The LSU football team is near the midway point of spring practice, and head coach Nick Saban said he is happy with the overall progression of the team. He also said the team is lacking leadership and experience on the defensive side of the ball.
“I’m really pleased where we are on offense,” Saban said Wednesday. “Defensively we don’t have enough guys that know enough about what we’re doing.”
Saban praised the performance of the receivers, offensive linemen, and running backs.
“The young runners look like they are doing a pretty good job,” he said. “I’m not disappointed at all in how those guys have developed as a group.”
Two players listed as tight ends on the roster, Cory Hebert and David Jones, may be the answer to LSU’s fullback problem.
“I feel better about that situation than a year ago too because of the development of those two guys,” Saban said.
Fans may see freshman halfback Justin Vincent on both sides of the ball next year. Saban is going to begin working him on the defense, but most of his practice time will be spent at running back.
“We’re going to see what he can do because he’s shown a lot of positive things he can do as a running back,” Saban said. “He’s probably the best athlete on the team relative to where he is on the depth chart.”
Junior receiver Michael Clayton also has spent time this spring working on his defensive ability.
“He could go play defense if we needed him to on a week’s notice,” Saban said. “He couldn’t do that last year.”
Preparing players to play both sides of the ball is one thing Saban is doing in the situation someone is needed to fill in a hole where the Tigers lack depth.
“The objective is to know, could this guy be a solution to a problem if we had one,” Saban said.
Cornerbacks Corey Webster, Travis Daniels, Randall Gay and Ronnie Prude have impressed Saban.
“One thing he [Webster] has done this spring is jam people,” Saban said. “As big as he is when he gets his hands on you, you don’t catch many balls. Another guy who’s made a tremendous amount of improvement is Ronnie Prude. We got four guys who are pretty decent.”
He is confident with his defensive backs but said they are lacking depth at the safety position. Seniors Jack Hunt and Adrian Mayes have been practicing at the safety positions this spring.
“I think Jack made a lot of improvement last year,” Saban said. “Adrian needs to continue to get a lot of repetitions and eliminate mental errors.”
Saban is hoping for some of the incoming freshman to contribute their first year but said it depends on their ability to learn.
“We got some good, young freshmen players coming in,” Saban said. “Their ability to contribute next year will probably largely depend can they learn. It’s a lot for a guy to be able to adjust too.”
The Tigers will scrimmage Saturday, and Saban hopes to learn more about the team’s progression from their performance.