Tiger Stadium is not the only thing that has been reconstructed over the past year. The LSU football team enters the 2006 season with three running backs who underwent reconstructive knee surgery and a depth chart that has been shifted around since last season. Senior Justin Vincent and junior Alley Broussard lead a group of running backs that includes five freshmen and one sophomore. Vincent and Broussard, two of the team’s top three rushers from the 2004 campaign, both enter this season having torn their anterior cruciate ligaments in 2005. Broussard said he is ready for the season and is enthusiastic to show people what he can do. “I am like a baby trying to walk again,” Broussard said Sunday, Aug. 13 during LSU Media Day. “It’s been a whole year since I’ve actually put the pads on and a year and a couple of days since I tore my ACL, but I felt real good coming in.” Broussard led the Tigers with 867 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns in 2004 and received a medical redshirt last season after tearing his right ACL during a fall football camp. The ACL is one of four major ligaments in the knee that connect and hold the tibia and femur together. Broussard said he has played his entire life, without having to sit out for an extended period of time until last year. “I’ve been playing since I was 10 years old,” Broussard said. “It’s been real frustrating, as far as having two surgeries, then sitting out a whole season, having tendonitis and getting infected.” Coach Les Miles said Broussard continues to rehabilitate his knee daily and that he will monitor the recovery process carefully. He also said Broussard looked good on Aug. 7 in his first action since the injury. “Alley Broussard is much improved in my opinion in gaining not only conditioning but also health,” Miles said. “The first live snap after being a year off is a pretty significant point. We are excited to see him do that. He is still a ways away, but we expect him to get there.” Vincent rushed for 488 yards and five touchdowns last season before tearing his ACL in his left knee Dec. 30 during the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. “It’s been a long, trying process,” Vincent said. “Rehab went pretty quick, and now I’m ready to get back on the field.” Offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher said he believes Vincent and Broussard are heading in the right direction. “[Broussard’s] showing the old signs of the burst,” Fisher said. “You can look in a guy’s eyes and tell when there’s a nervousness.” Fisher said Broussard seems a little sore, but by the third day of fall practice he was joking around more and “getting back in a comfort zone.” Fisher also said Vincent is coming along very well and he has been going through the repetitions in practice and seems to know the offensive scheme. Junior fullback Jacob Hester is the only other tailback on the depth chart that has extended playing time. Hester, who played both tailback and fullback last season, rushed for a career best 70 yards on 13 carries in the Peach Bowl. “My first priority on the team is fullback,” Hester said. “But the experience I gained at running back in the Peach Bowl will maybe help me if I play there this year.” The 2006 LSU Football Media Guide lists Hester as the opening day starter at fullback and the third-string running back. Miles said some of the freshmen running backs could see playing time during the season. Charles Scott, a true freshman out of Jonesboro-Hodge High School in Saline, has taken repetitions with the team in practice. “I think Charles Scott has come in with the style and preparation that will allow him to play early in his career,” Miles said. “I think he knows what he’s doing, and I don’t think there will be much hesitation to play him this fall.” The Tigers have ended each of the past three seasons with a different leading rusher. Vincent led the team in 2003 with 1,001 yards, Broussard in 2004 with 867 yards and Joseph Addai with 911 yards last season. Junior offensive lineman Will Arnold said the team has been lucky in the past with its running back situation. He said the past three seasons are an indication that the offensive line can work well with different running backs. “Regardless of who is back there, we’re going to go out there and do our job and do our best to block the way we were taught to block,” Arnold said. “In a way, they have to adjust to our blocks. But when it comes down to it, we have to carry our blocks through, and they have to find the hole and get through it.”
—–Contact Jay St. Pierre at [email protected]