Monday, Aug. 17, 2009
Camp News and Notes
** Today marks the final day of two-a-day practices for the Tigers. LSU held an abbreviated morning workout, followed by an afternoon session that was forced indoors due to rain. The Tigers actually did a portion of the afternoon practice ? mainly special teams – in the rain outside on the new artificial turf field, but then moved inside for the remainder of the workout. After today, the Tigers are scheduled to assume a one-a-day practice routine for the remainder of camp. LSU is scheduled to conduct its second scrimmage of camp on Saturday afternoon in Tiger Stadium followed by its third and final scrimmage next Tuesday. Hard to believe, but two weeks from today, head coach Les Miles will have his first weekly press luncheon of the year as he will meet with the media on Monday, Aug. 31 to preview the season-opener against Washington. Three days later ? on Thursday, Sept. 3 ? the Tigers will depart Baton Rouge for Seattle and its season-opener against the Huskies.
** This week will be a busy week off the field for some of the Tigers as ESPN, CBS and CBSsportsline.com will all be on campus for interviews and specialty shoots involving members of the football team. CBS will be on campus on Thursday as the network will spend time with eight Tigers as part of a specialty shoot that will be used during telecasts of college football games on the network this fall. ESPN is coming to campus on Tuesday for a feature story on LSU walkon quarterback TC McCartney, who is the son of the late Sal Aunese. Aunese, who was a star quarterback at Colorado in the late 80’s under head coach Bill McCartney, passed away 20 years ago at the age of 21 because of stomach cancer. CBSsportsline.com will be on campus on Tuesday and Wednesday for a piece on the LSU defense and new defensive coordinator John Chavis.
** It may not take much to prove that walkon fullback James Stampley is the hardest hitter on the team. Now entering the second full week of camp, Stampley is already on his third face mask of preseason workouts. Stampley flattened his first face mask during the first week of camp and the latest came during Saturday’s scrimmage when one of his hits mashed in his facemask for a second time in less than a week. When asked who the recipient of his latest big hit was, Stampley smiled and said, “I don’t know who it was, I just know it was a linebacker.”
** Three college football preview magazines ? ESPN the Magazine, Sports Illustrated and the Sporting News ? all came across my desk today and LSU is listed prominently in all three of the publications. The Sporting News has the Tigers ranked No. 8 in its preseason poll. The Sporting News predicts that the Tigers will go 10-2 overall, 6-2 in the league, and finishing the year against Penn State in the Capital One Bowl. In addition, TSN lists Gary Crowton as the best offensive coordinator in the SEC, Ciron Black as the best QB protector in the SEC and they name the LSU offensive line as the best in the conference. ESPN the Magazine, which picks the Tigers No. 9 in the nation and No. 2 in the SEC Western Division, has a two-page feature on Trindon Holliday. Sports Illustrated has LSU No. 13 in its preseason poll.
Friday, August 14, 2009
News and Notes from Campus
** LSU was scheduled for another two-a-day practice session on Friday. The Tigers went through a shortened morning workout followed by position meetings. The afternoon workout is scheduled to run for two hours and will include the offense going against the defense in “team” drills towards the end of the workout. A couple players who shined during team drills during the morning workout were tight end Richard Dickson, who caught everything thrown his way, including a spectacular one-handed grab during “live” action, and defensive tackle Al Woods, who continues his strong play with an impressive showing during the live team drills. On one play Friday morning, Woods barreled the through the offensive line and tackled a running back for a 4-yard loss.
** LSU coach Les Miles will put the Tigers through their first scrimmage of preseason camp on Saturday afternoon in Tiger Stadium. Saturday’s scrimmage will be abbreviated and will see the first and second units each getting about 24 snaps. The third team will also get a handful of snaps. Miles said the scrimmage will featured the first units squaring off for a certain numbers of snaps in what will be a tackling scrimmage. Saturday’s scrimmage is the first of three for the Tigers. LSU is also scheduled to scrimmage on Aug. 22 and then again on Aug. 25.
** For the sixth straight year, LSU will go into a football season having sold out of its entire allotment of season tickets. LSU tied a school-record this year by selling 68,650 season tickets, the most the school can sell in Tiger Stadium.
** ESPN.com has released its preseason All-SEC and three Tigers are listed on the squad ? OT Ciron Black, RB Charles Scott and DB Chad Jones. Florida led the way with seven players on the All-SEC team, followed by Alabama with four and LSU and Ole Miss with three.
** CBS analyst Gary Danielson makes an interesting prediction in the network’s college football preview show, which airs on Saturday. Danielson predicts that LSU will face Florida for the national title this year. LSU, Danielson reasons, could beat Florida and lose to a one-loss Alabama team. Once-beaten Florida then beats Alabama in the SEC championship game and plays 11-1 LSU in a rematch. “I have been a strong advocate for 10 years that you can’t play in the (national) championship unless you win the championship of your conference,” Danielson said on the show. “Since they won’t listen to me, I will stick it right back to them. I am picking Florida-LSU in the championship. Four teams from the SEC are in the (coaches’) top 10. I see Florida losing at LSU in that night game. LSU losing to Alabama. Florida will beat Alabama. No one goes undefeated. Two left standing, LSU and Florida play for the (national) championship. I think every team will lose a game, and I don’t think they are going to put Boise State ahead of LSU.”
** ESPNU was on campus today doing interviews with several LSU players for a college football preview show. ESPNU did interviews with Trindon Holliday, Rahim Alem, and Chad Jones. The network is also planning on in-season feature stories on offensive tackle Ciron Black and two-sport star Chad Jones.