Questions surround LSU as Nicholls readies for second year of Stubbs era

There’s nothing like the start of a new season, especially in football.

Everyone is undefeated and fan bases in 15, 20 or even so much as 30 college towns believe that this is their year and their team will take home a national championship.

This year, our local schools are sort of in different stages in their growth with LSU hoping for BCS dreams and Nicholls looking to continue its rebuilding process.

Let’s go in alphabetical order and start with LSU.

A giant mass of uncertainty has surrounded the Tigers all summer with most of the thickest fog surrounding the quarterback position.

First, it was with Steve Kragthorpe, the former Louisville head coach who joined the LSU staff as offensive coordinator this winter.

Widely considered an upgrade from his predecessor Gary Crowton, Kragthorpe had to step down just months into his tenure because of Parkinson’s disease.

Kragthorpe will remain with the staff and will coach the team’s quarterbacks.

Taking his place will be offensive line coach and new offensive coordinator Greg Studrawa, who has no Southeastern Conference experience calling plays, but did field several high-powered offenses at Bowling Green.

The jury is out and time will tell how big an impact this transition will have on the Tigers.

On the field, the quarterbacks Kragthorpe will coach are just as big of a question mark.

In a perfect world, Jordan Jefferson would start and he would be stellar as a third-year starter in his final collegiate season.

But nothing about Jefferson’s offseason has been perfect and nothing about his play has been anything close to stellar.

The biggest storyline is off the field and whether or not he will play during the 2011 season.

Jefferson was allegedly involved in a recent Baton Rouge bar fight and has been arrested and charged with second degree battery.

What he did or didn’t do isn’t known, and may never be known, but no matter what happened, it’s never a good sign to see your team’s leader huddling with cops, instead of with his offense before the start of a season.

But let’s assume for a second that Jefferson will eventually return from his current indefinite suspension and play at some point in 2011.

Is he really that big of an impact player?

Should he even be someone LSU fans are excited about in the first place?

Let’s be real, folks, the dude tossed 7 touchdown passes compared to 10 picks in his junior season and was flat awful in more than 75 percent of LSU’s games.

You take away LSU’s bowl rout of Texas A&M and the stats are worse, 4 touchdowns and nine interceptions.

The truth is Jefferson has never experienced prolonged success except for three situations, season openers, games following bye weeks and bowl games.

What do all of those games have in common? You have more than one week to prepare.

What do 80 percent of your other games not have? More than one week to prepare.

Don’t believe me? Think back to Jefferson’s best statistical games last year? North Carolina, Alabama and Texas A&M, right?

With quarterbacks, they usually either have that mental killer instinct or they don’t and whether Jefferson is on the field or not, LSU fans should expect to be disappointed in the guy, again.

Of course, the reason he’s allowed to fail time and time again is because LSU has not much else at the position.

The primary backup Jarrett Lee tosses touchdowns all day long. The problem is they are for the other team.

Zach Mettenberger is very promising and will be the next great Tiger quarterback. But wouldn’t you be a little nervous if his first game experience as an SEC quarterback came against the defending national runners-up Oregon?

Chalk me up as one who would be a little antsy if that were the case.

LSU is loaded talent-wise at literally every other position on the field. But until the fog lifts over the quarterback situation, a lot of questions won’t be answered in Baton Rouge.

Trek a few miles south and head to Nicholls and you find a team in a completely different stage of program prestige, growth.

Nicholls is going to be pretty special real, real soon, folks.

That’s a certain.

But what isn’t a certain to me is support, the team’s local morale isn’t where it should be.

I hope people take note and put their butts in the seats to see what’s about to happen unfold.

At quarterback, second-year coach Charlie Stubbs has a few gunslingers who are ready to make an impact.

Whether it’s returning starter LaQuintin Caston or challengers Beaux Hebert or Landry Klann, the team will have a talented player back there making decisions.

No matter who emerges out of the trio, the team will reap the benefits of an offensive line with far more depth.

Last year, Nicholls could have had Drew Brees under center and it wouldn’t have mattered because he’d have gotten sacked before he was able to throw the football.

This time around, Nicholls will have most of their 2010 lineman back, plus several others the team targeted in their most recent recruiting class.

More numbers will mean competition, which makes everyone better.

It will also mean the team has a margin for error and doesn’t have to panic if someone gets injured in the middle of a grueling season.

Stubbs has also changed the attitude within the team’s players and also the community.

Nicholls now expects to compete and ultimately to win.

Give a young man confidence and, sometimes, magical things happen.

I don’t anticipate it being this year. I do think the team will probably win a handful more games than the four they took home a year ago.

But in a couple of seasons, I think the Colonels will be a conference power.

The start of a new season, oh, what a great thing it is.

Having two interesting programs to follow through the grind? That’s even better.

This is shaping up to be an awesome football season.