Following a painful loss to Florida, LSU coach Nick Saban said at his Wednesday press conference that the players are practicing much better this week than last week.
“The players are responding pretty well this week in practice,” Saban said. “We’ve had a pretty good week of practice. It seems like we’re trying to do the work we need to do to get ready for the game.”
Saban said the main thing the Tigers need to do is focus play-by-play. Under Saban the Tigers usually refocus after losses, boasting an 8-3 record after defeats.
“I think it’s really important that we kind of learn to focus on the next play,” Saban said. “Like I talked about before, I think our frustration and anxiety when things don’t go well goes way up. Too many people press and then we start making mistakes and errors.”
Saban said he wishes the medical profession could make a pill to help players focus.
“I told some players today if we could get a pill to give you … it would be one that would make you focus on the next play and forget about the last play,” he said.
Saban used the analogy of shooting free throws in basketball. He said when a player misses five or six shots in a row he has to refocus.
“I think everybody’s got to learn that when you play to take a deep breath,” Saban said. “[You have to] kind of refocus on what you’ve got to do the next play and don’t be affected by the last play.”
Saban said the frustrations in last week’s 19-7 loss to Florida were created by high expectations.
“Somebody tells you that if you buy this stuff for 10 bucks this week you can sell it for 20 next week and you buy it,” Saban said. “Next week it goes up to 12 and you’re pissed … yet you’re disappointed that you made 20 percent on your money because you thought you were going to make 100 percent, but it all came from what? Expectations.
“You get frustrated and you put yourself in the position where the frustration can create a tremendous amount of anxiety and all the sudden you’re not competing like you normally do.”
The smartest, most fierce competitors have a tougher time refocusing on the next play, Saban said. He said they want to succeed so much that they cannot concentrate on the task at hand.
“The guys that are the smart guys, the best competitors and all that, they’re the guys that are the most susceptible to it happening,” Saban said. “They’re the guys that have the highest motivation to achieve.”
Strong safety Jack Hunt and running backs Shyrone Carey and Joseph Addai will not likely play this week because of their medial collateral ligament injuries, Saban said.
Saban said Jack Hunt is progressing well and could play against South Carolina in an emergency situation.
“Jack has practiced every play that he was supposed to practice this week in practice,” Saban said. “Jack told me that he could play in the game and I told him that we’d use him in an emergency but we didn’t really intend to use him.”
Saban said Carey is starting to run in practice. He also said Addai, who was injured against Florida, is progressing more quickly than either Hunt or Carey did.