BATON ROUGE – New LSU head football coach Nick Saban took his team through a two-and-a-half hour workout in very windy conditions Saturday afternoon as the Tigers finished their first week of spring drills at the LSU practice fields.
It was LSU’s fourth practice of their allotted 15 days of practice in the spring, and it was the Tigers’ second day in full pads.
Saban expressed satisfaction with the Tigers’ efforts in their first week of practice.
“For the first week I’m really pleased with progress we’ve been able to make,” Saban said. “I think the attitude of the players has been outstanding. They’ve really done a good job considering how much they’ve had thrown at them on offense, defense and special teams.
“I am encouraged on how we’ve been able to throw the football and in our progress on offense. I think there are a few things we need to improve on defense, there’s no question about that, but we’ll continue to improve on those things. From a special teams standpoint we have a long way to go. We are going to teach as much as we can and learn as much about our personnel as we possibly can. The good thing is that the players have a good attitude about working and have worked hard and learned a lot.”
Saban said he has been impressed with the offensive line and the performance of the quarterbacks, but is concerned about depth at those positions.
“There are a lot of guys that have been impressive,” he said. “I’m just pleased with the overall performance and the attitude overall. They are starting to develop a little personality. Some guys are starting to get some confidence in doing some things that they haven’t done before. I feel good about that. I don’t like to point one guy out and leave 99 guys out. I’m just pleased with the guys’ performance and the attitude they’ve practiced and played with.”
The Tigers practiced longer on Saturday than they had on any of the other three days during the past week, but Saban said that wasn’t necessarily by design.
“I think the intensity in practice was good,” he said of the Saturday workout. “We practiced a little bit longer today than we normally would. We didn’t schedule it to be any longer but we just took our time and made sure that we got through everything and did all the necessary reps that we needed to do.”
Saban said the coaching staff installed several concepts which had not been introduced to the team before Saturday.
“This was the first day we did anything with nickel and three wideouts on offense and defense,” he said. “So the lengthy practice allowed us to get some turns in on those things that we will be able to teach from and build on.”
The Tigers will practice on Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week before holding their first major scrimmage next Saturday afternoon.
LSU will conclude spring practice on April 29 when the Tigers play their annual Spring Football Game at 1:30 p.m. in Tiger Stadium. Tickets to the game are available in advance for $5 for adults and $3 for children and LSU students. Tickets on the day of the game will be $10 for adults.