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105 Tigers Condition Before First Full-Squad Practice

by LSUsports.net (@LSUsports)
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105 Tigers Condition Before First Full-Squad Practice

BATON ROUGE — The entire LSU football team worked out Wednesday for the first time prior to the 2000 season, as both the varsity squard which reported to campus Tuesday and the freshmen who practiced alone on Saturday and Monday came together for conditioning drills.

“We were very pleased to welcome 105 players to fall camp,” head coach Nick Saban said. “We are pleased with the summer. The conditioning level of the team has improved dramatically over the last six months. The strength has improved. The endurance, our ability to sustain body fat, hydration, muscle mass, all the areas that I think are really important to having a well conditioned team has improved.”

While the conditioning drills were being completed at the LSU Practice Facility, coach ? Saban addressed the media about Wednesday’s conditioning as well as the status of the returning players.

On the injury front, Saban said that the only player who has not fully conditioned after spring 2000 or 1999 injuries was tight end Soloman Lee. Lee injured his knee late in spring drills.

Saban remarked that quarterback Rohan Davey was cleared by team doctors on July 6 and is at 100 percent.

The entire 105-man team will practice for the first time on Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m.?

OPENING REMARKS FROM LSU COACH NICK SABAN WEDNESDAY AT LSU PRIOR TO FULL-SQUAD WORKOUTS THURSDAY

“We were very pleased to welcome 105 players to fall camp. We are pleased with the summer. The conditioning level of the team has improved dramatically over the last six months. The strength has improved. The endurance, our ability to sustain body fat, hydration, muscle mass, all the areas that I think are really important to having a well conditioned team has improved. As I’ve said before, conditioning is like a balloon. You blow it up, it’s hard to blow up to a certain point, you let the air out, it blows up easily to that point and then it gets tougher to blow up again.

“We’re going through a process with these players developing the mental and physical toughness I think we need to have the kind of well-conditioned team we need to have and we are going to work through that process.

“We are going to practice at 9:30 in the morning, so we can practice at night and then we will go to the noontime-nighttime deal that was released to you before. Our objectives of this fall camp — we don’t have a game to get ready for, we don’t have any teams to worry about, there really are no standings to worry about — the big thing that we are interested in is the players developing the knowledge and the experience in the system that they are in, the skills they need to have physically to be able to play and be prepared to play well when the season begins and for the entire season.

“I think that us being able to focus on the present moment and to work through one thing at a time is going to be important long-term for our success. We can’t be up and down. We can’t focus on the peaks and valleys, but we’ve got to try to develop consistency. I think that starts with guys taking the task at hand, focusing on that, getting the most out of it and going on to the next thing. Right now it’s get ready for the season by doing the things I just talked about.

“Our goals as coaches are to help our players to play to their fullest potential. We want to be positive with the players, coach them for the next play. Confront and demand that they do what they are supposed to do. Our players have a responsibility for their own self-determination which I think we need to help them try to develop because when we start playing games they are going to have to make the decision and play the things on their own. Hopefully, we’ll develop the discipline we need to be a smart team and try to develop the mental and physical toughness in this fall camp that’s going to help us be the kind of physical team that can outhit and out hustle every team that we play.”