NEW ORLEANS — LSU had its day with the media on Friday as the second-ranked Tigers spent an hour with close to 250 members of the media covering the Sugar Bowl here at the Louisiana Superdome.
Among the highlights of LSU’s hour with the media were several interviews with coaches and players that were aired live on ESPNews. In addition, Tiger punter Donnie Jones turned reporter as the senior from Baton Rouge caught up with Tiger coach Nick Saban for a couple of questions. Jones asked Saban about playing Oklahoma for the national title and then asked the coach if there was any truth to the rumor that Jones had been taking snaps at quarterback this week for the Tigers to which Saban replied “no.”
Saban did have the following comments when asked about Sunday’s national title game.
“This has been an extremely fun week for our players to be here in New Orleans. It has been a little chaotic in terms of the excitement and the passion, but I’ve been very pleased with the focus that we’ve been able to maintain, our players practicing well, and we haven’t had any significant problems, so we’re very pleased about that.
I think that the most important thing for us as a team is to be ourselves. I think that sometimes when you get in situations, the game can become bigger than in life, and in some ways, it becomes very difficult for everybody to be what they’ve been. We are what we are, and it is our identity, it is how we judge you, and it’s what we want to do to continue to play the good football that we’ve played to get us. If we get outside of ourselves and lose our balance, from that standpoint, then we probably won’t perform as well, so I think that’s a real key from now until game time for our team.”
The Tigers also took their team picture on Friday as the squad posed at midfield of the Superdome with the Nokia Sugar Bowl National Championship logo.
Following Sugar Bowl Media Day, the Tigers bused 15 minutes to the New Orleans Saints Practice Facility for a two-hour workout on the turf indoors. LSU’s practice on Friday was typical of a Thursday workout during the regular season.
Among the features of Fridays workout were polishing up the game plan as well as continued work on special teams as well as a session in the two-minute offense.
Some of the people who watched the practice were NFL Hall of Famer, former Pittsburgh Steeler standout and ABC sideline reporter Lynn Swann, along with former Tiger and five-time All-Pro Kevin Mawae and current New England Patriot Brian Kinchen.
Saban capped his day by taking part in his radio and television shows at the Sheraton followed by a five-minute interview with Terry Bowden and John Saunders at halftime of the Fiesta Bowl at the ABC set in Jackson Square.
The Tigers will conduct a walk-thru in the Superdome on Saturday.
The team photo seen above with this story is now for sale online in the LSU Gift Shop. To get your photo of this year’s record-setting team, click here!