BATON ROUGE — The LSU football team moved indoor on Wednesday as heavy rains hit the LSU practice fields and the Tigers continued to prepare for their first major scrimmage this weekend.
New head coach Nick Saban worked the team for about two hours at the LSU indoor practice facility, the sixth practice of the spring season and the fourth in full pads.
“Probably, in the last two days we kind of reached the saturation point in terms of how many reps we could get versus how much teaching we’re doing,” Saban said. “We’re probably not getting as much execution that we got earlier, but we’re covering a lot more situations. I think it’s our philosophy to teach ‘whole part whole.’ My theory is we keep doing things until players learn and if they make mistakes they learn from their mistakes and they get better.”
Saban continued to express pleasure at the work ethic of the team and the level of effort in the second week of spring drills.
“The intensity, effort and toughness is pretty good,” Saban said. “We’ve had to work hard to get the players to know how to practice, how to practice hard, how to practice with intensity, practice with toughness and stay off the ground. And just about every player we’ve had to get hurt is because someone fell on them.”
Among those out of action on Wednesday was tight end Robert Royal who injured a knee when another player fell on him during a practice session. Royal will likely be able to practice within two weeks.
“I’m not disappointed on what we’re getting done, I just wish we could practice longer and get more turns,” Saban said. “I think we’re getting as much out of the meetings and as much out of the reps we can expect to get.”
Saban will take the team into its first full-scale scrimmage on Saturday afternoon in Tiger Stadium.
“The next step is to see them go out there on Saturday and let the players play,” he said. “The coaches have to let the players play. We can’t stand behind them and tell them what read they should make, what coverage they should be in or what adjustments they should be making. They are going to make the next step and go play. We will get the opportunity to see that on Saturday.”
The Tigers will practice one more time, on Friday afternoon, before the scrimmage on Saturday.
“Friday we will clean up some of the things we’re doing so hopefully they’ll be able to go out there and have a little better execution in the Saturday scrimmage,” Saban said.
Saban said he favors a situational scrimmage, including “move the field” drives, third down situations, “Red Zone” situations and two-minute drills.
“I think it will give us a chance to see what players will play well,” he said. “Some players play well when they have a coach standing behind them telling them what to do. They have to be able to recognize, translate and relate it themselves and communicate it. Communications is really important on both sides of the ball to develop a good feeling of respect and trust that the other guy knows what he’s doing and he’s going to do what he’s supposed to do.”
The Tigers will practice for two more weeks after Saturday’s scrimmage, finishing the spring season on April 29 with the annual LSU Spring Football Game in Tiger Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 1:05 p.m. and tickets are on sale now at $5 for adults and $3 for LSU students and children 12 and under. Tickets on the day of the game will be $10 for adults and will remain $3 for LSU students and children.