With Lee sidelined, Matthews ready to take helm for Southern

By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN, Advocate sportswriter

There will be no safety net for Southern quarterback Warren Matthews on Saturday.

Last Saturday, Matthews knew all week he was going to start the Jackson State game. But he also knew the team’s No. 1 quarterback, Bryant Lee, had warmed up well and was ready to go on a sore right ankle that caused him to miss the major work days of game-week practice. With Lee’s ankle dramatically worse, Matthews will be on his own this Saturday.

“I feel comfortable with him,” offensive coordinator Mark Orlando said. “We’re not going to shut anything down of what we’re doing. We’ll keep rolling with what we’ve been doing.

“He’s excited about it. He’s enthused. He’s got a great attitude. He works hard.”

Southern (5-2, 3-2 Southwestern Athletic Conference) hosts Alcorn State (1-5, 1-4) at 3 p.m. Saturday in A.W. Mumford Stadium.

Matthews, who was redshirted and did not play last season after being out of football as a nonqualifier in 2005, is 6-for-12 for 83 yards and one touchdown.

Lee is 144-for-223 for 1,585 yards, 15 touchdowns and three interceptions this season.

“I know the offense and everything,” Matthews said. “It’s just a matter of execution.

“We’re just going to try to get the timing down.”

Matthews likely will be without senior wide receiver Gerard Landry (409 yards, eight touchdowns) but should have Del Roberts (279 yards, one touchdown).

Landry went out in the third quarter with a high ankle sprain. Roberts (back) missed all of the Jackson State loss and most of the Alabama A&M loss.

Junior C.J. Byrd, who missed most of preseason camp after being in a car accident in late July, will back Matthews.

Byrd started four games last season. He was 32-for-52 for 389 yards, three touchdowns and six interceptions. He also ran for 155 yards and four TDs.

“C.J. is going to have to get ready, because I think there are some things he can do,” Orlando said.

Matthews is a physically imposing 6-foot-3, 230 pounds, with the strongest arm on the team. Byrd is 5-11, 170. Lee is 6-2, 195.

Photo: QB Warren Matthews, RS Soph., New Orleans, LA/Warren Easton H.S., 6-3/230.

“As far as knowing what we’re doing, he knows it, because, Lord, he’s had a ton of reps at it,” Orlando said. “I feel comfortable with the entire system with him.”

Last month, fifth-year senior J.C. Lewis, the No. 1 quarterback the previous two seasons, left the team after not seeing any action in the first two games.

Redshirt freshman Gary Hollimon is third on the depth chart.

Though the decision on who would be SU’s No. 1 quarterback was expected to be between Lee and Lewis, Matthews’ dramatic improvement in the spring changed all that.

Lee, SU’s starter at the end of last season, eventually outdueled Matthews in preseason camp. But the work Matthews, from Warren Easton High in New Orleans, put in during the spring and summer left an impression on coaches.

“Warren worked hard,” Orlando said. “It was a heckuva battle coming out of spring.

“He’s really improved a lot in the last year or so. He’s got a big-time arm.”

Though he had gotten the majority of practice reps the last two or three weeks to allow Lee more recuperative time, Matthews’ only collegiate action — until Saturday’s start — had been running the ball late in a season-opening win over Florida A&M.

With Matthews starting Saturday, Southern was three-and-out on its initial series. Matthews completed his first collegiate pass, a 5-yarder to Nick Benjamin, to set up a third-and-4. But the shotgun snap got botched, with Matthews falling on the ball for a 3-yard loss.

“I thought he was a little jittery early in the game but when he got settled down he did some good things,” Orlando said. “He was in a tough situation and I thought he did fine.”

Matthews didn’t return until after Lee went out midway through the third quarter.

Matthews directed a 10-play, 72-yard touchdown drive to get the Jaguars within 30-26 with 6:22 left in the game. He converted three third downs — a third-and-5, a third-and-10 and, on a 22-yard TD pass to Benjamin, a third-and-16.

“That’s why I practice,” Matthews said. “I knew going into the week I was going to start. I just had to do what I had to do to get prepared. I did all I could.”

The tradeoff for not having Lee to back him Saturday is Matthews now has some game experience.

“Now I have some experience dealing with the game speed,” Matthews said. “It’s much different. Since I have the experience, it’ll slow down for me once I get into my rhythm.

“After that first completion, it started to slow down.”

What Landry did best is what Matthews will have to do best: stay within the offense.

“Like I told Warren last week, you’ve got a lot of kids around you to help you win this ballgame,” Orlando said. “Don’t feel like you’ve got to go out there and win it yourself.”

“We’re not asking Matthews to win the game for us,” SU coach Pete Richardson said. “We’re just asking him to manage our football team. The players have confidence in him — and we have confidence in him — to do that.”

Photo: Southern University Dancing Dolls performs during half-time.