Tulane freshman quarterback Tanner Lee is almost back to starting form as he lead the first-team offense in Wednesday’s practice, according to NOLA.com.
Lee bruised his shoulder in the team’s Week 5 loss at Rutgers, causing him to miss the next two games against AAC opponents UConn and UCF. Off-and-on 2013 starter Nick Montana moved his way past backup Devin Powell to cease the starting job in Lee’s absence.
Ironically, Montana injured his shoulder in last week’s 20-13 loss at UCF, but with the Green Wave fortunately on a bye, he has two full weeks to recover. When Montana, a senior, recovers, is another quarterback controversy brewing? Will Montana be forced to relinquish the starting job to a freshman quarterback who tossed eight interceptions in the first four games?
The clear end-all answers: no to No. 1, yes to No. 2.
No matter how experienced Montana is, or how talented his bloodline runs (I mean, he is Joe’s son), he’s not the long-term answer at quarterback for the Green Wave. Lee is.
Tulane head coach Curtis Johnson’s comments about Lee’s improvement, both from his injury and as a passer, during Wednesday’s practice suggests Johnson is leaning towards handing the starting role back to Lee — barring no more health issues.
“His pitch count is up as you can see,” Johnson said. “We started a little bit later and he didn’t throw as much as I wanted him to throw but he looked good, looked awesome.”
Despite being forced to take a backseat to a teammate he clearly beat out in Spring practice prior to the season, Lee took his time on the sideline in the last two games to learn from the more experienced Montana.
“I’ve learned a lot from how Nick approaches games,” Lee said. “He doesn’t get hit often, and he gets rid of the ball. He helps me out a lot with that kind of stuff and what he sees because he’s been through it all.”
While the starting quarterback through the first five games, Lee completed a pedestrian 49.3 percent of his passes to go along with his eight interceptions. But the redshirt freshman also looked far from average, throwing for 914 yards and nine touchdowns.
Lee is Tulane’s QB of the future. Montana is the has-been who’s trying to go out on top.
If the trajectory of the Green Wave’s season was riding positive momentum and not a 2-5 fall, perhaps Montana would be given the benefit of the doubt as the more experienced quarterback. Johnson’s growing praise of the younger Lee at Wednesday’s practice make it seem likely Lee is the first-string quarterback the rest of the way.
“I just like the way he’s early (on throws), he’s accurate. A couple throws (Wednesday) weren’t what we wanted them to be but he’s very, very accurate and he’s throwing it hard,” Johnson said.
Going off Johnson’s previous handling of the media, he probably won’t officially name Lee the starter until sometime next week.
At least one thing is clear: the Green Wave DO NOT have a quarterback controversy.
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