Spring practice comes to a close this week, and football players are making their final pitches for playing time.LSU coach Les Miles announced on his Twitter on Tuesday that safety Craig Loston will be granted a medical redshirt for the 2009 season and will be considered a redshirt freshman in the 2010 season. Loston played in LSU’s games against Washington and Louisiana-Lafayette last year before missing the rest of the season with a hand injury.”Loston has gotten better,” Miles said Tuesday after practice. “This spring has been really good for him. I suspect he’ll have a very good career here.”Miles said redshirt freshman running back Michael Ford played impressively in the team’s second-to-last practice Tuesday.”What you don’t realize is how strong and fast Ford is,” Miles said. “He broke a nice run today, and he makes really good cuts. It’s tough to catch him.”Miles said the LSU receiving corps is making strides toward maturity as a unit, and he said sophomore Russell Shepard is making an effective transition from quarterback to full-time wide receiver.”[Senior Terrence] Toliver is obviously the veteran there,” Miles said. “But [sophomore wide receiver] Chris Tolliver, [sophomore wide receiver] Rueben Randle and Russell Shepard are really coming. They’re making some young receiver mistakes, but today they made some big plays and ran great routes.”At the quarterback spot, Miles said juniors Jarrett Lee and Jordan Jefferson will have the chance to show what they’ve learned this spring during the spring game Saturday. The game kicks off at 3 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN2.”How [Lee] runs the team and how he handles the mechanics at quarterback are much better,” Miles said. “Jordan understands the reads much more, and he’s throwing the ball better.”INJURY UPDATEMiles said sophomore defensive end Chancey Aghayere had shoulder surgery Tuesday.”Chancey has been nursing a shoulder for some time,” Miles said. “It was probably an old labrum injury, and now we had an opportunity to fix it.”Miles said senior linebacker Kelvin Sheppard suffered “a rib nick,” but he said it’s nothing serious.”It’s not a broken bone, and it’s not cartilage,” Miles said. “It just needs to be smoothed over.”Miles said junior wide receiver John Williams’ future on the team is uncertain because of injury. Williams played in LSU’s final six games last season.”John Williams has been injured, and we’re concerned about his ability to come back to the field,” Miles said.—-Contact Rachel [email protected].