BATON ROUGE — Rain chased LSU indoors again on Thursday as the Tigers went through a 2 ? workout in shells (shoulder pads and helmets) here at the Charles McClendon Practice Facility.
The Tigers will hold a practice on Friday morning before conducting a thud (no tackling to the ground) scrimmage on Saturday in Tiger Stadium. LSU’s final scrimmage will come next Tuesday. The Tigers open their fifth season under Les Miles on Sept. 5 in Seattle against Washington.
“Today’s practice was a pretty good go,” Miles said. “I like how our guys approached today; they went pretty hard. We were a little bruised today after (Wednesday’s) scrimmage. We were in shells and did some red zone (offense) and tight zone stuff.
“In my opinion, each day we’re closing the gap on that team we can be. We’re certainly improving with regularity.”
Thursday marked the third day in which the Tigers have gone to a one-a-day schedule and Miles is counting on the team to start getting their legs back under them as they head into next week.
“We’re practicing one time a day and giving them a lot of time off their feet,” Miles said. “We’re getting it done in the morning and giving them a lot of time to rehabilitate and get in the pools. Certainly our legs aren’t as fresh as they’d be on game week.”
One position battle that Miles commented on after Thursday’s workout was the center spot, where sophomore T-Bob Hebert and redshirt freshman P.J. Lonergan are competing for the starting job.
“T-Bob (Hebert) and P.J Lonergan have both improved,” Miles said. “They’re still playing and competing. I don’t know that one has the overriding edge over the other. I think T-Bob played a little more first team today. Tomorrow it might be PJ. I expect we would have two good, young center prospects. I like both of them.”
Miles also said he likes the progress that LSU is making at the wide receiver position. The Tigers return one of the Southeastern Conference’s top receivers in Brandon LaFell along with junior Terrance Toliver, who is expected to start at the other receiver spot. True freshman Rueben Randle, along with seniors Chris Mitchell and R.J. Jackson, are all having impressive camps and will be counted on for playing time this fall.
“I think we will have the opportunity to get the ball to more of our receivers,” Miles said. “Certainly Chris Mitchell will be one of those guys. I think this season his catches will be big possession receptions and key big plays. Both he and R.J. Jackson are having great camps. They are guys we’ll turn to in game situations.”