LSU football: Will Myles Brennan win the Tigers quarterback battle?
By John Buhler
Myles Brennan has to be the favorite to win the starting quarterback job for the 2021 LSU football team.
While Myles Brennan shined in his first three career starts quarterbacking the LSU football team, he suffered a season-ending abdomen injury before Halloween.
Brennan’s untimely injury may have crushed LSU’s slim-to-no-chance at repeating, but the 2020 team wasn’t winning it all anyway. They lost too much talent to the NFL. However, if there is any positive for the Bayou Bengals after Brennan got hurt, besides Marco Wilson throwing a shoe, it was that his backups TJ Finley and Max Johnson got some run at the quarterback position, too.
With Jake Peetz taking over as the new offensive coordinator, it could signify a return to the same high-octane passing offense we saw at LSU in 2019 under Joe Brady. Peetz is making his way to Baton Rouge by way of Brady’s employer in the Carolina Panthers. Though Brennan is the favorite to win the starting job, will he be able to hold off Finley and Johnson through camp?
Myles Brennan faces a closer quarterback battle than you would probably expect
Brennan may have age on his side, but he does not necessarily have the ample starting experience over Finley or Johnson, as all three started games for Ed Orgeron last season. While Finley initially got the nod after Brennan went down, it was Johnson who won the crazy rivalry game down in Gainesville, you know, the one that involved a shoe and killed a College Football Playoff dream.
Simply put, there is no margin for error for Brennan, or Finley or Johnson for that matter, to slip up during spring practice and fall camp. All three signal-callers stand a decent to good chance to win the LSU starting job. There is a new offensive coaching staff in town and none of them truly took the job and ran with it a season ago. Whoever ends up winning the starting job will have to earn it.
The good news for LSU is the Tigers do not face anywhere the same level of expectations as they did a season ago. Keep in mind this is a team that finished at .500 and did not participate in a holiday season bowl game. LSU has the potential to sneak up on the SEC West competition, as Auburn has a new coaching staff and Texas A&M will not be as good as they were a season ago.
Overall, if Brennan has his health, he can win the job convincingly like he did out of fall camp last year. Yes, he may have benefitted from Finley and Johnson being true freshmen a season ago. However, those two signal-callers put enough good stuff on tape to have the confidence to go out and compete for the 2021 starting job. It is why Brennan cannot take his competition for granted.
While Brennan should win the starting job, he will have to go out and earn it every single day.
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