I've criticized Lee's play a lot, and I'm not going to make the argument that all of a sudden he's some world beater or whatever. He might become a good quarterback eventually, or he might not. He's certainly not one now; had he been, LSU would probably be sitting at 9-1 and ranked in the Top 10 with a national-championship shot still intact.
But if you can't feel for this kid and more importantly pull for him, you're not much of a Tiger fan.
Lee has been through absolute hell this season. First of all, when he signed with LSU it was with the knowledge that he needed a good bit of seasoning before he'd be ready to take over at quarterback on a big-time college football team, and the plan for Lee was that he would come in and redshirt, then be groomed for a couple of years as Ryan Perrilloux held down the starting job before finally getting his chance as a prepared, ready fourth-year junior in 2010 with two years of mopup duty under his belt and a total command of the LSU system. Well, that went by the boards when Perrilloux couldn't follow some very simple rules to stay on LSU's football team.
Then, LSU's coaches crafted a two-QB arrangement with Lee and Andrew Hatch trading snaps so as to help take the burden off the young quarterback who ideally wouldn't have been thrust into the limelight so soon. The system showed some results, and Lee showed some promise underneath some inexperience and questionable judgement. Then Hatch got hurt and Lee started getting hit with the most amazing string of interceptions being run back for touchdowns that anyone has ever seen. When it happened once again in the Troy game Saturday, it made SEVEN for the season - and FIVE in the last four games.
The fact that Lee is throwing a lot of interceptions is certainly his fault. The fact that so many of them come back for touchdowns is a fluke unprecedented in college football. I was told in the stands on Saturday that the CAREER record for pick-sixes suffered by a quarterback is six. Lee has thrown seven in 10 games. It took nine years prior to this one for LSU quarterbacks to throw seven interceptions for touchdowns.
And of course, with this disastrous string Lee has lost the fans - a term I use very loosely in many cases. Lee is getting booed when he's announced before the game, he's getting booed when he takes the field, and he's getting booed every time he does something not optimal out there - not just interceptions, but errant incompletions as well, which happens to every quarterback. It's unfair, it's low-class and it's completely unproductive. Even worse than that, Saturday it looked increasingly like Lee was losing his teammates as well.
But you know what? Lee has borne all of this adversity, scrutiny and ugliness with class and grace. He has
stayed positive through what has to be considered hell for a young athlete and never once has he allowed frustration to creep into his post-game comments. And Saturday, when it got worst of all, Lee reached down and found himself. He played some absolutely inspired - and inspiring - football in that last quarter and a half; after a 2-for-8 first half, Lee was 18-of-26 in the second half for 205 yards and a touchdown - and those numbers could have been even better but for a pair of well-thrown long passes his receivers didn't give good effort on.
I like this kid. I don't know how much better he'll get, and I don't know if a guy like Russell Shepard won't eventually put him on the bench, or what. But I like him and I'm going to support him regardless of how painful it might be to do so - and I'm going to encourage those who are actual LSU fans to join me.
I lost a bet so here's my new sig for awhile.
I LIKE Jarrett Lee 
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