BATON ROUGE — Shyrone Carey rushed for 101 yards and Joseph Addai added 61 yards on the ground as the offense accounted for three touchdowns in LSU’s first scrimmage of the spring here Saturday in Tiger Stadium.
The Tigers begin their third week of spring drills next week with workouts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, followed by another scrimmage on Saturday.
Saturday’s two-hour scrimmage opened with the offense facing the defense in game-like situations. From there, the Tigers went into a situational scrimmage, with the team focusing on third-and-long, third-and-short, goalline, and 2-minute drill situations.
“I can’t say I was totally well pleased, but I will say I was fairly well pleased with the way the first units played on both sides of the ball,” LSU coach Nick Saban said. “I think Joseph Addai and Shyrone Carey showed a lot of toughness and ran the ball extremely well. There is a lot for them to prove in terms of their durability, but I certainly think those guys have the ability to make big plays.”
Addai, who also caught four passes for 71 yards, had runs of 23 and 19 yards, while Carey had a long run of 30 yards and another for 21 yards. Carey added two catches for 15 yards.
Quarterback Matt Mauck led the Tigers on all three of its touchdown drives, including a 4-play, 70-yard drive on the No. 1 offense’s first possession of the scrimmage. Addai capped that possession with a 14-yard run for a touchdown against the No. 2 defense.
Going against the No. 2 defense, Mauck again led the No. 1 offense to a 4-play, 15-yard drive culminating with a Jason Spadoni 2-yard touchdown run. Mauck connected with Devery Henderson on a 28-yard strike for LSU’s third touchdown.
Mauck, who was seeing his first live game or scrimmage action since injuring his foot in the Florida contest last October, completed 9 of 19 passes for 138 yards and one touchdown. He did not throw an interception. Marcus Randall, who split time with the Nos. 1 and 2 offenses, connected on 11 of 28 passes for 106 yards and one interception.
Lester Ricard, seeing his first significant action in a scrimmage since joining the Tigers last season, hit on 1 of 8 attempts for 5 yards. Ricard had receivers drop three of his passes. Rick Clausen hit on 2 of 3 passes for 25 yards for the Tigers.
I thought both Matt and Marcus did some good things at times,” Saban said. “Hopefully, Matt (Mauck) will keep getting better and be able to do more and more as time goes on. I think this was his most difficult situation because he always has a day’s rest in between practices and since we practiced yesterday and scrimmaged today, he has probably done more back-to-back than what he would typically have to do. I thought Marcus (Randall) did some good things. We still need to improve in the passing game.”
Defensively, freshman defensive back Keron Gordon led all Tigers with seven tackles and one sack, while junior defensive back Travis Daniels added five tackles. Linebackers Jason LeDoux and Cameron Vaughn each had a sack for the Tigers, while Gordon and Eric Alexander had interceptions.
Saban said LSU’s No. 1 defense was without three players for the scrimmage – defensive tackle Chad Lavalais and linebacker Lionel Turner both were out for personal reasons, while defensive end Marquise Hill is still recovering from off-season shoulder surgery.
Kicker Andre Boagni was successful on three of his five field goal attempts. Boagni kicked field goals of 22, 30 and 27 yards, while Ryan Gaudet added a 32-yard field goal.
“Overall, I would like to see our team be a little more true grit in terms of the kind of identity we develop when it comes to toughness,” Saban said. “I don’t see enough of that out there. We have some players that are pretty good at that, but not as much as I would like. That is something we need to work on.
LSU Spring Scrimmage No. 1 – Statistics
Rushing
Player Att. Yds. TD
Shyrone Carey 10 101 0
Joseph Addai 9 61 1
Ryan Gilbert 10 32 0
Justin Vincent 8 32 0
Jason Spadoni 7 31 1
Devery Henderson 2 26 0
Michael Clayton 1 22 0
Passing
Player Att. Comp. Yards TD Int.
Matt Mauck 19 9 138 1 0
Marcus Randall 28 11 106 0 1
Lester Ricard 8 1 5 0 0
Rick Clausen 3 2 25 0 0
Michael Harrison 1 1 18 0 0
Receiving
Player No. Yards TD
Joseph Addai 4 71 0
Michael Clayton 3 32 0
Junior Joseph 2 38 0
Eric Edwards 2 16 0
Devery Henderson 1 22 0
Punting
Player No. Yards Avg.
Donnie Jones 10 401 40.1
Field Goals
Player FG FGA
Andre Boagni 3 5
Ryan Gaudet 1 1
Interceptions
Player No. Yards
Keron Gordon 1 0
Eric Alexander 1 0
Defensive Leaders
Keron Gordon 7 tackles, 1 sack
Travis Daniels 5 tackles
Jason LeDoux 5 tackles, 1 sack
Jack Hunt 4 tackles
Cameron Vaughn 3 tackles, 1 sack