BATON ROUGE — LSU put on full pads for the first time in nearly three weeks on Wednesday as the Tigers continue to prepare for the BCS National Championship Game against Ohio State.
LSU will meet Ohio State for the 2007 national title on Jan. 7 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. It will mark only the third meeting between the teams and the first since the 1988 season. The contest will be televised nationally by FOX.
Wednesday’s workout had the Tigers spending time on individual drills, special teams as well as devoting 30 minutes to work against the scout team. LSU also spent a portion of the workout with drills that had the No. 1 offense going against the No. 1 defense.
“I like how we’re progressing,” LSU coach Les Miles said after the workout. “I like the speed of the practice and the way the players competed. We spent a lot of the periods going ?good versus good’. I like where we are at this points in our preparation.
“Every time that we go against each other, it is (like) a scrimmage probably without tackling. The last two days or three days we went against scouts for maybe 30 minutes in each practice. The rest of the time was against good versus good which is as close to a scrimmage as we’ll need to get.”
Miles said he doesn’t expect the long layoff to affect either team. By the time Jan. 7 rolls around, LSU will have gone 38 days without playing a game, while Ohio State will have been off since the Michigan contest on Nov. 17, a span of over 50 days.
“I think it’s a little over blown,” Miles said of the layoff. “The key is to rehabilitate, get fresh and get healthy. After that, it is preparing your team. I think you get used to it. You understand the schedule and you do the same things.”
Miles also said that the Jan. 7 playing date hasn’t changed LSU’s bowl preparation schedule. The Jan. 7 game will mark the latest into a season that the Tigers have ever played a football game and it’s also marks the longest season ? from start to finish ? in the history of the program.
LSU opened its season on Thursday, Aug. 30 against Mississippi State in just the second time in the history of the program that LSU has played a game in August. Ironically, the only other time LSU played a football game in August came in 2003, which is the last time the Tigers claimed the national title in football.
“First of all, you work back from the day that you play to come up with your schedule,” Miles said. “Obviously, there is recruiting and there are a bunch of things that you have to take into account. I’ve talked to a couple of mentors and gone with the same recipe that we have gone with other bowls.”
The Tigers will stay in full pads for Thursday’s afternoon workout. The Tigers will then juggle practice time with LSU’s fall commencement on Friday followed by a morning workout on Saturday.
“We have three more practices this week that will be significant,” Miles said. “Then we’ll get some break time, come back after that and really divide the remainder of our time into what would be two game weeks.”
After Saturday’s practice, the Tigers will then take three days off before returning to campus on Dec. 26. LSU will resume its bowl practice schedule on Dec. 27. The team reports to New Orleans on Jan. 2.