BATON ROUGE — Although their first practice of the season was rushed indoors after 20 minutes due to a lightning storm, the 29 LSU football newcomers opened their Tiger careers with the first of two two-hour sessions in the LSU Indoor Practice Facility on Tuesday afternoon.
“We had a good workday,” Saban said to the media after practice. “It was disappointing that we had to come inside. It would really be important for these kids, they have a lot of anxiety, its important for them to get into a comfort level as for as where they practice, where they go, what they do.”
The signing class of 2001 — along with six walk-ons — went through team and individual drills, with managers and coaches filling in as position players when necessary.
“I know everyone is swimming around a bit mentally out there,” Saban said. “Every drill is a new drill for them. Every call they get is a new call and every key they get is a new key. They’re really just overwhelmed between the anxiety and all the new things that are happening to them. That’s the toughies thing about being a freshmen.”
“The thing that I like about this group is that I didn’t see anyone getting frustrated about the coaching they were receiving or mistakes they were making. They had a real good attitude about what they were learning and how they were going to try to get better. I think that’s the key for young players to be able to make the progress that they need to make.”
These 29 players will have four practice sessions — two on Tuesday and two on Wednesday — to become accustomed to the LSU routine before the varsity rolls in on Thursday and full-squad practices begin with two sessions on Saturday.
Other Saban quotes of note:
“Practice is my favorite thing. I love the teaching aspect of coaching. We try to expose them to as many things as we can from a teaching standpoint. I enjoy it very much.”
“We learned the fight song today. It’s our tradition to sing the fight song after every win and teach it to the incoming freshmen after the first practice of the year. I hope we’ll be singing it a lot this year.”
“I was especially pleased with the quality of big people. Last year we severely lacked quality big people in our recruiting class. It’s good to have those kind of athletes around to work with and develop.”
Pictures from the first practice session:
- Marquise Hill, DE, 6-7, 290, De La Salle HS
- Brandon Williams, DB, 6-2, 197, Port Allen HS
- Andrew Whitworth, OL, 6-7, 315, West Monroe HS
- RB’s Ryan Gilbert (32) and Joseph Addai (41)
- OL’s Ben Wilkerson (55) and Ryan Phillips (57)
- Michael Clayton, WR, 6-4, 185, Christian Life
- DL’s Torran Williams (98), Brandon Washington (97) and Melvin Oliver (90)
- The patchwork offense: QB (1) Perrin Rittner, WR (17) Bennie Brazell, OL (65) Steve Arflin, OL (76) Andrew Whitworth, C (57) Ryan Phillips, OL (64) Rudy Niswanger, WR (14) Michael Clayton.
- Ronnie Prude, WR, 6-0, 190, Fair Park HS
- Head coach Nick Saban
- Defensive Backs Coach Charlie Harbison
