Make it.....Take it

[JayWalker]

Levi has his advocates (I'm one of them). Levi has his detractors (some of whom will never give him credit no matter what).

We've said "all he does is win."

Let me tell you what winners do.

Levi Lewis has started 28 games under Billy Napier.

The Cajuns have scored on their final possession of the first half 22 times.

And, the Cajuns have played make it, take it (score on last possession of the first half and first possession of the second half.) on TEN of those instances.

I can guarantee you, you'll be able to count the number of teams that have done that over the last 2+ seasons on one hand.

Scoring right before halftime or coming out in the third quarter and establishing yourself demoralizes your opponent and wins you football games.

Levi Lewis is better at that than any quarterback in Cajuns' history.

Yeah, you have to have good play calls. But you have to have someone to execute the plays.

[fanof71]

Let's hope that shuts up the low football IQ LL haters on this board. Thank you for posting Jay....

[JayWalker]

Let's hope that shuts up the low football IQ LL haters on this board. Thank you for posting Jay....

It won't. They'll just say "Oh yeah, whatabout......"

[LouisianaB]

Winning football games is all about the middle 8.

[Cajunrunner]

I understand the frustrations at times with Levi, and sometimes I find myself frustrated as well with some of the plays, but then I look at it with:

1 - Understanding that if he zero glaring flaws, he likely would be playing ball in the SEC, etc.

2 - The guy many times had made up for missed or overmatched pass protection by getting out of sacks in ways I haven't seen previous Cajuns QBs do.

3 - Levi Lewis is a model leader, especially by example and the way he carries himself. It is obvious the locker room and coaches are both sold on him being the leader of their offense. A big part of what you need as success for a team is buy-in, and it certainly appears his teammates have bought in to him.

Levi Lewis is the leader of this offense once more season, and I'm 100% behind it.

[RaginDave]

Levi has his advocates (I'm one of them). Levi has his detractors (some of whom will never give him credit no matter what).

We've said "all he does is win."

Let me tell you what winners do.

Levi Lewis has started 28 games under Billy Napier.

The Cajuns have scored on their final possession of the first half 22 times.

And, the Cajuns have played make it, take it (score on last possession of the first half and first possession of the second half.) on TEN of those instances.

I can guarantee you, you'll be able to count the number of teams that have done that over the last 2+ seasons on one hand.

Scoring right before halftime or coming out in the third quarter and establishing yourself demoralizes your opponent and wins you football games.

Levi Lewis is better at that than any quarterback in Cajuns' history.

Yeah, you have to have good play calls. But you have to have someone to execute the plays.

I agree with this statement 100%. I am a Levi fan, as I have said before the season started, I would probably take Levi over any quarterback not named Grayson McCall in this conference. Now that was before Chase Brice entered the league, but an argument could be made for any of those 3 over everyone else in the Conference, their could also be an argument for Jake Bentley at USA (but his is a small sample size). Let me ask you this, would:

* Georgia State take Levi, the just benched their starting QB
* ULM take Levi, they have benched their expected starting QB
* Georgia Southern take Levi, they had a QB on academic suspension and have been playing a RB and WR at QB.
* Texas State take Levi, this is a good question, the talent of McBride is not argued, decision making is and his decision making is much worse than Levi's.
* Arkansas State take Levi, they are running a 2 QB system, which in other words means they don't have 1 QB.
* Troy take Levi, another interesting one, the numbers for Levi and Taylor Powell are almost identical. Levi is 68 of 102 for 798 yards 4 TD's and 1 INT, Taylor is 62 of 91 5 TDs and 2 INT's, but Levi is 10 times the runner that Taylor is.

So to me the only QB's in the SBC that are arguably in the same conversation as Levi are a guy who burst on the scene last year as a superstar in McCall, a transfer from Duke, who started his career at Clemson and competed for a starting job with Trevor Lawrence in Brice and possibly a transfer from Utah in Bentley.

Better question is how many teams from the MAC, CUSA, MWC, G5 independents and AAC would take Levi over their current starter at QB. I would venture to guess that number would be somewhere around 75% would take him over what they currently have.

MTSU just had their starting QB enter the transfer portal who was a NC State transfer.

The Make it, take it deal is impressive. Napier and Levi make a great combination on this, it seems to happen over and over again.

[fanof71]

So, in the words of Scott, whatever the last name is, big headed cartoon character...but, but, but...he's a 5th year Sr and the 4th Best QB in the SunBelt...

[CrazyCajun]

I think people forget that the majority of the time Levi does exactly what is being asked of him. How many times have people asked “ why don’t the Saints run the 2 minute offense all the time?” And that’s with a HOF’er...maybe those 2 guys are so good at the 2 minute bc they have more leeway to do their own thing in the 2 minute offense...just a thought

[CajunVic]

We can talk until we are blue in the face about "other team's QB's" but we don't have any of those QB's on Louisiana's team, so the talk is basically a useless red herring.

I should quit saying that "all he does is win" because it is obvious that he does a hell of a lot more than that.

Sorry to have been shorting him all these years.

[Turbine]

We've said "all he does is win."

Let me tell you what winners do.

Levi Lewis has started 28 games under Billy Napier.

The Cajuns have scored on their final possession of the first half 22 times.

And, the Cajuns have played make it, take it (score on last possession of the first half and first possession of the second half.) on TEN of those instances.

I can guarantee you, you'll be able to count the number of teams that have done that over the last 2+ seasons on one hand.

Scoring right before halftime or coming out in the third quarter and establishing yourself demoralizes your opponent and wins you football games.

Levi Lewis is better at that than any quarterback in Cajuns' history.

Yeah, you have to have good play calls. But you have to have someone to execute the plays.

Oh yeah, whatabout a cool time to be a Ragin' Cajun fan.

Leviathan of The Swamp.

[Scott Malkinson]

So, in the words of Scott, whatever the last name is, big headed cartoon character...but, but, but...he's a 5th year Sr and the 4th Best QB in the SunBelt...

I see you have chosen violence today. Winning stats is for coaching not QB. He is the most senior QB is the leauge and is rated 4th in QBR & EPA. Also that last drive before half Montrell has 54 yards and a td Lewis 25 yards total...yes all hail LL greatest QB ever.

Against Nicholls we went cold midway through the second quater did not score another offensive TD.

Texas we had 1 first half 3rd down conversion and not another until the end of the 3rd


I'm Scott Malkinson and I have diabetes

[ManAboutTown]

Jay your post brings up a good point. Stats like that usually don’t make the paper.

As is almost always true, the most polarizing topics are topics that have opposing sides with equally legitimate gripes. Pro-Levi Coalition (We’ll call them PLC) can’t stand when the Anti-Levi Coalition (ALC, obvi) points out his flaws and vice-versa.

Both the PLC and the ALC are correct; and they’re both wrong, at the same time. We somehow have arrived at a place where even discussing his play on the field (no anything else, including LL the person) has become taboo. But I’m a fan, like the rest of you. QB happens to be an important part of our success or failure. I think most his detractors are just describing what they see on the field and projecting forward with regard to how we’ll be able to perform against upper echelon teams in our schedule. Very rarely, if ever, do I see anyone from the ALC or otherwise speak negatively about LL the human. (Which again, makes me even more perplexed as to why people take this so personally.)

The PLC are usually people that have been through some dark days of Cajun football and appreciate even having a capable QB leading this program.

When it’s all over, Levi will rewrite our history books. And that’s a wonderful thing. But the PLC needs to understand that most football fans (the ones that attend games, keep the conversation going, buy concessions and apparel, pay to park, give to private funding arms) really care about what’s next and what can we accomplish. That’s what really drives the football crazy fans. And within that context, watching the games based on process and not result, you can see why people question Levi’s decisions. Billy’s plan. The offense as a whole. It is very baffling at times.

[RaginDave]

Jay your post brings up a good point. Stats like that usually don’t make the paper.

As is almost always true, the most polarizing topics are topics that have opposing sides with equally legitimate gripes. Pro-Levi Coalition (We’ll call them PLC) can’t stand when the Anti-Levi Coalition (ALC, obvi) points out his flaws and vice-versa.

Both the PLC and the ALC are correct; and they’re both wrong, at the same time. We somehow have arrived at a place where even discussing his play on the field (no anything else, including LL the person) has become taboo. But I’m a fan, like the rest of you. QB happens to be an important part of our success or failure. I think most his detractors are just describing what they see on the field and projecting forward with regard to how we’ll be able to perform against upper echelon teams in our schedule. Very rarely, if ever, do I see anyone from the ALC or otherwise speak negatively about LL the human. (Which again, makes me even more perplexed as to why people take this so personally.)

The PLC are usually people that have been through some dark days of Cajun football and appreciate even having a capable QB leading this program.

When it’s all over, Levi will rewrite our history books. And that’s a wonderful thing. But the PLC needs to understand that most football fans (the ones that attend games, keep the conversation going, buy concessions and apparel, pay to park, give to private funding arms) really care about what’s next and what can we accomplish. That’s what really drives the football crazy fans. And within that context, watching the games based on process and not result, you can see why people question Levi’s decisions. Billy’s plan. The offense as a whole. It is very baffling at times.

As I said, I am in the PLC group, but can understand some of the frustration with the QB play/offense at times. My point is just it can always be worse and we can see worse very close to us in our own conference. Levi plays nearly every offensive snap of every football game and traditionally makes 1 or 2 mistakes, that is to be expected. The only 2 "mistakes" vs Ohio that I saw after rewatching the game was the intention grounding and then the interception. The unfortunate thin is that those were glaring mistakes. I know people want to see Levi throw more down the field or even slant routes over the middle and that argument can be made.

But Napier is playing to Levi's strength and that is getting him outside the pocket and throwing on the move. Levi does throw a very nice deep ball, where I think Levi struggles is making the decision when he is under pressure to throw or run and he needs to make the decision to run more often then trying to force something. He did not see the Ohio player when he threw the interception, he saw an open receiver and missed the Ohio guy that was sitting in the zone waiting to make a play.

[HoustonCajun]

But Napier is playing to Levi's strength and that is getting him outside the pocket and throwing on the move. Levi does throw a very nice deep ball, where I think Levi struggles is making the decision when he is under pressure to throw or run and he needs to make the decision to run more often then trying to force something. He did not see the Ohio player when he threw the interception, he saw an open receiver and missed the Ohio guy that was sitting in the zone waiting to make a play.

And that is the concern, at least for me. Napier didn't play to Levi's strength vs. Texas. Had he done that against Texas, no telling how the game would have ended. Yet, he just sat in the pocket and couldn't find receivers down field. When he gets outside the pocket and throwing on the move or running, he is at his best and we win, a lot.

[RaginDave]

But Napier is playing to Levi's strength and that is getting him outside the pocket and throwing on the move. Levi does throw a very nice deep ball, where I think Levi struggles is making the decision when he is under pressure to throw or run and he needs to make the decision to run more often then trying to force something. He did not see the Ohio player when he threw the interception, he saw an open receiver and missed the Ohio guy that was sitting in the zone waiting to make a play.

And that is the concern, at least for me. Napier didn't play to Levi's strength vs. Texas. Had he done that against Texas, no telling how the game would have ended. Yet, he just sat in the pocket and couldn't find receivers down field. When he gets outside the pocket and throwing on the move or running, he is at his best and we win, a lot.

agreed to all points.