As LSU football heads into Week 5 against South Carolina, it is uncertain whether quarterback Myles Brennan will be playing due to a lower body injury. At first, his injury did not seem to be so bad but now, it looks like he needs more time to heal for the remainder of the season. If this is the case, LSU will start with one of its freshmen quarterbacks Max Johnson or TJ Finley.
Coach Ed Orgeron has plans to practice with both Johnson and Finley this week. Whoever has the best week will start the game against South Carolina. Orgeron has high hopes for both quarterbacks and thinks they have potential NFL talent as quarterbacks. The confidence Orgeron has for these two players allows me to believe that they will put up a good game this weekend.
Max Johnson
Max Johnson is from Oconee County High School in Watkinsville, Georgia. In his senior year of high school, he led his team to the Georgia 4A state title and threw for 2,143 yards, had 30 touchdown passes and five interceptions. 247Sports ranked Johnson as the No. 15 pro-style quarterback and as the No. 52 overall prospect in the state of Georgia. Additionally, he is the son of Brad Johnson, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback who won the 2002 Super Bowl.
In an interview with Orgeron, he said “Max is very good, I think he is comparable in speed to Joe Burrow, a little faster. Max is more of a scrambler than TJ.” This kind of talk says a lot as we all know how exceptional Burrow is.
TJ Finley
TJ Finley, on the other hand, is from Ponchatoula High School in Ponchatoula, Louisiana. In 2019, he was ranked as the top quarterback in all of Louisiana and was rated a three-star pro-style quarterback by 247Sports and Rivals. In his senior year, Finley threw 2,738 yards, completed 168 passes and had a total of 72 touchdowns during his high school career. This is impressive to say the least.
When Orgeron talked about Finely’s skills, he said “We had a two-minute drill on Tuesday, he scrambled out of there. He looked very good. TJ can move out of the pocket and avoid the rush.”
All things considered, both Johnson and Finley seem to have a pretty fair shot at starting this Saturday. In his interview, Orgeron said, “We’re not going to give it to anybody, they have to perform. Last week both of them were ready to start us off and they got prepared for that. They didn’t know who was going to start, so it’s going to be the same thing this week.”
It is expected LSU will make its final decision on Thursday. This gives Johnson and Finley plenty of time to fight for what they have been working toward all these years. Each of these athletes seem to have an abundance of hard-work and dedication so there is no question whether or not this will be an easy pick for the Tigers.
Hello! My name is Janelle and I’m a senior at The University of Central Florida studying Human Communications and Event Management. My two favorite teams are the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Penn State Nittany Lions.
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