Marquise Hill and Marcus Spears played the best game of their college career LSU coach Nick Saban said at his Monday press luncheon. The LSU coaching staff named the two junior defensive ends as the defensive players of the week for the team.
“We thought our two defensive ends probably played the best that they’ve played since they’ve been here,” Saban said. “They both played a lot of good football here, but were very productive (against Arizona).”
Hill made four tackles in the game, while Spears made three tackles that all resulted in negative yardage, including a sack. Saban said the reason for the duo’s improved penetration into the offensive backfield are better instincts and hard work in practice.
“They’re working hard at practice and extending themselves,” Saban said.
Saban said teaching the defensive line to rush block and pass block separately is not difficult. He said playing the rush block requires the lineman to burst through the offensive line by thrusting their hands into the linemen’s chest, while a pass rush requires them to fake the same move on the offensive lineman and swing their hands getting to the backfield quicker.
“I think that’s the toughest thing to get guys to do,” Saban said.
Hill said defensive tackle Chad Lavalais and the linebackers helped him and Spears to keep constant pressure on the Wildcats’ quarterbacks, not allowing them to get in a rhythm and gain confidence.
“Chad and the linebackers were able to push them to the outside,” Hill said. “We just tried to stay in our rush lanes and keep their quarterbacks on their toes because we knew that they rotate two (quarterbacks) and if they got comfortable they (were) capable of doing good things so we just tried to keep them rattled.”
Hill has started 14 career games for the Tigers with 68 total tackles.
The New Orleans native said some people might have had high expectations for him after being highly touted out of high school, but he wants to do whatever contributes to the team most.
“I didn’t put a lot of pressure on myself because those are just high school accolades,” Hill said. “Everybody has them. Once you get here you can’t look on the Internet and find them again so I was glad to be here, and I just wanted to prove to myself that I could play on a college level.”
“As long as my team is winning, as long as we got a winning record (I am happy). I could have 12 sacks and we (could be) losing and it’s not going to be a good thing.”
Both Hill and Spears agreed that they were much healthier for Saturday’s game than any other game they have played together. Spears said losing 15 pounds in the offseason is the key to his improved play this season.
“I felt good for the first time in a long time,” Spears said. “I lost a lot of weight I needed to lose and my bones (were) feeling good and I warmed up well. It was just a mental frame of mind.”
Spears said the same type of performance should be expected from the Tigers’ defensive line throughout the season.
“I think I’m going to have that this whole season because that’s the way we have to be in order for us to be a good defense,” Spears said. “We just knew we had to go out and dominate. That’s what coach has been preaching and that’s what we did. We did our job.”