BATON ROUGE – Game week preparation officially started at the Charles McClendon Practice Facility on Friday as LSU turned its attention to next Saturday’s season-opener against North Carolina with a shells (shorts, shoulder pads and helmets) practice.
LSU and North Carolina open the 2010 college football season on Sept. 4 in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Kickoff for the contest is scheduled for 7 p.m. CT on ABC. The game can also be heard on the LSU Sports Radio Network and in the Geaux Zone on LSUsports.net.
“The back of the week has been all about North Carolina,” LSU coach Les Miles said following Friday’s practice. “I liked the tempo of practice and I think we’re getting things accomplished. We had a good practice and we are making progress.”
Miles said Friday’s workout had the LSU offense working against the North Carolina “scout team” defense and the Tiger defense going against the Tar Heel “scout team” offense.
Miles also confirmed that the Tigers will be without three players – linebacker Ryan Baker, wide receiver Chris Tolliver, and safety Karnell Hatcher – for the North Carolina game.
Miles noted that his team is preparing to play against North Carolina’s best. There has been speculation that the Tar Heels could be without some of its top players due to an NCAA issue.
“We watched the film and there are a lot of very good players over there,” Miles said. “I certainly wish them well in any and all difficulties that they are currently having. But, we expect this to be a very good North Carolina team. We’re not expecting anything different. We have respect for them and we are going to prepare well for them. We’ve had conversations to that point with our team.
“I don’t think there’s anybody on this team losing focus. We are more focused on who we are and what we’re doing and how we need to prepare and how much better we can get.”
LSU is scheduled for practice on Saturday morning followed by a day off on Sunday. LSU then returns to the practice field on Monday in what will be the official start of game week for the Tigers.