For LSU and Alabama, quarterbacks are secondary

Reporting from New Orleans -- They say you can’t win championships without an elite quarterback, but they’ve actually been doing it for years in the Southeastern Conference.

The SEC is guaranteed an eighth Bowl Championship Series title Monday night when No. 1 Louisiana State and No. 2 Alabama meet at the Superdome.

Yet, you might not know the quarterbacks if you met them on the street.

Alabama starter AJ McCarron and LSU’s two quarterbacks, Jarrett Lee and Jordan Jefferson, have combined to throw 36 touchdowns this season.

That’s one fewer touchdown pass than Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III threw all by himself.

The SEC doesn’t have it all backward, but it does have it inside-out.

Elite SEC teams take the nation’s biggest, fastest and strongest athletes and build their foundations. The quarterbacks are final pieces, appendages to the package.

LSU dominated college football this year with the nation’s No. 105 (out of 120) passing attack. The Tigers averaged 160.15 yards per game.

In the SEC title game, a 42-10 rout against Georgia, starting LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson passed for 30 yards.

The quarterbacks on LSU’s 2003 and 2007 BCS title teams were not Matt Ryan or Matt Barkley. They were Matt Mauck and Matt Flynn.

Alabama enters Monday’s game with the No. 1 defense and No. 71 passing offense.

Two years ago, the Crimson Tide won the national title with Greg McElroy at quarterback. This year it’s 60 minutes from winning it all with McCarron.

This is not a knock on any LSU or Alabama quarterback who has taken a snap in recent years. They are simply asked to do different things.

“Playing quarterback in our scheme is not too daunting of a task,” Alabama center William Vlachos said Friday at the Superdome. “You’ve got the best running back in the country [Trent Richardson] behind you. It’s kind of one of those deals where you really do just manage the game. You need a decision maker. You need to not put us in bad spots. But that’s something our quarterbacks are trained to do, and AJ’s done a great job of that.”

McCarron is ranked a modest No. 20 in NCAA pass efficiency. Lee and Jefferson, who split time this year for LSU, are more facilitators than fascinating.

“When you surround your quarterbacks with athletes that can make plays every time they touch the ball, you don’t really need to worry about the quarterback position,” LSU defensive tackle Michael Brockers said. “You just give it to your playmakers.”

Whereas Stanford would be Stinkford without Andrew Luck, and Baylor would be in the basement without Robert Griffin III, LSU and Alabama don’t need their trigger men to be supermen.

It is this distinction that makes the SEC unique.

It’s almost as if LSU and Alabama are playing a different sport. Players from both teams have watched with bemusement a bowl season that has featured 123 combined points by Baylor and Washington in the Alamo Bowl, 103 points scored by West Virginia and Clemson in the Orange Bowl, and 83 scored by Oregon and Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.

West Virginia scored 70 points against Clemson.

“I don’t think Alabama will ever score 70 points against a ranked opponent,” Vlachos said.

Vlachos stayed tuned in to the Orange Bowl just to see if someone from Clemson could make a tackle.

“You’re just waiting on someone to stop them,” he said, “but it didn’t happen.”

LSU and Alabama combined for 15 points, with no touchdowns, in their Nov. 5 meeting.

Tempo is dictated from the interior.

“Our defensive line feels we set the tone for the game,” from the first snap to the last snap, LSU defensive tackle Bennie Logan said. “You look at some of these ridiculous records, like 70 points and 60 points, where there is no defense played.”

LSU and Alabama are stocked with enough NFL players to play old-fashioned football.

“It starts with an engine,” Alabama receiver Brandon Gibson said. “And our engine is Coach [Nick] Saban.”

Gibson wonders how many yards after the catch he might amass on another team. Gibson has only 20 catches in a four-year career — with a high of 14 this season — but is four quarters from earning a second national-title ring.

McElroy and McCarron are not Luck or RGIII.

“They’re game managers,” Gibson said. “They do everything right by the book. They’re traditional quarterbacks, and they do a great job. Not to take anything from them. They’re not the fastest quarterbacks; they’re not going to break 80-yard runs like Michigan’s quarterback. But they know how to manage games and get the job done.”

Games contested against LSU and Alabama, well, they just feel different.

Before the Rose Bowl, Oregon guard Carson York recounted facing LSU in this season’s opener.

“It was like playing an NFL defense,” York said. “I’m reasonably certain one of their linebackers gave me a concussion on the second play of the game. One of their linebackers hit me so hard my chin strap tore in half. I took off my helmet on the sideline, and all the stitching in my chin strap was torn out. That’s never happened before.”

LSU defeated Oregon, 40-27. Tigers players on Friday were asked to compare playing Oregon and Alabama.

“It’s just hitting a bigger opponent, a stronger opponent,” LSU offensive lineman Josh Williford said.

LSU left tackle Chris Faulk said there’s nothing like trench warfare in the SEC.

“In practice, I go against [Barkevious] Mingo and [Sam] Montgomery,” he said. “They’ve got speed you’ve never seen before. Then you go play Alabama, you go against [Courtney] Upshaw, who has power and quickness. It’s tough in there.”

chris.dufresne@latimes.com

twitter.com/dufresnelatimes