The LSU football team wrapped up its final spring practice session Wednesday, and coach Nick Saban said the offensive unit made vast improvements, while the defense still has many questions to answer.
“I was really pleased with a lot of the things we were able to get accomplished and get done this spring,” Saban said. “I think we made a lot of improvements at a lot of positions. I think we’ve especially made a lot of progress offensively.”
Saban said he noticed the most improvement from quarterback Matt Mauck. He said Mauck, who suffered a broken bone in his foot last season, had the ability to do more this spring than what the coaching staff originally expected.
“We got more out of him in terms of practice repetitions than what we anticipated in terms of his physical ability to function daily on his foot,” Saban said. “It’s gotten better and better, and he never had any setbacks.”
Saban said the junior quarterback will have the screw removed that has remained in his foot since the injury.
“After the spring game, obviously, we’re going to pretty quickly take the other screw out,” Saban said. “Hopefully, he won’t have any problems from that, and he’ll just be able to progress from there.”
On defense Saban said he is still looking for starters at the safety position. Saban has experimented with two running backs at safety. He tried Justin Vincent at the position earlier this spring, and the coaching staff tried Ryan Gilbert at the position in the last week of practice.
Saban said Gilbert seems to have a knack for playing safety. He said Gilbert possesses some natural instincts that cannot be coached.
“He seems to have a little bit of a natural feel for it,” Saban said. “Some of that is athletic intuition. Some people call it instinct. I don’t know what it is. Some guys have that better than others, and when you have really good football players on defense, you have lots of guys that have those kinds of instincts.”
Saban said he can teach players the basics of playing the safety position, but when they get into an actual game situation, their instincts must dictate their play.
“I tell the defensive backs all the time I can teach you how to swat the ball, and I can teach you how to catch and intercept the ball,” Saban said. “But when the ball is coming to the receivers there, it’s really hard for me to teach you which one of those three things you should do based on the timing of what’s happening.”
Saban has already marked Adrian Mayes as a starter at the strong safety position going into next fall. He said Mayes, who played mostly on special teams last season, fits physically at the position but lacks some of the mental skills he needs to excel.
“Adrian Mayes has the physical ability to do whatever we want him to do,” Saban said. “His problem as a player here is that he makes too many mental errors, and that’s something he needs to continue to improve on. If he can improve on that, we would love him as a starter.”