BATON ROUGE — LSU slowed the pace down on Sunday as the Tigers used their final workout of the week to concentrate on special teams with a one-hour session here at the Charles McClendon Practice Facility.
The Tigers will workout again on Monday afternoon with another light workout before turning up the intensity on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Tigers report to New Orleans on the afternoon of Jan. 2.
LSU and Ohio State will meet for the BCS National Championship on Monday, Jan. 7 at the Louisiana Superdome. It will be only the third meeting between the teams and the first since 1988. LSU, champions of the Southeastern Conference, brings an 11-2 overall mark into the game, while Ohio State, the Big 10 champs, are 11-1 overall.
Sunday’s workout had the Tigers spending most of their time on all phases of the punting and kicking game, an area that LSU excelled in during the 2007 season. LSU was so productive in those areas this year that for the first time in school history the Tigers produced an All-Southeastern Conference punter and placekicker in the same season.
Senior punter Patrick Fisher earned first team all-SEC honors after leading the league with 43.9 yards per punt, a figure that ranks as the third-highest total in school history.
Junior placekicker Colt David re-wrote the LSU record books in 2007, kicking a school record 25 field goals on his way to score an LSU record 139 points. The 139 points are just five points from tying the SEC all-time mark of 144 set by Alabama running back Shaun Alexander in 1999.
Of David’s 25 field goals, six have come from at least 40 yards. He’s also converted all 58 point-after-touchdowns this year and he even scored a touchdown on a fake field goal against South Carolina. For the year, David has successfully converted on 25 of 32 field goal attempts.
On Monday, the Tigers will have a light workout, going in shells (shorts and shoulder pads) for what is a scheduled 33-minute practice. Monday also signals the one-week mark before the Tigers face the Buckeyes for the national title in New Orleans.
“We’ve had good practices up to this point,” LSU coach Les Miles said. “We came back in on December 26 to an hour-long practice that was really a conditioning practice and then two heavy-hitting practices and then (Saturday) was a shells practice where we got a lot of timing and we started grooming the game plan.
“I thought the timing was good and we’re certainly a ways away from the game, but from this point forward we’re going to talk about getting our legs back and getting fresh so the next two days (Sunday and Monday) will be very light.”
With the national championship contest being played on Jan. 7, the Tigers have had an extra week to prepare for their matchup with Ohio State. As a result, Miles and his staff have put together a practice plan that has seen LSU break up the three-week stretch into three one-week segments.
“What we’ve tried to do with the three weeks is make them three game weeks,” Miles said. “You go hard (for a week), get your feet back and then we gave them some time off for Christmas. Then when they came back, we have two more ?game weeks’ of preparation.”