented quarterback continuity.
It’s not that simple and perfect, though. The timelines have sped up for the LSU quarterbacks. Put it this way, if Brennan never goes down at Missouri last fall, it’s likely he’s the starter for two seasons through 2021. Johnson and Finley weren’t top-250 prospects with expectations to play right away. You figure they could have been content waiting to compete for the job in 2022 as redshirt sophomores.
Suddenly, two players who likely didn’t think they’d be in this situation so soon have different expectations. They’ve proven themselves. In turn, LSU has a real battle taking place, and that means potentially losing players to transfer. The battle is a good thing because the cream will rise to the top. It just makes the process tricky.
But the other urgent wrinkle is that Finley leaving puts LSU at risk of having just two scholarship quarterbacks come August. That’s something Orgeron has been working to avoid. Johnson likely isn’t going anywhere. Neither is Nussmeier. But if Johnson wins the job, it is completely in the realm of expectation that Brennan leaves in August with a degree and finds himself starting at a Power 5 program by September.
As we wrote in April, the battle between Johnson and Brennan appears tight but some reliable LSU sources believe the job is going to be Johnson’s come August. We’ll see if that comes true, but if it is the case, even though Brennan loves LSU and has been loyal, nobody can expect someone to sit for a fifth season on the bench. Brennan is really talented. He deserves to start somewhere. Plus, it’s not crazy to think he could take the Burrow route of getting ahead of the situation and leaving sooner rather than later.
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In these hypothetical scenarios, LSU would find itself in the all-too-familiar situation of having just two scholarship quarterbacks this fall — and one of them is a true freshman. To be fair, even a room of Johnson and Nussmeier (or Brennan and Nussmeier) is still a really nice set of options. But you’re one injury away from having a walk-on as your backup.
Then, on the list of things that aren’t concerns but should be considered, LSU has to manage Nussmeier properly. He’s a patient person who understands he has work to do, but if LSU picks Johnson, it is theoretically committing to him for as many as three seasons. Is Nussmeier — a clear rising star — going to sit and wait for three full seasons?
This is where it’s worth saying the greatest benefit of building a deep quarterback room isn’t really about the depth. It’s about giving yourself more chances to find the best quarterback. That part is often missed. If LSU has four quarterbacks, and that competition leads to one becoming an All-American and two or three leaving via transfer, you take that option 10 times out of 10 and find depth elsewhere. It’s better to have two quarterbacks with one star than four average quarterbacks.
Let’s also talk about Finley. He came to LSU as a three-star prospect and the Tigers’ lowest-rated signee in the 2020 class. His other primary option was Kansas, just for reference. Few recruiting experts expected him to see the field in Baton Rouge over a four-year career.
Instead, as a true freshman, he opened his career beating South Carolina while completing 17-of-21 passes for 265 yards and two touchdowns. He also beat Arkansas, going 27-of-42 for 271 yards and two touchdowns. Yes, he had some tough outings against Auburn and Texas A&M, but don’t underestimate what he did for himself. His perception went from “raw project” to “6-foot-6 freshman with tons of upside.” That might seem silly, but he is now somebody schools should want. Winning two SEC games as a true freshman should not be overlooked.
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Now, we prepare for the interesting part. Maybe the fun part, depending on your perspective.
Brennan and Johnson will go at it for the starting spot this summer and fall, a battle of experience and arm talent against youth, mobility and accuracy. There isn’t a poor choice Orgeron and offensive coordinator Jake Peetz can make. Both players could very reasonably lead LSU back into the top 10 with a 9-3 or 10-2 season. The talent is there.
And it’s not a situation where Orgeron can simply choose Brennan to honor his loyalty or choose Johnson to go with youth (or because his LSU commit brother, Jake, is the No. 1 tight end in the country). Orgeron absolutely needs to win this year. He knows this. So whoever is chosen, one can be pretty sure it’s LSU choosing the quarterback it thinks can win the most football games in 2021.
Who will that be? That’s the fun part.
(Top photo of Max Johnson and TJ Finley (right): LSU Athletics)
