Thursday, January 11, 2007

Russell Fowles Named LSu Athletes of the Week

Quarterback JaMarcus Russell and Lady Tiger center Sylvia Fowles were named the LSU Male and Female Athletes of the Week Tuesday following a vote by a local media panel.
Russell was a unanimous selection for MVP of the 2007 Allstate Sugar Bowl after guiding the Tigers to a 41-14 dismantling of Notre Dame last week. The junior from Mobile, Ala., completed 21-of-34 passes for a career-high 332 yards, while passing for two touchdowns and running for a third.
With his performance Russell set the LSU single season records for completions (232) and completion percentage (67.8) and tied the single season record for touchdown passes (28).
Fowles, a native of Miami, Fla., led LSU to a pair of come-from-behind victories over South Florida and 15th-ranked Georgia last week. Against the Bulls, Fowles scored 15 points and grabbed a season-high 16 rebounds. She followed that with 12 rebounds and 20 points on 10-of-14 shooting against the Lady Bulldogs.
Fowles has now turned in three straight double-double performances. She has also collected a total of nine on the season and 44 for her career.

2 comments:

Nurse Jones said...

here's Wikipedia, on Russell:

Freshman season
Russell was redshirted during the 2003 season, when quarterback Matt Mauck led LSU to the BCS National Championship. In 2004, he split time with senior quarterback Marcus Randall, playing in 11 games and starting 4. He completed just over 50 percent of his passes for 1,053 yards, throwing for 9 touchdowns and 4 interceptions.

His most memorable game of the season was the 2004 Capital One Bowl against Iowa. Coming off the bench. Russell led LSU to two fourth-quarter scoring drives, allowing the Tigers to erase a 12 point deficit. However, on the final play of the game, Iowa quarterback Drew Tate completed a touchdown pass to Warren Holloway to beat the Tigers 30-25.


Sophomore season
By the fall 2005 season, Russell was the undisputed starting quarterback for LSU. He led LSU to a 10-1 regular season record, the SEC Western Division title, and a top-5 ranking going into the SEC Championship Game. He also improved statistically, completing 60 percent of his passes for 2,443 yards and 15 touchdowns. Russell received an honorable mention on the AP's All-SEC Team.

Russell led the Tigers to two dramatic come-from-behind wins in the regular season. The first came on a 39 yard pass to Early Doucet on 4th down in the final minute of the game, as the Tigers defeated Arizona State 35-31. Later in the season, LSU defeated a then-undefeated Alabama team 16-13 when Russell completed a 14 yard touchdown to Dwayne Bowe in overtime for the win.

Russell injured his shoulder in a loss to Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, and missed the team's bowl game. Backup quarterback Matt Flynn replaced Russell for the Peach Bowl against Miami, and the Tigers won the game 40-3.

Russell also received some acclaim for his assistance efforts after Hurricane Katrina. After the hurricane and flood, Russell is reported to have housed around 20 people in his apartment, including legendary New Orleans singer Fats Domino, who had been rescued by boat during the flood.[1]


Junior season
Russell was the starting quarterback again at LSU in 2006, beating out backup Matt Flynn and highly-touted redshirt freshman Ryan Perriloux. He had a very productive 2006 regular season, leading the Tigers to a 10-2 record and a BCS Sugar Bowl berth. He threw for 2,797 yards, 26 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. He was also second in the SEC with 2,923 yards from scrimmage. He also won the SEC Offensive Player of the Week award three times during the regular season.

His most memorable performance of the 2006 season came against Tennessee. In spite of throwing three interceptions (including one returned for a touchdown), he led LSU on a come-from-behind, 15-play, 80-yard drive in the final minutes of the game. The drive ended with a four-yard touchdown pass to Early Doucet with less than 10 seconds left in the game, and the Tigers defeated Tennessee 28-24. Earlier in the drive, Russell and Doucet also connected for a first down on a 4th and 8 situation.

At the end of the 2006 season, Russell was named to the all-SEC first team, ahead of Kentucky's Andre Woodson and Florida's Chris Leak. In addition, he was named an honorable mention All-American by Sports Illustrated's website, SI.com.

JaMarcus is currently garnering a ton of attention from the NFL. As of 2007-01-08 ESPN and FOX Sports are reporting that he is expected to forego his senior season and enter the NFL Draft, people close to him are saying he has not yet decided on his future.[1] [2]

According to Chris Landry, who has well-known ratings system for future talent in the NFL, JaMarcus has rating of 7.2. According to that, it would classify him as player with superstar potential at the next level.

In the final game of his junior year, the Allstate Sugar Bowl, Russell accounted for a total of 334 yards and 3TDs leading to the Tigers 41-14 win over Notre Dame. He was also named the Allstate Sugar Bowl's MVP.

On January 10, 2007, Russell decided to skip his final season of NCAA eligibility and enter the 2007 NFL Draft, where he is expected to be a first round pick, and possibly compete with Brady Quinn and others for the No. 1 overall selection.

Duke Eversmeyer said...

Pretty accurate representation of his LSU Career. What it doesn't say is that the FAn's really did't have much respect for him until this year when he really came into his own. We'll surely miss him