BATON ROUGE — In what felt more like a winter day than one in early April, the LSU football team went through its final workout before Friday’s Spring Game with a two-hour session in unseasonably cold weather here Wednesday at the Charles McClendon Practice Facility.
The Tigers will take Thursday off before holding the annual Spring Game, dubbed the “Steak and Beans Game” at 5 p.m. on Friday in Tiger Stadium. Friday’s game will have the squad split into two teams – the purple and the white – and will feature four 15-minute quarters.
The winning team on Friday will be treated to a steak dinner with all of the trimmings upon their return to campus following spring break, while the losing team will eat beans and franks on paper plates.
Friday’s game will precede the LSU-Ole Miss baseball game, which starts at 7 p.m. Cox Sports Television will televise the football game live.
“The way we set up the spring game here is for the players to have fun,” LSU coach Nick Saban. “This is not a ‘best against the rest’ game so everybody walks away saying these guys are really good. Every spring game we have had so far has been very competitive.
“The sides get divided up equally. It doesn’t make the football team look the best, but it’s the most fun for the players. It puts them in a competitive situation. We simplify things and both teams have a chance to win. The steak and beans part of it is just something for them to rib each other about.”
Saban, who serves as the “Commissioner” of the game, will be observe the contest from the field, leaving the coaching of the game up to his assistants. The White team will be coached by Jimbo Fisher, Will Muschamp, Stacy Searels, and Travis Jones, while the Purple squad will be led by Lance Thompson, Stan Hixon, Tim Walton, Derek Dooley and Kirk Doll.
As far as spring workouts are concerned, Saban has been pleased with the progress the Tigers have made.
“I am really pleased with a lot of things we were able to get accomplished and get done this spring,” Saban said. “I think we really made a lot of improvement and had a lot of individual players get better. We made a great deal of improvement at a lot of positions. I think we’ve made a lot of progress offensively.
“The quarterback position as a whole has made a lot of improvement. Matt Mauck had an outstanding spring. He did a good job every practice, everyday. We got more out of him in terms of practice repetitions than what we anticipated in terms of his physical ability to function daily on his foot. It has gotten better and better and he never had any setbacks. Marcus (Randall) made some big plays as well.
“This has been a good spring all in all. I don’t think we’re where we need to be. I think we made a tremendous amount of progress in the offseason program and in spring practice and I feel really good about where we are right now, regardless of how the spring game goes.”