BATON ROUGE — On a soggy morning at the LSU Practice Fields, the football team began its first full week of practices with a two-hour session beginning at 9:30 a.m. on Monday.
The Tigers will practice again at 7:30 this evening.
LSU practiced in “shells” (helmets and shoulder pads, with shorts) in the morning session, and ran through technique and fundamental drills by postion for the majority of the time the practice was open to the media.
LSU head coach Nick Saban met with the media following the morning practice session, at approximately 11:45.
QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH NICK SABAN- MON AUG. 13, 2001
“We practiced outside today and it was awfully wet. I think we needed that though. At least it didn’t rain while we were practicing. You know we didn’t go indoors last year one time all of two-a-days, and I don’t remember practicing inside one time all season until we got to the Peach Bowl. I really feel like at this time of the year we want to go outside and get acclimated to what it’s like to be outside, and be in the humidity and temperatures during the day and at night. If we are going to have to go out there and practice in the not so good conditions we are going to have to do it. I was a little disappointed in some of the guy’s mental toughness to be able to get in a situation that was a little less than perfect, or optimum, and go out and execute and do what they needed to do. They need to play over the circumstances of having a wet field, and catching and throwing a wet ball, backing up and changing direction on a wet field- those kinds of things. I think we need more of that. We have to have the disposition that is going to be an advantage to us to play in adverse conditions. We want the other team to do all that. Other than that, nothing real new in practice today.”
“Barnes and Kipps missed practice this morning with a virus, so hopefully they can be back by tomorrow. Last year we had some wet-ball practices, and sometimes our entire practice was one. We got that in today because it was hard to keep the balls dry despite it not raining, and it was real wet out there. I think it was kind of hard to get the guys going today. Maybe that it because of yesterday’s activities. That is sometimes how morning practices are. Guys are a little sore, a little tires when they get up. It is nothing different from any other player that plays football. That is what I told the guys after practice today. All players across the country- that is what they are going through. They are all sore and all tired. The teams that can persevere are the ones that are going to have the best chance to be successful. We need to continue to work to get where we need to be, to be able to compete for sixty minutes in a game.”
“Well, we had more experienced players there last year (offensive line), more guys had played football, and even though it was new — they had experience. This year we had more guys pass the test, and had more guys in better shape. We maybe have more size and more strength- all those physical attributes. We don’t have numbers of players, but we like a couple of the freshman players a lot. Those guys will eventually be good players for us from that class. Other than the three starters coming back from last year, we don’t have a lot of experience. Regardless of how they do in practice, guys with no experience- the key is how they do in the game. We will not know that until they go out and play on their own. That is a big step for a player. There is a time in practice where you just have to let the players play. If they make mistakes then that tells you they are not read to go out and do it on their own.”
“Rob Sale has done a very good job. He did an outstanding job in the spring of converting over to center. We feel real good about how he has developed as a center. We feel like we could move him back to guard if we needed to at any time. He is a bright guy, very intelligent, and is very mature. He really made the conversion to center a lot easier than even I though he could. Rodney Reed is a very smart guy. He plays smart, and is very effective. Dwayne Pierce is the most dominating physically guy that we have. He has lower-body power and explosion. He is a very good pass-blocker.”