BATON ROUGE — LSU coach Les Miles put the sixth-ranked Tigers through split workouts on Sunday with the veterans going in the morning followed by an afternoon session for the freshmen here at the Charles McClendon Practice Facility.
The Tigers will continue the split squad practices through Wednesday before practicing as an entire unit for the first time on Thursday.
Sunday’s workout had the Tigers practicing in helmets and shorts. The Tigers will practice in helmets and shorts again on Monday followed by a workout in helmets and shoulder pads on Tuesday. The team will practice in full pads for the first time on Thursday.
“It’s great to be out here for our first day,” Miles said following the afternoon practice. “For the first day, the morning practice was good. It was a sloppy first day, but I think a good first day.
“This afternoon we had the young guys and some selected veterans. It is nice to get a look at the newcomers and I think there is a lot of talent out there. It was a nice afternoon practice. The weather helped us out. I think the talent will be a great addition to our team.”
Miles said having the freshmen practice as a unit in the afternoon with only a handful of selected veterans gives the rookies an opportunity to get more practice repetitions something that wouldn’t necessarily get with a full squad workout.
“Some guys you want them to get the majority of the work in the afternoon,” Miles said. “You figure in the morning they might have to split some the time with another strong player and you want to see how good he can become. You might divide your punter and kickers so they can get twice the work.
“A guy like (quarterback) Ryan Perrilloux gets virtually half of the snaps, but in the morning certainly he would have gotten much less. So there is some strategy behind the two practices and who we might pick to participate.”
The Tigers used the first day of camp to begin installation of the offensive and defensive schemes, while also working on fundamentals. The Tigers capped the session with a conditioning period.
Morning Practice Quotes
August 07, 2005
On being excited about the upcoming season…
“I think we have got a lot of players who have played a lot of football and who are good players. We have had a good spring and a really good summer, so we are hoping to carry that over to the fall and I think we have got a chance to be really special. I am excited and I know everybody else is excited, but we have got a long way to go.”
On the tough schedule…
“It’s very exciting. When you play in our conference you can always look forward to three or four match-ups against top 15 schools.”
On his confidence for the coming season…
“As soon as baseball was over I went straight into this and, me, Ryan (Gaudet) and Pat (Fisher) got a lot of work in this summer.”
On Coach Miles…
“He’s really hands on and he doesn’t like to yell and scream. He just likes to coach you and try to make you better.”
WR Early Doucet
On his offseason…
“I really worked hard this summer as for as getting myself in shape both in the weight room and outside with the running. I took it more seriously than I did my first year.”
On his development as a receiver…
“It was all kind of new to me being I played quarterback all through high school. It helped me in a way because I knew where the receivers needed to be and the depths of the routes. As far as learning how to line up and come off the line when a defender is pressing me, I just got better at it as the months and weeks went by.”
WR Skyler Green
On the first practice of fall camp…
“It was a tough practice today. The first one is always tough but it gets easier as the days go by.”
On the upcoming season…
“This is going to be a great season. With all the talent we have on offense and defense we can go to the top. It’s going to take a lot of hard work to get there. That was what we started today and we’ve just got to get better each day.”
On the losses in the secondary…
“Losing Corey (Webster) and Travis (Daniels) was a big deal but we have Ronnie Prude who has been here for while and Chevis Jackson who is a great cover corner. I can communicate with LaRon (Landry), Chevis, and Ronnie Prude, so I think we’re going to be good.”