The big cat drill is as synonymous with LSU coach Les Miles as his hat, his fourth down gambles and his propensity for eating grass.
Miles has always said he prides himself on producing a tough and physical football team, and having physical drills at practice is a big part of making that happen.
The drill features two players, normally one offensive and one defensive, lined up across from each other. On Miles’ whistle, both fire out and try to push the other one backward. Wide receivers and defensive backs stand up across from each other and all other players line up in a three or four-point stance.
“It gets everything up tempo and moving fast,” said senior linebacker Lamin Barrow. “We do it at the start of practice, and it’s a good way to get the blood flowing.”
This spring, Miles has thrown a wrinkle into the drill. Instead of players going one-on-one, offense and defense line up three players on each side of the line of scrimmage with a quarterback and a runner lined up behind the offensive line.
The quarterback hands the ball off and the offense has three plays to gain 10 yards against the defense as the rest of the team separates to create purple and white walls on opposite sides of the drill.
“We created a little competition with the crowd on the perimeter,” Miles said. “We started a plural big cats drill, which had good power and was a lot of fun.”
Barrow said both units and their coaches take pride in winning the drill, and competition is why he likes running the big cat.
“I’m a bigger fan of it than the original big cat drill because it has more of a game type aspect,” Barrow said. “Competition makes a better team. Every day we try to beat those guys, they do the same to us and it makes everyone better.”
Tuesday was the second practice in a row that has started with the big cat drill. Senior fullback J.C. Copeland said he remembers Miles using the drill two springs ago, but hasn’t seen it since.
Barrow and junior defensive tackle Anthony Johnson both said they liked that the new big cat drill allowed more than two players to get involved at a time.
“It’s a lot more fun to me because it is three-on-three up front and we get to play a little bit of tackle football,” Johnson said. “It’s better for the offense as well because they get to play head up and get some physical play in their mouth.”
Copeland said he likes the drill, but doesn’t get into the competition.
“It’s really about working on technique because everyone has to block at some point,” Copeland said. “To me it’s not about going out there to try to kill somebody; it’s about everyone trying to get better.”
