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I saw every LSU game last year and still the most impressive play by JaMarcus Russell was a pass he threw the other day at the team’s indoor practice facility on Skip Bertman Drive. It wasn’t for a game-winning touchdown or anything, but it gave a little insight into who this guy is and where his head is right about now.

So I’m with a 225 photographer who’s taking portraits of Russell. He is sitting on the artificial turf in the end zone when a football lands with a thud and rolls to him.

Jogging across midfield is a 10-year-old coach’s kid waving his arms in the air. “JaMarcus!” he yells out. Still seated, Russell scoops up the ball with one hand, smiles and, with his body still turned toward the camera, slings the ball sidearm 50 yards.

The spiral reaches the boy in stride but zooms straight through his arms and ricochets off the field. Buster Davis would have caught it. Russell just laughs and swivels back around to pose for more pictures.

It’s an amazing thing Russell has just done. A larger-than-life thing. And right then it’s clear—the LSU QB is larger than life. To survive the scrutiny they’ll face this fall, Russell, Ryan Perrilloux and Matt Flynn had better be.

You see, they are three young men standing firmly in the eye of a storm. Their battle to be LSU’s starting quarterback will dominate dinner conversations. It will make headlines. Businessmen will clash with college students across Internet message boards. E-mailed I-told-you-so’s will pinball from office to office on company time. Sports radio will crackle with invective and indignation. Some will ask questions that trigger Tiger fans’ deepest fears: Will Perrilloux bolt for another school? Is Death Valley big enough for all three of them?

Tiger football is big business in Louisiana, and more than anyone, these quarterbacks are the three people much of Baton Rouge is going to be fighting for, screaming at, arguing over, defending, denouncing, debating, idolizing, cheering and cursing at for the rest of the year. That’s a unique position for anyone to hold, but it is especially so for guys their age. Flynn just made 21 this summer, and Russell turns 21 later this month. Perrilloux is all of 19.

Their love for the game overshadows it. But from an outsider’s perspective, LSU football looks like an efficient and all-consuming job for them. Their practice shirts read “Toughness. Effort. Discipline. Finish.” I set out to write an in-depth personality profile on these three guys with barely a mention of the pigskin, but the reality is: For the next few years at least, their personalities are purple and gold.

“We are close, and there’s a little bit of hanging out,” Flynn says of the quarterbacks. “But a lot of times you’re so tired [after practice], you just want to go home and lay in bed.”

By physical necessity, most of their time off the field is down time. It’s visiting with family after home games. It’s po’ boys at Phil’s Oyster Bar and burgers at Walk-On’s. It’s weekend cookouts. It’s study hall. It’s Blockbuster movies. It’s lots and lots of PlayStation. At our interview Russell is counting down the days to the release of NCAA Football 2006 and the endless living room tournaments it will spawn among his video gaming teammates. >>

COOL CUSTOMER

On the sidelines at the indoor practice facility, the Mobile, Ala., native is a towering talker, a joker with a fortified, king-of-the-hill attitude brewing just below his breezy surface. His personality comes dangerously close to matching his giant arm. Russell is best of friends with senior receiver Dwayne Bowe—they caught Jay-Z and R. Kelly at the New Orleans Arena last year—but he says all three quarterbacks spend time together when larger groups of players hang out. Bowe walks up and asks if we publish a 305 magazine. Russell shakes his head. I sarcastically tell Bowe we’ll be franchising to his native Miami this fall.

Russell checks his cell phone frequently, and at one point, he hurries off to a stationary bike to answer a call. He returns to rag Perrilloux about the diamond stud earrings the redshirt freshman wears. He calls them “Lemonheads” with a ripcord giggle. Russell sports a similar pair, only they’re about twice the size. All Perrilloux can do is sheepishly grin and bear it. There is an intense quarterback war being waged, but their easy demeanor does not reflect it.

Former All-America defensive tackle Kyle Williams, now with the Buffalo Bills, spent two years playing with Russell and was Flynn’s roommate for the same stretch. He says Russell is one of the most talented guys he’s ever seen.

“One thing that I have never seen out of any players at LSU—and especially these guys—is the competition effect friendship off the field,” Williams says. “JaMarcus is no doubt the biggest personality among the three. He’s a lot of fun to be around and likes to have fun on and off the field.”

That’s good to hear because in televised close-ups, Russell often looks deadpan stone-faced regardless of the score. When LSU is down, coaches yelling and teammates spitting, Russell looks like he’s taking a walk in the park. When LSU is up, teammates smiling and waving to the cameras, Russell’s focus remains sharp on the field. He calls road games “business trips.”

“My high school coach always taught me to keep an even-keel about myself during games,” explains Russell. “I’m always thinking about ways to make something happen, or you know, I’ve been in games where they come back in the final play. You just never know.”

That coach, Bobby Parrish of Williamson High School, says he never had to teach Russell how to keep cool. Even in big games as a ninth grade starter, he showed no signs of getting rattled. The coach and star quarterback have remained close the last few years. Parrish says Russell has a massive competitive streak but a generous spirit. He regularly calls home to offer encouragement and advice to the younger players at his alma mater.

Last year during Hurricane Katrina, the quarterback housed 15 relatives—including family friend Fats Domino—in his small Baton Rouge apartment. “Without JaMarcus, it would have been even worse,” the rock ‘n’ roll legend told The Washington Post.

“I didn’t know who Fats was until I talked to my grandmother, and she ran it down to me,” Russell says. “Once we got through the weather, he played some songs for me, and wrote some songs too.”

IN LIKE FLYNN

It’s going to happen. Soon someone will ask you who you think LSU’s quarterback should be. As long as a starter throws the occasional interception, he is going to be questioned in the same breath as his bench-warming backup is praised as the team’s overlooked savior. But this quarterback derby is different. Last year, the backup was the Peach Bowl savior, to the tune of a 40-3 drumming of Miami, an unbelievable cap to a season dotted with close calls and heart attack finishes.

And the backup’s backup was a high school phenomenon and LSU’s most hyped prospect in the modern era. All this talent behind Russell, a sophomore starter who under a new coach led the Tigers to a 10-2 season before injuries sidelined him.

It sounds like the Tigers can’t go wrong, but as Russell returns from off-season wrist surgery and the players compete for the starting spot, Les Miles better get ready to be second-guessed by fans and analysts like never before.

Some are calling on the coach to employ a two-quarterback system like Tommy Hodson and Mickey Guidry in the late ‘80s. Under this scheme, Russell would be the starter, and Flynn would play the role of Guidry, who subbed for Hodson in the first series of the second and fourth quarters. This may be an effective compromise, but it’s also a pipe dream. Miles has publicly stated his dislike of quarterback rotations, and Hodson himself believes finding one field captain is ultimately best for the team.

“There’s always competition, but whether there’s tension depends on the guys competing for the job,” Hodson says. “Mickey and I got along, so it was never a problem. When I’ve been around them, JaMarcus and Matt get along well, too. Unfortunately for Matt, he’s played very well every time he’s gotten the chance. But he’s handled the situation with class.”

Flynn’s success in limited action has made him somewhat of a fan favorite. He’s one of the team’s most noticeable faces on campus.

“I don’t really think about that too much,” Flynn muses. “But it is nice that people recognize you and support you, and to know you’ve got fans behind you like that.”

Before moving to Baton Rouge, Flynn spent a lot of time deer and turkey hunting with his dad, an attorney in Tyler, Texas. Those excursions are on the backburner, but this year, they did manage a spring break fly-fishing trip to Durango, Colo.

It took Flynn about a year to get settled in to life in Baton Rouge, but he enjoys it more now that he’s living with some teammates in a house off-campus. He has especially warmed to Cajun cooking.

“I’m always hanging out with offensive linemen, so you know we find our way to restaurants one way or the other,” he says.

Flynn relaxes by playing golf with his blockers, usually Will Arnold, Brett Helms and Ryan Miller. His former links partner was golf fiend Kyle Williams.

“Matt is a dear friend, and a very hard worker,” Williams says. “He manages the offense a lot like another Matt [Mauck] I used to play with.”

Similar to his situation at LSU, Flynn had to compete with a more physically gifted classmate for the starting position at Robert E. Lee High School in Tyler. He earned the job and, in his senior season, led the Raiders to the semifinals with a broken left foot.

“He’s proof that you can get better out of hard work,” says his high school coach, Mike Owens. “To finish out the season with a broken foot—a normal human being wouldn’t have played.”

Flynn brought that tenacity to his role at LSU, and he unleashed it on the Miami defense during his first start in the Peach Bowl. Prior to that game, he had what he calls an “unproven confidence” in his ability to lead the Tiger offense. He says he worked hard in practice and prepared, so why shouldn’t he be ready?

“He’s got this laid-back confidence,” says his father, Alvin Flynn. “That’s just the way he’s always been. He doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve.”

THE HEALER

As for Perrilloux, he’s more outspoken.

“You’re going to pick a good picture, right? Y’all can mess with ‘em, right? Make sure my line’s right,” he says laughing and pointing to his hairline. “And for the photo with my diamonds in, y’all can put that sparkle.” His eyes flash, and a crease of a smile opens across the width of his face.

He’s joking, of course.

The thing is, he said some things in the press just after signing with LSU in February 2005 that came off as arrogant and insensitive to his future teammates.

Perrilloux has barely spoken to the media since, and to this day he remains guarded.

Literally.

An extra representative from the Sports Information Office seems to have been dispatched with the specific mission to keep me from saying anything much more than “hello” to No. 11 while we photograph him. I’m reminded of this restriction twice in a 15-minute span. Miles has not cleared Perrilloux for any interviews since the day he stepped on campus. “Ryan overextended himself,” Kyle Williams says flatly. Whatever. Russell and Flynn both seem to have gotten over it.

After a few minutes of small talk, I can’t believe this is the same guy who sounded so cavalier a year-and-a-half ago. It probably isn’t. Larry Dauterive, Perrilloux’s coach at East St. John, says the redshirt season really humbled the quarterback.

“We’re here in the middle of the Gaza strip in Reserve, and nobody knew who we were until Ryan came along,” Dauterive says. “He was always the star, and he had to do everything.”

By everything, he means Perrilloux rushing for 3,684 yards and 71 touchdowns, and throwing for 9,015 yards and 84 touchdowns on his way to attracting 80 scholarship offers.

“A certain amount of selfishness set in,” Dauterive says. “Last season was hard for him, but he’s a great kid. He learned patience.”

Dauterive, who coached Doug Flutie in the Canadian Football League, says Perrilloux has more talent than any player he’s been around.

With so much hype surrounding Perrilloux, the question is whether fans will be patient as well. Such lofty expectations could be seen as a no-win situation for the untested QB and the coaching staff.

“Russell and Flynn are proven—Ryan is not,” Dauterive says. “But he will prove himself. Once he gets on the field, it’s going to be hard for anyone else to get back in there.”

It hasn’t all been easy for Perrilloux. At 14, he crept around the side of his house to play a prank on his sister who was coming home after the movies. As he snuck up on her, her sister’s companion in the car mistook Perrilloux for an assailant and shot him. The bullet struck him in the chest, puncturing both lungs, his liver and coming within an inch of his heart. After three weeks, he was released from the hospital, and three months later, he was playing AAU basketball. He promptly blew out his ACL on the court but rehabbed quickly for a stellar three-sport high school career.

“The guy’s a freak, physically speaking,” says Dauterive. “He has amazing healing powers.”

JaMarcus Russell. Matt Flynn. Ryan Perrilloux. Seeing them together, posing for photos, teasing each other, then darting back onto the practice field eager just to hum that ball into a receiver’s cradle, it’s easy to see why there is such a white-hot spotlight on these guys. They are players of staggering potential whose off-the-field personalities are as different from each other as their on-the-field talents.

But as intriguing as their differences are, it’s the similarities that will keep them together, keep them competing. Each has a seemingly unshakable confidence in his own abilities and experience in overcoming obstacles on and off the field.

In the simplest terms, this means none of them will be transferring. It doesn’t matter what rumors and speculations fly across the talk radio dial, each player is committed to LSU, and none will wear a college jersey that isn’t purple and gold. They love a good fight too much. And they can handle plenty of pressure in the pocket.