Usually the Tigers practice well throughout the week, but LSU football coach Nick Saban said at his press conference that he was disappointed with the team’s work ethic at Wednesday’s practice session.
“Timing is everything in this world, and I wasn’t real happy with the way we practiced today,” Saban said. “I just gave a 10-minute lecture over there about how we didn’t practice like I expect to practice.”
Saban said the team had three practice sessions last week and started practicing for Florida on Saturday, which is an extra practice for the game. After four practices in a week, the players usually get an off day, Saban said.
“Any time you have a bye week, I think that you get into having more practices than your normal routine,” Saban said. “I think sometimes that starts to wear on the players a little bit. We’ve had lots of good practice for this game.”
Saban said the younger players on the team have gotten more repetitions this week. He hopes they will be able to make meaningful contributions as far as team depth.
Tigers running back Shyrone Carey and strong safety Jack Hunt are both questionable for Saturday’s game with medial collateral ligament injuries, Saban said.
Saban said both Joseph Addai and Justin Vincent will be ready to play Saturday if Carey is not able to go. On the season, Addai is the Tigers’ second leading rusher with 66 carries for 286 yards and two touchdowns. Vincent is third on the team with 26 carries for 122 yards.
“Joseph has had probably his best week in a long time,” Saban said. “Justin’s doing just fine and has played well and he’s gotten the opportunity, and we have confidence that both of those guys will be very capable to do what we need them to do in the game.”
Ole Miss rushed for 229 yards in its 20-17 win against Florida last weekend. Saban said the key to a successful rushing game against the Gators is a threatening passing attack as well. Rebels quarterback Eli Manning also was able to pass for 262 yards on the Gators defense.
“I think that Florida was worried about them throwing the ball and that’s always the case when you play Ole Miss,” Saban said. “[With] Eli [Manning] you’re always concerned about how they’re going to throw the ball down the field on you. And maybe you try to stay in a little more split safety type coverages, which puts you a little bit lighter on the run.”
Regardless of UF’s misfortunes this season, Saban said he wants the Tigers to know the Gators still have a good team. He said UF has a tough schedule with two of its first three losses coming to No. 3 Miami 38-33 and No. 12 Tennessee 24-10. The Tigers will play an unranked UF team for the first time since 1989.
“I certainly preached to the players … that this is a good team that we’re playing,” Saban said. “I think it’s human nature to some degree for people to think that just because they lost a game or two to very good teams incidentally, two teams that were in the Top 10, that all the sudden they’ve got big time problems.
“I see them as a team that’s very capable, and I think we’re going to have to bring our ‘A’ game and we’re going to have to control the intensity level that we play with throughout the game to be able to be effective.”