College Sports

LSU center Helms eager for new QB

HOOVER — LSU center Brett Helms obviously has a unique perspective on who will be LSU's new quarterback.

He's worked with junior transfer Andrew Hatch, who sat out the 2007 season after transferring from Harvard, and redshirt freshman Jarrett Lee. Helms said he was also impressed by incoming freshman Jordan Jefferson.

"I'm looking forward to seeing who turns out in August and who's the starter," Helms said. "Whoever it is, they've got to go out and make smart decisions. They'll be surrounded by good guys. They don't have to do much."

The Tigers were unexpectedly left without starting experience when coach Les Miles booted Ryan Perrilloux off the team in May following off-field problems. Perrilloux, the backup to Matt Flynn, played an outstanding game in the SEC championship game, but couldn't keep things together away from the field. He landed at Jacksonville State, where he should have an immediate impact.

Although the Tigers will be without an experienced SEC quarterback, they should be able to minimize that with a plethora of returning help on the offensive side of the ball. The Tigers return four starting linemen, including Helms, and a pair of solid receivers in Brandon LaFell and Demetrius Byrd.

Who needs an arm?

Mississippi State coach Sylvester Croom honestly assessed his sophomore quarterback Wesley Carroll, whom he said "still doesn't have a great arm."

That doesn't matter a bit to Croom. Carroll, who started nine games as a true freshman, possessed the biggest quality Croom wanted to see — the ability to win.

"Think about this: The guy starts off as a third-stringer," Croom said. "He ends up all of a sudden in the early part of the season starting in the Southeastern Conference as a pure freshman, no benefit of spring practice, no working in the summer with coaches, learning a pretty complicated offense.

"He's won more games than any quarterback in Mississippi State in the last eight years. So that says a lot for him in this conference."

Not defending

LSU's Miles was adamant about one thing: His team is not defending its title.

He says he doesn't want his team wrapped up in that notion.

"We're not dealing with the rankings," Miles said. "This is a brand-new year. We're not defending it. It's there. We got a brand new team."

His players echoed those sentiments, with Helms saying the players have "got to" put 2007 behind them. They have to because they open the season against Appalachian State, the Football Championship Subdivision champion who upset Michigan to open the season a year ago.

"If you don't, people will think it will carry over to Appalachian State," Helms said. "We've got to start over and do the things that got us there last year — hard work and dedication."

Speed to burn

Florida coach Urban Meyer said in the past he'd like to have the fastest team in America.

If he doesn't, he has to be close. He already has the uber-fast Chris Rainey on his team, and incoming recruit Jeff Demps recently claimed the title as fastest football player in the nation by posting a 10.01 in the 100 meters, a national high school record. That led to a challenge from Rainey.

"Chris Rainey beat him in a race the other day," Meyer said. "We don't condone that. We have to baby-sit them every second. Everyone was saying how fast (Demps) is, so they said, 'Let's go in the back of dorms; let's figure this thing out.' I guess Chris nudged him out.

"So we got some speed. I'd like to watch that. I wasn't there, but I would have liked to. Could have probably sold about 10,000 tickets for that. ESPN GameDay probably would have been there as well."

Quarterback Tim Tebow said he didn't witness it, but heard a lot about it.

"There were a lot of false starts and everything, but from what I heard, Rainey, he did win in the 40. That's pretty unbelievable because Demps is one of the fastest men in the country or the world probably. So for Rainey to beat him in the 40-yard dash, that says a lot about how fast he is."

Long Vandy tenure

Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson will become the longest tenured coach in Commodore history this year, even though he sports just a 20-50 record.

"They said we couldn't do it," Johnson said when asked about it.

Johnson said he knew up front what kind of uphill battle he faced when he signed on to coach the Commodores.

"I knew it was going to be a long project," Johnson said. "I think the very first day I was at Vanderbilt, some guy said, 'How long do you think you got before they fire you?'

"Really, he did. I said, 'I don't know.' You know, that never was a thought."

The Commodores finished 5-7 a year ago, but lost three close games, which could have entirely turned around the season.

"I think we were extremely close last year," Johnson said. "A couple of games go either way, we're in a bowl. We think it's always gonna be tough because we're in the SEC and the teams we have to play. But we're also confident that we can compete with anybody on our schedule."