The John David Booty Situation

There's been a whole lot of talk about the JD Booty situation since his father was relieved of his duties at Evangel Christian High. So I decided to tie together everything we know and give my opinion.

First of all, Booty is 18, not 19, as was reported in the Los Angeles Times. (Shocker that the Times got something wrong.) The reason that he is so old for being a junior is that Louisiana used to have a rule where you could hold people back for athletic purposes, basically, so that a kid could be one year older and therefore more physically mature. Louisiana's high school athletic association has seen banned that practice, but JD Booty was in the last class of kids to take advantage of it. He was also able to get ahead academically by taking tons of course work and studying during the summers, all with the purpose of graduating early so that he could concentrate on football his senior year and so that he could enroll in the spring at the college of his choice. When the situation of the firing came up, this course of action has put JD in the position that he is now where he can decide to go to SC, and I don't think there will be any obstacles. He's the age of a kid who would be a senior anywhere else, and his coursework is just about done. I'm not sure if he's taken the SAT, but my guess is that someone who graduates early will easily pass the SAT, and you don't see many QBs who have SAT problems, for whatever reason.

My guess is that he will be at SC in the fall. His father seems to think that he is exploring the option because he wants to do it. The quotes in the Daily News tell the story. If there's a scholarship available (and my guess has been for a while that Manual Wright would never don a Trojan uniform), he'll be here in July.

Now the question: should he make the jump? I couldn't tell you if he's mentally mature enough to make the jump, but my guess is that someone that finishes his coursework so quickly is ready. He's definitely as physically ready as any 18 year old freshman to be. This would eliminate the stress of any possible decommit. Here's the thing. It's only worthwhile if he plays this year, so the coaches should be ready to tell him to wait if they don't think he can. It's hard to imagine him being able to pick up the offense and get enough snaps with three or four guys in front of him to get the start at Auburn, but I could see a scenario where they give him a chance early to shine in camp, and continue to give him more snaps as practice rolls on, hoping to get him to the #2 QB spot. From there, a struggle by the starter or an injury puts him into the picture. These coaches have shown that they do not like to redshirt guys, even if that means only playing them a little. Hershel Dennis, Brandon Hancock, Justin Wyatt, Dominique Byrd, Oscar Lua, LaJuan Ramsey, Dallas Sartz, and Mike Ross were all guys that could have redshirted, but the coaches felt they were good enough to contribute right away, even in only situational circumstances. Carroll has said with every single class that he has recruited that he didn't plan on redshirting anyone. I don't think that stance will change. Don't be surprised if Josh comes in and plays this season.

He has to play for it to make sense though. If he didn't play this year, he would burn his redshirt. That would not be a problem if he came in in the spring. He would have the whole spring to learn the offense, and could give it a go for the starting job in the fall. The downside is that right now, no one has established themselves. By this time next season, one of these guys will have had a bulk of the playing time, making it tougher for him to win the job right out of the blocks. If Leinart won the job, Booty would like not get a shot to play until he was a redshirt sophomore, and I'm not sure he wants to wait that long.

Personally, I think it's best for the program for Josh to wait until the spring, but you can't deny a kid if he wants to take a shot. I would characterize my opinion as one of him waiting, but I wouldn't be averse to seeing him on the practice field this fall. It's an intriguing thought.

In a couple of weeks, I'll have my weekly in-depth articles on our 2003 opponents. I'm looking forward to giving everyone an early idea on these teams.

Comments, questions, or info? Contact me at tvenegas@msn.com.