LSU's Perrilloux: A can't-miss star -- and third-string QB

LSU's Perrilloux: A can't-miss star -- and third-string QB

July 28, 2006 By Dennis Dodd CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer Tell Dennis your opinion!

HOOVER, Ala. -- Sometimes you have to laugh at guys like Ryan Perrilloux. His kind come along every few years to remind us that Teen Nick is bad basic cable, not Masterpiece Theatre. Some teenagers don't have their own shows. Some actually have perspective, humility, a clue. Ryan Perrilloux has yet to take a snap in a game for LSU. (Provided to SportsLine) The Ryan Perrilloux Show is still in development. Two years ago, it looked like a fall prime-time hit. The best dual-threat prospect since Lemon Pledge (it's a dessert topping and a floor wax!) was going to rock our world. LSU's redshirt freshman quarterback is now 19 and, by some people's standards, maybe even a bust. No starts as a freshman. Certainly no Heisman as a freshman. That's kind of impossible when you sit out as a freshman. And depressing when you expect both playing time and hardware as a rookie. Perrilloux spoke brashly of "competing with" (read: beating out) often-injured JaMarcus Russell. That task was complicated when Matt Flynn became the hero of the Peach Bowl. It's Year 2, Perrilloux, and we're still waiting. Only 17 months ago, Perrilloux came out of the New Orleans area as a five-star, can't-miss, No. 1 quarterback in the country. Now he's part of the deepest quarterback rotation in the country. The most talented insurance policy in the SEC. He's part of the question coach Les Miles gets most often: Who is going to be the starter? He got it from a soldier, a Louisiana native, late in the night during a visit to Iraq. He got it from his wife after he nudged her in bed for some late night, uh, conversation. "She was mad," Miles said Friday during SEC preseason media days. "So she rolled over and said, 'So tell me, who are you going to play at quarterback?' That seems to be a question I've gotten routinely." The answer technically includes Perrilloux, but not really. Not when the kid hasn't taken a college snap. Not when he hasn't been allowed by the school to talk to media since he stepped on campus. "It's everybody's high school dream to come in and play, but he's mature now," receiver Dwayne Bowe said. "He knows he has two great quarterbacks that have been here." The conclusion is obvious: LSU kicks off in 36 days with the former five-star, prep All-American from Reserve, La., as the third-string quarterback. CONTINUED: 1 · 2 · Next »