BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — LSU quarterback Myles Brennan has not been able to practice this week, placing his availability for Saturday’s game at No. 10 Florida in question, coach Ed Orgeron said Wednesday.
“He’s doubtful,” Orgeron said on the Southeastern Conference’s weekly coaches’ teleconference Wednesday. “Maybe by Friday he’ll come around. I think he’s going to practice toward the end of the week.”
Orgeron added that LSU “may have to” have a freshman quarterback — either Max Johnson or TJ Finley — make his first-career start on the road against the Gators.
“Max and T.J. both had great practices” this week, Orgeron said. “They are both equal right now. Both of those young men are doing a great job, and if we have to start one of them, we’re going to do it and I’m going to believe in them.”
LSU’s quarterback situation could become moot because of questions surrounding whether the game will be played this weekend. That depends on how Florida’s program comes through a recent spike in positive COVID-19 tests that led the program to announce it was pausing team activities on Tuesday. Coach Dan Mullen said the team was awaiting results from another round of testing on Wednesday and didn’t want to speculate on prospects for keeping Saturday’s game on schedule.
Orgeron said Brennan’s injury occurred when he kept the ball along the right sidelined and took a big upper-body hit from two Missouri defenders near the goal line late in the first quarter of last Saturday’s 45-41 loss to Mizzou. Brennan never came out of the game, however.
“He was pretty bruised up,” Orgeron said. “He went in at halftime. He was very sore. It was hard for him to rotate to throw the ball, but he went out in the second half and he didn’t blink, so I was very proud of him.”
As for Brennan’s backups, Johnson was a top recruit out of Georgia. His father is former NFL QB Brad Johnson, who won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Finley is from southeast Louisiana and was rated by recruiting analysts as the state’s top high school quarterback in 2019.
“Max is probably more of a runner a little bit. TJ has a strong arm,” Orgeron said. “Both of them are phenomenal young players.”
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