BATON ROUGE — A day after LSU’s 49-7 win over Tulane on Saturday night in Tiger Stadium, Tiger head coach Les Miles meet with the media to discuss the victory over the Green Wave.
Here are Miles’ comments after reviewing the game film from the Tulane contest.
Opening Statement
“We came out with desire to win and to put them away early. We played strong. We were pretty sharp in execution. The quarterback (JaMarcus Russell) was sharp. I was disappointed with a couple of returns (on special teams). I really felt like we need to pay a little greater attention to detail on our coverage lanes. I think it something that we can get fixed. I thought our punter (Chris Jackson), punted the heck out of the football all night. He really had a big day. Our offensive line played better. I thought Jacob Hester had a strong game both running and blocking. Most of Charles Scott‘s yardage was made on the strength of (No.) 18’s blocking.”
On Early Doucet‘s performance …
“Obviously, handing him the ball on the end around was (designed) for him. We know that is something he can do. A couple of routes where we use the bubble (screen) is something that Early Doucet can do. It could have been a number of guys, but it happened to be Early on that one. The throw for the touchdown was based on the guy who was open. If that team wanted to have pressed both wide receivers out there, you would have never seen a bubble screen. You may have seen something else. They weren’t that kind of team. We took what they gave us. Early was a high school quarterback. When he gets the ball in his hands, he runs it a little bit more like a running back — a little bit more athletic, goes up and gets the ball in the air — as well as anybody.”
On getting the ball to the wide receivers …
“We felt like there were some real advantages with our skill kids on the field, so we wanted to get them in the game quickly. If you look at the first couple of plays, they are figuring that we were going to work on the running game. We really felt like we could get the ball to the receivers, and we would have time to work on the running game. And we did. We were not, not going to throw it. We understand that we have real advantages with our receivers and at quarterback. We are going to always use that weakness they have to run the ball a little more efficiently in every game.”
On the injury status for this week …
“I think we are pretty healthy. We’ll return (RG) Brian Johnson to the lineup for next week. There are some guys that are nicked. Everybody will return. It is nice to have (Keith) Zinger back. He played well.”
On Mississippi State’s defense …
“Their defense is very powerful up top. They use a variety of schemes. They are very strong up front. It will be more of a challenge to get a running game going.”