Sugarbowl 2007

NEW ORLEANS—They say Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn is the best quarterback coming into the NFL Draft, a possible No. 1 overall pick even.

“They” almost certainly are re-evaluating that assessment today — especially if LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell’s tour de force performance in the Sugar Bowl Wednesday night was indeed his collegiate swan song.

Russell’s MVP showing — 21-for-34 (62 percent) passing for 332 yards and two TDs and one interception — produced a double blowout in the Superdome. One was the final score, a 41-14 LSU victory that was just as one-sided as most observers who questioned Notre Dame’s BCS worthiness expected.

The other laugher was the highly touted matchup of quarterbacks, which most saw as perhaps the best quarterback duel on offer this bowl season. To be sure, it certainly helped that Russell didn’t have to play against an LSU defense which was ranked among the nation’s elite and played like it against the fighting Irish.

Still, those pro scouts who questioned Quinn’s accuracy saw plenty of ammunition to back up that claim. He finished just 15-for-35, hitting just 43 percent of his throws, and many of the ones he did hit were hardly the crisp, sure throws you look for from No. 1 pick-type quarterbacks.

Russell, on the other hand, played a game that might even have been good enough to quiet the LSU fans who still nitpick his every move. Ditto for Tigers coach Les Miles, whose coaching accumen has also been questioned by LSU’s semi-faithful.

But on this night Miles dominated his matchup as well with Notre Dame’s Super Bowl ring-laden Charlie Weis. It was expected that, given weeks to prepare and dissect LSU’s schemes, Weis’s Irish ingenuity would confuse the supposedly confusable Russell.

Didn’t happen — just like Weis’s call for a fake punt from his own 34 on the game’s first series against one of the nation’s top defenses wasn’t happening.

And then there was this Weis witticism after watching LSU jump his team for a 14-0 lead in the first eight minutes, and after Weis was duped by the Irish rally to tie it at 14-14:

“I saw no signs (at halftime) that we’d play a complimentary crummy second half,” said Weis, before conceding his error. “For the rest of the game they really laid the wood on us.”

Chalk that up to Weis whistling past the alleged ancient Indian burial ground beneath his feet in the Superdome, with Notre Dame safety Tom Zbikowski providing backup vocals.

“We didn’t make the plays, but I didn’t see any speed that we haven’t seen before,” Zbikowski sniffed.

Of course, Zbikowski — we were able to identify him on the postgame interview dais only via dental records — didn’t mention that the Irish DBs were burned beyond recognition all those other times they saw LSU’s brand of speed this season, too.

Those forced to watch the game bereft of Irish eyes saw the mismatch in the making.

“You saw big, strong men imposing their will on the defense,” said Miles, whose coaches made it easy for the Tigers. LSU must have been feeling a little deja vu when what they saw on the field looked eerily similar to what they had watched in the meeting room cinema.

“We have a month to prepare for something, you go zoom in and key on certain things,” Tigers receiver Chris Davis said. “Exactly what we saw on film was exactly what they played.”

“Give credit to our coaches for scouting so good and doing their job,” Russell said. “It made it easy for us.”

If anything, perhaps a little too easy, Russell said.

“It was too good, too fast,” he said of the Tigers’ jump to a quick 14-0 lead, then the inevitable lax before ripping off the last 27 points of the game.

And most of it was Russell taking advantage of the mismatches his receivers offered against the Notre Dame secondary. And for once, maybe it will be OK for LSU fans to give Russell his props. A guy who supposedly can’t read defenses very well did a pretty good job of dissecting the schemes the highly respected Weis came up with.

“What people don’t understand about JaMarcus is how smart he is,” Miles said. “He’s a very bright quarterback, understands what he’s looking at. If there’s a characteristic that a great quarterback has, I suspect JaMarcus has it.”

That’s something a lot of LSU fans and Heisman Trophy-voting media types haven’t always seen eye-to-eye with Miles on. But can there be any doubt left now as to who the No. 1 quarterback in the NFL Draft would be if Russell goes ahead and opts to come out after his junior year?

And why not, after Wednesday’s performance, one which left me feeling like Miles might secretly be hoping Russell does go ahead and pull that trigger. After all, it’s not like LSU’s QB cupboard is bare, and Russell’s departure would clear the decks for the Tigers to get highly touted freshman Ryan Perrilloux into the lineup and keep him from, say, jumping to some nearby, quarterback-needy I-AA team that could offer him a platform for his skills right away.

I mean, if there were such a team somewhere that fits that description.

Still, Miles can dream.

“I don’t know why he wasn’t mentioned for the Heisman,” Miles said. “I can tell you this, in short order he has to make a very difficult decision. Certainly he will be offered a pile of money. But if he returns, he’ll certainly be a Heisman Trophy candidate. And (LSU SID) Michael Bonnette, he’d better get the (Heisman campaign) mockups ready.”

– Commentary by John Lenz, Daily Star Sports Editor