It is official– the celebration is over.
After visiting the White House on Tuesday to celebrate its national championship season, the LSU football team came back home to a dose of reality — and full pads.
The Tigers practiced Saturday for the first time this spring and also went Monday, both times in just helmets. Wednesday was their first day of hitting, and LSU coach Nick Saban said at his weekly press gathering he could tell the team may have been tired from its trip to Washington, D.C.
“It was tough to go up there, come back and practice again, but it was a nice trip for them,” Saban said. “The tough thing about the first day in pads, and I don’t care how much you work out or what you do, you’ve got to get used to carrying the pads again. You’ve got to get used to hitting again. And I thought we got tired there a little bit about halfway through practice. We got a little sluggish. But I think that’s to be expected.”
Saban went on to say fatigue will not be used as an excuse for lackluster practices.
“The way we do things, we need to do them for the whole practice and push ourselves to get better,” Saban said. “The big thing you don’t want to allow the players to do is give in mentally before they go physically. That means you don’t have enough mental toughness to persevere the difficulty.”
Saban also talked about some holes at some positions that needed to be filled because of departed starters. One of those positions is SAM linebacker, or strongside linebacker, which was manned by Eric Alexander last year.
He said three freshmen are getting equal looks at the position, including Ali Highsmith, Darius Ingram and Dominic Cooper.
“We’re just seeing who has the best feel for playing at the end of the line,” Saban said. “We want to see who’s most ready to do it. We might later on look at somebody else doing it. Cameron [Vaughn] has done it some, and maybe we’ll put him out there and look at somebody else at inside backer. We want to get the best three linebackers on the field.”
Melvin Oliver and Claude Wroten are both players who will get serious looks at the open defensive end and tackle positions, respectively, Saban said. With the departure of Marquise Hill and Chad Lavalais, those holes must be filled before the season begins.
As a freshman, Oliver recorded six sacks to lead the team and Wroten was an All-American defensive tackle at Mississippi Delta Community College before reporting to LSU in January. “Melvin is thought of or has been like a starter around here,” Saban said. “He’s played as much football in the last two years, probably as any defensive end. We’ve always rotated him in a lot. Every time someone’s gotten hurt, he’s become a starter.
“Claude has really shone well in the offseason program. He runs well and he’s got quickness and he shows some ability to rush the passer. He’s a ways off from just knowing how we do it. You know how to strike and read and react. But he’s an anxious guy to learn and works hard, and hopefully he’s going to be a guy that’s going to help us.”
Tigers go back to work after D.C. trip
March 25, 2004