NEW ORLEANS ? LSU went through its final full speed workout on Monday as the fourth-ranked Tigers held a typical Thursday-like practice here at the Louisiana Superdome.
The Tigers and the 11th-ranked Irish square off a 7:25 p.m. on Wednesday in the 73rd annual Allstate Sugar Bowl at the Superdome. The game will be televised to a national audience by Fox.
Monday’s session in the Superdome had the Tigers going through the game plan in all three phases ? offense, defense and special teams ? while also working on special situations. The Tigers once again had crowd noise piped into the Superdome in an effort to be prepared for what should be a very loud venue on Wednesday.
“Practice was good,” LSU coach Les Miles said. “We shortened the practice some to get help get the players’ legs back under them. We ran bits and pieces of every phase of practice for offense, defense and special teams. We are narrowing in on Notre Dame.”
The Tigers also spent a portion of Monday going through some final media obligations, which included player meetings with the television talent for the game. Fox’s Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long and Kenny Albert meet with several members of the Tiger squad, including quarterback JaMarcus Russell, wide receiver Dwayne Bowe, and defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey to discuss the Notre Dame contest.
The Fox crew used its player meetings to get a closer look at some of the key members of the LSU squad. The intent of the meetings with the television crew is to give the announce team background information on the players for the telecast.
The Fox television crew also attended Monday’s practice session in the dome as did former LSU baseball standout Aaron Hill.
Miles also used Monday afternoon to continue to praise the city of New Orleans and the Sugar Bowl for what has been a great week for the Tiger football team.
“When we drove into town and saw the Superdome for the first time, the memory of Hurricane Katrina came back,” Miles said. “Every place that we go virtually everybody that we see says to us, ?we are glad you are back and it couldn’t be any better that you are at the Sugar Bowl’. We enjoy that so much. The people have been so sincere. The hospitality of this city has just been spectacular. Our team is very moved by the experience.”
On Tuesday, the Tigers will go through a walk-through in the Superdome as well as taking the official 2007 Allstate Sugar Bowl team picture.