BATON ROUGE — LSU’s on-field preparation for the season-opener against Washington is about finished as the Tigers will have one final practice here at the Charles McClendon Practice Facility before departing for Seattle on Thursday evening.
The Tigers went through a full pads practice on Wednesday in what head coach Les Miles called, “a good practice. I like what we got accomplished on the field today. We look forward to getting (the players) in here on Thursday and finishing up the week and then getting on a plane for Seattle.”
Since the Tigers are traveling to the Pacific Time Zone for a late night kickoff against Washington, LSU will depart Baton Rouge a day earlier, leaving Thursday instead of the typical Friday departure for a Saturday contest. Kickoff for Saturday’s game is 9:36 p.m. CT, which will be the latest kickoff for a football game in LSU history. The game will be televised nationally by ESPN.
Thursday’s travel schedule calls for LSU to depart Baton Rouge at 6:50 p.m. CT and the four hour and 30 minute flight to Seattle has the Tigers arriving at approximately 9:35 p.m. PT.
The Washington game will be just the second time in school history in which LSU will play a game in the Pacific Time Zone. The only other time it happened came in 1984 when LSU beat Southern Cal, 23-3, in Los Angeles.
Friday’s schedule has the Tigers making a brief stop at Husky Stadium followed by a walk-thru at the Seattle Seahawks Practice Facility.
It’s been exactly four weeks since the Tigers reported to campus for preseason camp and Miles said his team has worked hard for the last month and it’s time to play someone else.
“Our guys are looking forward to playing a game,” Miles said. “We’ve been going against each other so regularly that the plays that are being made just aren’t being celebrated as much as they would if you were playing an opponent, so we’re very much looking forward to starting the season.”