LSU quarterback Matt Mauck’s foot injury has been a topic often discussed since he injured it in last season’s victory against Florida.
Questions were raised about his mobility, his footwork and his push-off ability and if he would get those things back after spraining a ligament in the mid-foot area.
None of those things seemed to affect Mauck in the Tigers’ second spring scrimmage Saturday. The scrimmage took place indoors at the Charles McClendon Practice Facility after an afternoon thunderstorm.
Mauck completed 17-of-26 passes for 283 yards for three touchdowns in the scrimmage. He was accurate on his deep throws and showed an ability to hit receivers on the run.
“I feel good about the progress that Matt has made at quarterback,” said LSU head coach Nick Saban. “I think we have had a very, very productive spring in terms of him being able improve without suffering any consequences to his injury or setbacks.”
Saban believes Mauck’s mobility is slowly but surely coming back.
“All the time I think [his mobility] is [improving],” Saban said. “I still think that we are going to try to keep him out of situations where he has to just take off and burst or where he would do that. He is conscious on not doing that, too. Just a full load accelerating off of that foot would probably be somewhat of a problem.”
Mauck threw touchdown passes to Devery Henderson, Michael Clayton and Joseph Addai.
Marcus Randall received some time with the first team and the second team, completing 11-of-21 passes for 138 yards and two interceptions.
Clayton led all receivers with six catches for 104 yards, while Addai followed with five catches for 92 yards, and Henderson caught nine balls for 83 yards. Henderson wore a red no-contact jersey while he continues to recover from a broken arm suffered in last year’s Ole Miss game.
In the backfield, Shyrone Carey led the way with 12 carries for 143 yards and two touchdowns, including one TD run of 74 yards during the two-minute situational drill. Addai followed with eight carries for 77 yards, including a 70-yard run during the two-minute drill of his own. Both teams got carries with the first team.
“I feel good about the weapons that we have on offense and the number of guys that we have making plays,” Saban said.
Saban did voice concern over the number of turnovers committed and the number of balls put on the ground.
“We did not take care of the ball very well today,” Saban said. “It is kind of our goal this spring offensively to really take care of the ball and not put the ball on the ground, whether we lose the ball or not. We had a few too many turnovers for our liking. The ball was on the ground four or five times at least today. I don’t care what team did it or who did it, that is not a good thing.”
He also was unhappy about the defense’s tackling, which led to a few of the offense’s big plays.
“Defensively, we did not tackle as well as I would like to see us tackle,” Saban said. “A lot of the plays that were made were created by missed tackles on defense and that is something we need to continue to get better at.”
The coaching staff did continue experimenting freshman Justin Vincent at safety and played cornerback Travis Daniels exclusively at safety during the scrimmage.
“We have kind of made a commitment to [Daniels] trying to develop at safety knowing what he can do at corner,” Saban said. “We need to have some players come in and be able to contribute to the depth of the secondary. That is not a place where you want to have young players contribute to the depth, but right now, we are not what we need to be in the secondary.”
Saban was pleased with Vincent’s improvement at the safety position, but he stressed Vincent has not been moved to safety.
“Justin Vincent made a tremendous amount of progress in one week, which is just a couple practices,” Saban said. “He is practicing a little bit more on defense than what he has before, and he is an aggressive, physical guy. I think we will probably make a decision after we watch the films whether we leave him there the rest of the spring or whether he goes back to running back.”
Linebacker Willie Demps led the defense with six tackles, while cornerback Ronnie Prude had five tackles, and interception and a fumble recovery. Defensive tackle Chad Lavalais had three tackles and two sacks.
The Tigers will practice Monday and Wednesday, and spring practice will culminate with the annual Spring Game Friday in Tiger Stadium at 5 p.m.