Tag: matt flynn

Bryce Underwood’s commitment solidifies LSU atop the QB market

Bryce Underwood’s commitment solidifies LSU’s spot atop the QB market

Not that long ago, LSU was stuck in quarterback purgatory.

Throughout the [autotag]Les Miles[/autotag] era, LSU was stacked on defense and loaded up on skill position players. But that QB spot, it was tricky.

After [autotag]JaMarcus Russell[/autotag] was the best quarterback in the conference in 2006 and [autotag]Matt Flynn[/autotag] led LSU to a national title in 2007, Miles struggled to find a signal caller that moved the needle.

Sure, guys like [autotag]Jarrett Lee[/autotag] and [autotag]Jordan Jefferson[/autotag] won a lot of games and in another era, they would have made perfectly adequate QBs, but the sport began to change.

As the sport grew more and more friendly to offense, you needed a professional quarterback. That doesn’t mean you needed [autotag]Cam Newton[/autotag], but at least someone like AJ McCarron, who was a Heisman finalist and remains in the NFL today.

LSU didn’t have that. Zach Mettenberger’s 2013 campaign was a step up, but it became an outlier. In 2014, LSU sat dead last in the SEC in passing yards and completion percentage. The passing attack remained near the bottom in 2015 too.

In 2016, it got a little better with [autotag]Danny Etling[/autotag], but LSU was still in the bottom half of the conference in passing yards and completion percentage while getting shut out in the Alabama game.

Miles was fired after four games in 2016. [autotag]Ed Orgeron[/autotag] took over and he knew the deal. He had to find LSU a quarterback.

Well, he did just that. [autotag]Joe Burrow[/autotag] transferred in and went on to win 25 games, a national title, and a Heisman trophy.

For the first time in years, LSU had a game-changer at quarterback. The narrative was flipped.

Burrow left and even as LSU struggled as a team in 2020 and 2021, the passing attack did alright.

Then [autotag]Jayden Daniels[/autotag] arrived with [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] in 2022. All Daniels did was become one of the most dynamic players in the country, helping LSU upset Alabama in 2022 and winning a Heisman in 2023 with a historically productive season.

That brings us to the present, where LSU just got even richer at the QB position. QB [autotag]Bryce Underwood[/autotag], the top player in the 2025 class, committed to LSU last Saturday.

It’s the first time in this era LSU’s landed a quarterback like Underwood. LSU’s signed some legit blue-chips, including [autotag]Garrett Nussmeier[/autotag], but this is the first time LSU’s landed the guy. I’m talking about someone with the hype of Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields.

Five years ago, LSU wasn’t even competing for these types. The true five-star QBs were all going to Alabama and Clemson, places with a track record of legit offenses.

With Underwood’s pledge, LSU’s 2025 class includes the top quarterback, wide receiver and running back. When recruits think of LSU now, they think of offense.

With Nussmeier on deck for 2024, the trend should continue. Offensive coordinator [autotag]Mike Denbrock[/autotag] is gone, but LSU’s staff remains well-positioned with assistants [autotag]Joe Sloan[/autotag], [autotag]Cortez Hankton[/autotag], [autotag]Frank Wilson[/autotag] and [autotag]Brad Davis[/autotag].

That’s what Underwood is buying in on. Recruits now see a program that’s developed two Heisman quarterbacks in the last five years.

LSU is out of quarterback purgatory, and perhaps there’s no bigger signal of that than Underwood’s commitment.

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6 QBs Mike McCarthy has developed before Trey Lance

The Cowboys’ skipper has been in charge of offenses for the duration of the 2000s. How have his inexperienced QBs fared? | From
@KDDrummondNFL

Mike McCarthy might have inherited Dak Prescott as an entrenched starting quarterback, but he’s had a role in the development of several other quarterbacks who hadn’t yet ascended. The Dallas Cowboys have acquired third-year quarterback Trey Lance via a trade with the San Francisco 49ers and it’s a move that appears all upside, little risk for the Cowboys.

Lance comes with two years remaining on his rookie contract, and if he shows any semblance of development over the course of the season, Dallas has the ability to place the fifth-year option on him. Of course there’s a long way to go from a career QBR under 40 to that, but the head coach of the Cowboys has had some interesting results in developing quarterbacks since his early days as an offensive coordinator.

Lions history: Watching the ‘Matt Flynn game’ for the 1st time

Lions Wire’s Jeff Risdon had never seen the infamous “Matt Flynn game” until now and he shares his experience watching the dubious DET loss

Most Detroit Lions fans know exactly where they were on January 1st, 2012. That day was the final regular season game of the 2011 NFL season, a showdown between the Lions and the rival Green Bay Packers.

It’s commonly known as the Matt Flynn game. For many fans, it’s among the lowest points in a Lions history filled with too many to list.

I have a different memory of that day and game. Living in Houston at the time and knowing the Lions were in the playoffs win or lose, my wife and I opted to drive to northern Texas and treat our kids (then 6 and 3) to a trip on the Polar Express. I heard the first handful of drives in the car on the trip, but that was it.

It’s the only Lions game since 2003 that I haven’t watched in full. In fact, I’ve only ever seen a handful of highlights of the Matt Flynn game. Until today…

Honoring a commitment from the Detroit Lions Podcast annual fundraiser, I subjected myself to watching the Lions’ 45-41 loss in Green Bay to a fourth-year backup QB making just his second career start.

The game wasn’t difficult to find on YouTube. It was a lot more difficult to process as a Lions fan, even knowing full well going in what the final outcome would be.

Watching the game in retrospect made me realize why the game sits in such infamy with the Detroit faithful. Flynn starts out shaky, throwing wobblers on the first drive before getting strip-sacked by Sammie Lee Hill, with DeAndre Levy on the recovery by outhustling several Packers to the loose ball.

Matthew (then still often called Matt) Stafford quickly gets the Lions on the scoreboard with a strike to Titus Young in the front corner of the end zone. It’s a statement by a 10-5 Lions team trying to win in Green Bay for the first time in 20 years, and with the Packers defense resting Clay Matthews Jr. and Charles Woodson.

It gets even better. The Packers return man, Pat Lee, kneels down for a safety after he bobbled the ball outside of the end zone. It’s 9-0 Lions. I can only imagine the excitement coursing through Detroit fandom at this point. Coach Jim Schwartz is fired up and I am too!

Alas, Detroit’s offense sputters to a three-and-out. Green Bay answers with a deliberate 15-play drive where Flynn looked like he started to feel more comfortable. A stupid penalty by Ashlee Palmer on the Detroit punt helped set things up. A terrible spot on a third down in the Packers’ favor also helped.

Blood pressure rising, and not in a happy way.

The reckless young Stafford shows on the next drive and the Packers capitalize, turning a fumble into a touchdown. The Lions were in position to make an early kill shot, but instead give the opportunity away. Sort of a fitting allegory for the Schwartz era.

The Lions offense really sputtered in this stretch of the game. Another poor drive from Stafford, then a fumble, then a missed Jason Hanson field goal sandwiched around one impressive drive where Stafford and Calvin Johnson hook up for a nice TD. The opportunities were there, the execution was not.

While that’s going on, Flynn is heating up. Well, sort of. Cornerback Alphonso Smith made one good play, an interception to thwart a Packers drive. Mason Crosby matched Hanson’s miss, too.

There is controversy, of course. Schwartz is forced to burn his two coaching challenges on plays that are now automatically reviewed. It means this clear TD catch by Titus Young that was ruled incomplete on the field cannot be challenged.

That’s a touchdown, folks. Fox Sports broadcasters Thom Brenneman, Brian Billick and Mike Pereira all agree it’s a TD and that the rule (now changed) is ridiculous.

It’s halftime, 24-19 Packers. I’m pretty sure if I were watching this live, I’d be pretty pessimistic about the Lions chances here. Even with no Rodgers, no Randall Cobb or James Starks or Bryan Bulaga or Greg Jennings on Green Bay’s offense, the Packers are lighting up the Lions defense.

Second half

The second half is a weird hybrid of an offensive explosion, terrible defense from both sides and some really bad quarterback play from both Stafford and Flynn. The Packers dropped two should-be pick-sixes from Stafford. Flynn took a couple of bad sacks and missed a should-be touchdown of his own.

Yet both Stafford and Flynn also made some incredible throws. It’s a thrilling game, one that I now see why people recall it so vividly. I hadn’t watched a Lions game from this era in a while. They were top-heavy on the roster, but boy was that top-shelf talent full of promise— Stafford, Johnson, Suh, Tulloch, Kyle Vanden Bosch, Nate Burleson, even Brandon Pettigrew and Titus Young (two TDs with another two he should have had).

Watching this took me back to that time. I remember thinking Schwartz would be able to build off the promising season with the blossoming young talent. Give the defense some better health and a couple more pieces in the secondary and this was a Detroit team poised for perennial playoff berths. Alas, that didn’t happen.

I wonder how much the hangover of this game impacted the team. Had the Lions won, they would have played the New York Giants in the playoffs. Detroit’s loss sent them to New Orleans, where they got blasted by a veteran Saints team. Sure, the Giants wound up winning the Super Bowl that year, but the Lions matched up better against them than the Saints.

The next draft (2012) brought no help outside of tackle Riley Reiff, and the defense got much worse. Had they won this game, would they have had more confidence, more swagger, more of a purpose? Impossible to know but hard to not think how different the next couple of years might have turned out.

Watching the game also stripped away some of the lore of Flynn. Was he good? Yeah, sure. But he wasn’t this otherworldly passer that he’s been canonized by fans of both teams. Detroit’s secondary was suspect, to say the least. Two of the touchdowns could have been thrown by Daffy Duck.

I now have a better understanding of why the Packers let him walk, and why the Seahawks (who signed Flynn) smartly hedged their investment by also drafting Russell Wilson. Nothing at all against Flynn, who proved to be a pretty capable No. 2 for several years, but this game was one where the Lions controlled the fate of the game. An enigmatically talented but mistake-prone team gave Flynn his moment in the sun, err, snow.

It’s a game that will live forever in Lions infamy, and it should. Now that I’ve seen it, I know better why. The story is still a sad one, but the path to sadness is somehow different than what I expected.

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The best performance from every starting LSU quarterback this century

From Josh Booty to Jayden Daniels, here’s every LSU signal-caller from this century’s shining moment.

The story of LSU quarterback play this century has been something more resembling a Shakespeare play than a group of football players.

You have all the pieces for a great story. You have your superstar talents, like [autotag]Joe Burrow[/autotag] and [autotag]JaMarcus Russell[/autotag]. You have the guys that were late-round picks but still won titles, like [autotag]Matt Flynn[/autotag] and [autotag]Matt Mauck[/autotag].

You have [autotag]Jordan Jefferson[/autotag] and [autotag]Jarrett Lee[/autotag], two guys who won a lot but caught a lot of flack from fans. Don’t forget signal callers like [autotag]Zach Mettenberger[/autotag], [autotag]Danny Etling[/autotag] and [autotag]Jayden Daniels[/autotag] — veteran transfers who proved to be critical additions.

And that’s not even the end of it.

Here, we’re looking at the best game from every LSU starting quarterback this century. Let’s not waste any more time and jump right in, beginning in the year 2000.

COLUMN: When LSU meets Auburn, logic doesn’t apply

This rivalry has featured some wild finishes over the years.

October 8, 1988. Auburn traveled to Baton Rouge at 4-0 as one of the best teams in the country. LSU, led by [autotag]Tommy Hodson[/autotag] and [autotag]Tony Moss[/autotag], was 2-2 coming off two consecutive losses.

Down by six in the final minutes, Hodson found [autotag]Eddie Fuller[/autotag] in the back of the endzone to tie the game. As the story goes, Tiger Stadium lost its mind. The noise was so loud, that it registered on a nearby seismograph.

LSU won 7-6, and that has since become known as the “Earthquake Game.”

Almost a decade later in Jordan-Hare Stadium, there was “The Night The Barn Burned.” As a fire raged across the street, LSU beat No. 13 Auburn, 19-15.

Then there was 2005. LSU was ranked in the top 10 and hosting an Auburn team that was undefeated in conference play. Auburn took the lead late in the fourth, only for LSU to come back and tie it with a [autotag]Colt David[/autotag] field goal. The game went to overtime, and [autotag]JaMarcus Russell[/autotag] and LSU came out on top.

What about 2007? Much like 2005, Auburn took the lead late in Baton Rouge and LSU would once again need some last second heroics.

As the clock wound down, [autotag]Matt Flynn[/autotag] found [autotag]Demetrius Byrd[/autotag] in the corner of the endzone. It would go on to be one of the most important plays on LSU’s run to a national title.

We’ve had our fare share of stunners in recent years, too.

A trip to Jordan-Hare in 2016 would be the last one [autotag]Les Miles[/autotag] would make with LSU. A last second touchdown was called off, and Miles was fired the next day.

The following year, it was Ed Orgeron’s turn to take a stab at this rivalry. Auburn rolled into Tiger Stadium on a four game win streak.

LSU stumbled out of the gates, but a comeback highlighted by D.J. Chark’s punt return for a touchdown and Connor Culp’s go-ahead field goal gave Orgeron his first signature win.

The following year, now led by [autotag]Joe Burrow[/autotag], LSU went into Jordan-Hare and pulled off another comeback, capped off by [autotag]Cole Tracy[/autotag] putting one through the uprights as time expired.

When these teams get together, crazy things happen. The rules of logic don’t apply. The ground shakes, buildings burn, and coaches get fired.

No lead is ever safe, and the only certainty is chaos.

LSU isn’t Auburn’s biggest rival and Auburn isn’t LSU’s, but there’s been too many good games for this to not be one of the SEC’s best rivalries. It represents why we love this sport. Whether you’re at the stadium or watching on TV, you just might see something you’ve never seen before.

For better or worse, on and off the field, LSU and Auburn both never fail to entertain. The teams are slated to meet again this weekend. Bryan Harsin is fighting for his job on the plains as [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] is just getting started in Baton Rouge.

LSU looks like it’s heading in the right direction, and Auburn looks like its going all the wrong ways.

LSU should win this game. It’s almost a double-digit favorite and it’s hard to remember the last time Auburn was this bad. On Saturday, none of that matters, because nothing about this rivalry is normal.

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Former Tigers that won a National Championship and a Super Bowl

This is an exclusive list.

During the illustrious history of LSU football, 48 former Tigers players have had the opportunity to win a Super Bowl ring. With the Rams’ victory in Super Bowl LVI, two more players joined that list in Odell Beckham Jr. and Andrew Whitworth.

But Whitworth, who may have played his final game on Sunday, joins an even more exclusive list. He’s one of just 16 players in the entire history of the LSU program to win both a national title and a Super Bowl.

We break down each of the 16 former LSU Tigers to have won both a national championship and a Super Bowl, as we look back on their collegiate careers.

Former Seahawks QB Matt Flynn has the perfect response for Twitter troll

You can probably guess what happened next.

It’s generally not a good idea to go after professional athletes who make millions playing the games you watch from your couch every week on social media. One Twitter troll learned that lesson the hard way yesterday when he tried to dunk on former Seahawks quarterback Matt Flynn.

Long story short, Flynn signed a three-year, $19 million deal with Seattle in March of 2012. A few weeks later, the team picked Russell Wilson in the third round of the NFL draft. Wilson impressed coach Pete Carroll enough during the offseason to beat out Flynn for the QB1 job as a rookie – perhaps the boldest and most successful move of Carroll’s time with the team.

The rest is history – Flynn didn’t start once and appeared in three games with the Seahawks that season before he moved on to another team. He hasn’t played in the league since the 2014 campaign.

Flynn shared a joke about getting back into the game, presumably while he was watching the Saints’ fourth-string QB Ian Book implode on Monday Night Football.

That produced some clever replies from the peanut gallery, including this one that brought up his contract with Seattle.

You can probably guess what happened next.

Game over.

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PHOTOS: A look at LSU’s SEC Championship Game history

LSU has an all-time record of 5-1 in the SEC Championship Game, and a few of those wins have been followed by national championship victories.

LSU may not always be in the SEC Championship Game, but their historic trend bodes well for them when they do make an appearance. LSU is 5-1 all-time in the SEC Championship Game, which is good for the best winning percentage in the game among all SEC schools.

Three different coaches have claimed an SEC championship for LSU with Nick Saban, Les Miles, and Ed Orgeron. And on a few occasions, a victory in the SEC Championship Game has been followed up by a national championship.

Here is a look back through LSU’s history in the SEC Championship Game.