JaMarcus Russell

Infobox NFLactive


name=JaMarcus Russell
currentteam=Oakland Raiders
currentnumber=2
currentposition=Quarterback
|birthdate=birth date and age|1985|8|9
birthplace=Mobile, Alabama
heightft=6
heightin=6
weight=260
debutyear=2007
debutteam=Oakland Raiders
highlights=
* College awards and honors
college=Louisiana State
draftyear=2007
draftround=1
draftpick=1
pastteams=
* Oakland Raiders (2007-present)
statweek=3
statseason=2008
statlabel1=TD-INT
statvalue1=5-4
statlabel2=Passing yards
statvalue2=764
statlabel3=QB Rating
statvalue3=71.2
nfl=RUS539462

JaMarcus Russell (born August 9, 1985 in Mobile, Alabama) is an American football quarterback who plays for the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Raiders with the first overall pick of the 2007 NFL Draft and played college football for LSU.

Early years

Russell played at Lillie B. Williamson High School in Mobile, Alabama where he was coached by Bobby Parrish. Russell became the all-time passing leader in Alabama high school history as he threw for 10,744 yards in his career, eclipsing the mark set by former University of Alabama and current Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Brodie Croylecite news | title=Football Individual Records | publisher=AHSAA Official Website | accessdate=2008-01-24 | url=http://www.ahsaa.com/records/football-indiv.asp] . He also is ranked as the fifth all-time career rusher in Alabama high school history with 7,362 yardscite news | title=Football Individual Records | publisher=AHSAA Official Website | accessdate=2008-01-24 | url=http://www.ahsaa.com/records/football-indiv.asp] . As a senior in 2002, Russell connected on 219-of-372 passes for 3,332 yards and 22 touchdowns. He was named Alabama's Mr. Football and SuperPrep Dixie Offensive Player of the Year. He was named also to the "PARADE" All-America Team. Further he was nominated to the SuperPrep All-America Team, FSN South's "Countdown to Signing Day" All-South First Team, "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" Super Southern 100 and the "Orlando Sentinel" All-Southern team.

As a consensus top five national pro-style quarterback in every major recruiting publication cite news | title=JaMarcus Russell | publisher=Rivals | accessdate=2003-02-05 | url= http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=7844&Sport=1] , in the 2003 recruiting class., Russell had numerous scholarship offers. He chose Louisiana State University over Florida State on National Signing Day.

College career

ophomore 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.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Russell housed around a dozen evacuees who had fled the flooding in New Orleans, including New Orleans singer Fats Domino, in his off-campus apartment. [cite news
url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9180309/1
title=LSU QB shares home with Fats Domino
work=MSNBC
date=2005-09-04]

Junior season

Russell was the starting quarterback again at LSU in 2006, beating out backup Matt Flynn and highly-touted redshirt freshman Ryan Perrilloux, he also changed his jersey number from 4 to 2. He had a 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.

A 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. In the final game of his junior year, the Allstate Sugar Bowl, Russell accumulated over 350 yards of passing and rushing and scored 3 TDs, leading to the Tigers 41-14 win over Notre Dame. He was also named the Sugar Bowl's MVP.

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".

Awards and honors

* Columbus Touchdown Club SEC Player of the Year (2005)
* 4x SEC Offensive Player of the Week (1 in 2005, 3 in 2006)
* First-team All-SEC by the Associated Press and SEC coaches (2006)
* Manning Award (2006)
* Davey O'Brien Award semifinalist (2006)
* Sugar Bowl MVP (2007)

NFL career

2007 NFL Draft

On January 10 2007, Russell stated that he had decided to skip his final season of NCAA eligibility with LSU and enter the 2007 NFL Draft, [cite news |first=Glenn |last=Guilbeau |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=LSU's JaMarcus Russell is going pro |url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070111/SPORTS0202/701110319/1028 |work= The Shreveport Times |publisher= |date=January 11 2007 |accessdate= ] , where he was picked by the Oakland Raiders as the 1st overall draft pick. Upon the firing of head coach Lane Kiffin, Raiders owner Al Davis revealed that Kiffin was opposed to the selection of Russell.

Russell was one of four LSU players taken in the first round, along with Safety Laron Landry, and wide receivers
Dwayne Bowe and Craig Davis. [cite news
url=http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=5200&ATCLID=824904
work=LSUsports.net
title=Russell First of Four Tigers in NFL Draft First Round
date=2007-04-28]

Rookie season

Failing to reach a contract agreement with the Raiders, Russell held out through training camp and the first weeks of the 2007 NFL season, until September 12, 2007, when he signed a six-year contract worth up to $68 million, with $31.5 million guaranteed. [cite news
url=http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3016693
title=Deal exceeds Russell's financial goals, but holdout hinders playing time
work=ESPN.com
date=2007-09-13]

Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin did not immediately name Russell a starter, saying, "That way we can really control what he is doing, play for this set amount of time for this many plays. He doesn't have to have everything mastered," noting that Russell had missed all of training camp and other quarterbacks, like David Carr, should have been brought along more slowly. [cite news
url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20071120/ai_n21113587
title=JaMarcus not about to start
work=The Oakland Tribune
first=Art
last=Spander
date=2007-11-20]

Russell made his first professional appearance on December 2, 2007 against the Denver Broncos. Coming into the game in the second quarter in relief of starter Josh McCown, Russell played two series, and completed 4 of 7 pass attempts for 56 yards. [cite news
url=http://sportsline.com/nfl/gamecenter/recap/NFL_20071202_DEN@OAK
title=Russell debuts, but McCown leads Raiders past Broncos
work=CBS Sportsline
date=December 2, 2007]

On December 23, 2007 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Russell threw his first career touchdown pass, a 2-yard pass to Zach Miller. He finished the game with seven completions on 23 pass attempts for 83 yards, with one touchdown pass, three interceptions and a lost fumble.cite news
title=Top pick Russell draws Chargers in first career start
url=http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3167941
work=ESPN.com
date=2007-12-24
first=Len
last=Pasquarelli]

Russell made his first career start in the final game of the season against the San Diego Chargers. He completed 23 of 31 passes for 234 yards with a touchdown on a 34-yard pass to Jerry Porter. [cite news
url=http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/boxscore;_ylt=AvSu9tT9mjRBAljjYe_SSaUisLYF?gid=20071230013
work=Yahoo! Sports
title=San Diego 30, Oakland 17
date=2007-12-30]

Russell finished his rookie season with 36 completed passes on 66 attempts, 373 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions. After the San Diego game, Kiffin named Russell the team's starting quarterback for the 2008 season. [cite news
title=Russell's first start shows big strides
url=http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080101/SPORTS/801010359/1015/SPORT0502
date=2008-01-01
first=Phil
last=Barber
work=The Press Democrat]

Personal

Russell is a cousin of Robert Jordan, formerly of the California Golden Bears and San Francisco 49ers. [cite news
url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/08/SPGQ1REGA811.DTL
title=It's all relative: Raiders' Russell bunks down with a Bear
first=Rusty
last=Simmons
work=San Francisco Chronicle
date=August 8, 2007
accessdate=2008-02-03] Jordan is also cousins to former Cal tailback Marshawn Lynch, who is also cousins to Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh Johnson.

References

External links

* [http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=27812&SPID=2164&DB_OEM_ID=5200&ATCLID=174908&Q_SEASON=2006 LSU Tigers bio]
* [http://www.raiders.com/Team/PlayerBio.aspx?id=20886 Oakland Raiders bio]
* [http://multimedia.foxsports.com/football/oakland-raiders/jamarcus-russell.htm JaMarcus Russell Video on FoxSports Video Archive]