BATON ROUGE — LSU continued to prepare for Miami and its high powered passing attack with a two-hour workout here Wednesday at the Charles McClendon Practice Facility.
The 22nd-ranked Tigers (1-1) will practice again on Thursday followed by a walk-thru in Tiger Stadium on Friday afternoon. Kickoff for Saturday’s game is set for 7 p.m. in Death Valley.
“We’ve had a good week of practice and I think we’ve made progress,” LSU coach Nick Saban said after Wednesday’s workout. “I’ve been encouraged about some of the progress that we’ve made offensively, especially in the passing game. I think we’ve had a better week throwing the ball and we seem to have a little better timing in it. The quarterbacks are handling the pressure and I’m encouraged by that.”
Saban said the Tigers have worked this week with the defense focusing on the no-huddle offense.
“One of the most difficult things for the defensive guys is when you practice against a no-huddle type offense. You have a scout team running their plays. It’s hard enough when you put them in the huddle, tell them what to do and show them a card, but when you try to do it without a huddle, it makes it difficult. Obviously when you’re playing defense, you are going to react and respond to the guy that is playing offense.
“Even though I think our scouts have done a phenomenal job of trying to simulate the no-huddle offense, it still makes for a sloppy practice and not the kind of tempo in practice that you like to have. But that is the way you have to do it so you can play better in a game because I think that sloppiness can carry over into the game.”
Saturday’s matchup will feature one of the nation’s top rated pass defenses in LSU against one of the nation’s top passing offenses in Miami. LSU enters the Miami game ranked first in the Southeastern Conference and fifth nationally by allowing only 84.5 yards passing a contest. Through two games, opposing quarterbacks have completed only 19 of 45 passes for 169 yards against the Tigers.
Miami ranks among the top 20 teams in the nation in passing offense with 273.5 yards per game. Miami quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has completed 49 of 84 passes for 547 yards and four touchdowns for the RedHawks.
“The defense has worked hard this week,” Saban said. “We are going to use five and six defensive backs on Saturday. That’s what we’ve always done against these types of teams.”
A MOMENT OF REFLECTION: LSU coach Nick Saban called the Tigers together on the practice field on Wednesday before the start of the workout for a moment of silence in the memory of those people who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks last September 11.
Football Continues to Prep for Miami Air Attack