by Joey Papania
LSUsports.net
BATON ROUGE — First year head football coach Nick Saban addressed the media Wednesday afternoon to announce the arrival of spring practice. The Tigers first practice session will take place next Monday after the players return from spring vacation.
Upon being hired on November 30, 1999, Saban began the process of rebuilding an LSU program that has combined for only three SEC wins in the last two seasons. The first order of business was to rebuild the coaching staff. Eight fresh faces were added to the LSU staff by late January, and only running backs coach Michael Haywood returned from the previous staff.
“I’m very pleased with the job that our staff has done to this point,” Saban said. “The chemistry that we have on our staff is very good. I think we have a nice blend of experience, and the coaches have worked well with the players in the off-season program.
“I think we had an outstanding off-season program. We made a lot of progress with the players in terms of their conditioning along with their strength. Their endurance and their work ethic improved, which is the reason why we wanted to make strides in strength and conditioning. Coach Tommy Moffitt and Karl Dunbar have done a fantastic job with our players in the off-season program getting us ready for spring practice.”
Spring practice is an opportunity for players to catch the attention of the new coaching staff. Saban eluded to the fact that a depth chart has not and will not be established until the players are evaluated on the field. Any depth chart for the spring will be used for organizational purposes only.
“I think the number one goal and objective we have for the spring is to continue to develop the kind of competitive spirit that we want to have on our team. We want to have the ability to play and to compete for 60 minutes in a game,” Saban explained. “We want to have the psychological disposition, to have the mental toughness, to have the ability to play hard and not get frustrated and let up in a game, and to be responsible for playing together for 60 minutes. All those things to me are an ongoing process that we need to continue to work on so that we can get our team to play to their full potential.
“The second thing we’d like to do is put the best 22 football players on the field. We want to get the best players on offense, the best players on defense and the best players on the special teams units. We want to try to teach those players what they need to do to be successful in their positions.”
Come Monday, the Tigers will begin with the fundamentals of this new system based primarily on the understanding and learning of concepts. Saban feels that this or any system can not be executed to its full potential unless the players understand the concepts of the system and learn when to apply those concepts. The spring brings with it the difficult task of teaching the system to all the players.
“We want to get as many players involved so that they understand what role they can contribute to the team and what they need to know to contribute to that role,” Saban said. “I think that’s probably a very important part of what we want to accomplish this spring.”
LSU returns 18 starters this season, nine offensive, eight defensive and one on special teams. The Tigers will have two scrimmages tentatively set for the 15th and the 22nd of April. This year’s Spring Game will take place on Saturday, April 29 in Tiger Stadium. Absent from the 2000 Spring Session will be 27 future LSU freshmen who will not have the opportunity to practice with the squad until next fall.
Saban announced that four members of the media and two members of the LSU academic staff will be part of the coaching staff for the Spring Game. Saban will take on a commissioner’s role. The Tiger’s new head coach may not assume coaching duties on April 29, but have no doubts that he will indeed be an integral part of the Tiger’s future success.
“My title is still football coach. Coaching is teaching, teaching is the ability to inspire learning and to do that I need to be there and interact with the players,” Saban said. “I like to do that. That’s why I do this, because I like to coach and I like to interact with the players.”