LSU Football: The area where Myles Brennan still has some work to do to become elite

LSU football will hand the offense over to quarterback Myles Brennan in 2020.

After experiencing the highest of highs with Joe Burrow in 2019, LSU football will hand the offense over to redshirt junior quarterback Myles Brennan in 2020.

While there will obviously be some dropoff from Burrow to Brennan (that’s not a dig at Brennan, Burrow might be the best college quarterback of all time), the Tigers are still expecting big things from Brennan.

“Everybody believes in Myles. He’s very vocal out there. He’s a totally different kid. He knows the offense, has a very strong arm,” said Tigers head coach Ed Orgeron last month (via USA Today).

Brennan, a former four-star recruit who was rated as the No. 6 pro-style quarterback in the nation in the 2017 recruiting class, has the potential to do great things in Baton Rouge.

But the Mississippi native still has some work to do before he can become an elite signal-caller.

LSU football’s Myles Brennan still has some work to do

Brennan has only thrown 70 passes during his first three seasons as a Tiger. And most of that action came in “garbage time”.

As a result, Brennan doesn’t have much experience in tense, high-pressure situations.

And that’s an area where he’ll need some improvement.

Coach O said this week that Brennan’s pocket awareness has been good. The reads, however, need some work.

Orgeron pointed out that Brennan needs to get better at reading defenses and not locking onto receivers (via Brody Miller).

This isn’t really a surprise. It’s nearly impossible to simulate SEC game-action in practice. Brennan has never been “the guy”, so it’s going to take him a bit to get comfortable in that role.

As confident as Burrow was as a quarterback at LSU, it took him some time, too.

Burrow found his way as a starter in 2018, completing 57 percent of his passes for 2,894 yards. That’s a great first season as a starter, but it paled in comparison to what Burrow accomplished in 2019.

I’m not saying we’ll see a Burrow-like leap from Brennan from 2020 to 2021. But I think we’ll see Brennan experience some ups-and-downs in 2020 before coming into his own in 2021.

Brennan has the talent to be special. He has the talent to be an early-round NFL draft pick. He just has to put the work in and trust that he’ll get better with more reps at LSU.

Based on what we know about Brennan and his toughness, I’m confident we’ll see him develop into one of the better quarterbacks in the SEC.