blacksaint

Perrilloux threw for 298 yards and three touchdowns

Sept. 15, 2007

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -Ryan Perrilloux looked nothing like a backup quarterback in his first career start for LSU.

Perrilloux threw for 298 yards and three touchdowns to lead No. 2 LSU to a 44-0 victory over Middle Tennessee on Saturday night.

With a Southeastern Conference showdown against Steve Spurrier's No. 17 South Carolina squad looming next weekend, LSU coach Les Miles decided to rest regular starter Matt Flynn, who had sprained his right ankle a week earlier and whose participation in practice had been limited since.

Oddsmakers had LSU (3-0) favored by a little more than five touchdowns over the Blue Raiders (0-3), and the Tigers had no trouble meeting such lofty expectations with Perrilloux behind center.

It was 44-0 in the third quarter.

Perrilloux was widely considered the most sought-after quarterback recruit in the country when he played at East St. John high school in southeast Louisiana.

In his senior season in high school, Perrilloux passed for 3,546 yards and 30 touchdowns and ran for 1,460 yards and 37 touchdowns. He was USA Today's high school player of the year.

But what promised to be a glittering college career with his home state Tigers took a dark turn during the past year.

First, he was named a person of interest in a federal counterfeiting investigation. He was never named as a suspect, but just as he seemed to be emerging unscathed from that probe, the 20-year-old redshirt sophomore jeopardized his spot on the team when he was arrested for trying to get into a Baton Rouge riverboat casino using his older brother's license.

Miles suspended Perrilloux, but reinstated him in time for preseason practice.

In LSU's first two games, both blowouts, Perrilloux made the most of his mop-up duty, throwing for three scores and rushing for another. Against the Blue Raiders, he likely established himself as LSU's quarterback of the future.

Throwing hard and accurately, he completed 20 of 25 passes while putting his all-around ability on display with 37 yards rushing.

Perhaps Perrilloux's best display of athleticism came on an incompletion in the closing seconds of the first half. With the Blue Raiders on a rush into the backfield, Perrilloux slithered and spun out of the grasp of four defenders while twice changing the hands with the ball, then threw it away just before getting leveled.

Avoiding the sack allowed Colt David to set up for a 26-yard field goal as time expired, sending the Tigers into halftime with a 23-0 lead.

By contrast, Middle Tennessee's offense, which put up 42 points against Louisville, struggled to make first downs against the Tigers, finishing with only 166 total yards in LSU's second shutout of the season.

CSTV.com: NCAA Division 1 Teams

saint4life
(504)