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December 21, 2007

Checking in from Jacksonville

JaMarcus Russell won’t start, which isn’t surprising.

What will be interesting to see is if Lane Kiffin expands the playbook for the rookie quarterback on Sunday against Jacksonville.

It’s not important Russell starts if he’s not going to play the whole game. But he needs meaningful snaps. Not just handing off to running backs and passing on third downs.

Kiffin doesn’t seem comfortable in the role of playing Russell when trying to win games. That’s why he wanted to play Russell a lot in the preseason.

Kiffin is obsessed with winning – which I’m not knocking.

But the big picture might mean losing a couple of games late in a season that doesn’t include the playoffs to build for the future.

So let Russell do more this time around. He’s bound to mess up, but that’s OK.

Better that at the end of a four-win season than next season. Might as well get some of the lumps out of the way now.

--Jason Jones

Posted by Ahmed Ortiz at 8:00 PM | Comments |