BATON ROUGE – A little more than two months after a 56-27 victory over Texas Tech in the Texas Bowl, the LSU football team returned to the Charles McClendon Practice Facility on Monday for the first day of spring practice.
The Tigers donned helmets but no shoulder pads for the spirited, two-hour workout that saw them complete individual drills and also work on team elements.
According to 12th-year head coach Les Miles, the team came out with a specific purpose on offense during a beautiful, windy day in the capital city.
“We took the field throwing the football and took the first part of practice and worked our throws,” Miles said. “We’re heading toward the opportunity to throw the football better. That’s what we intended to do with the spring, and that’s what we are doing.”
Miles made it clear the theme early in the spring is to focus and improve on the Tigers’ passing attack.
“I think everyone realizes comfortably that we need to execute the passing game more efficiently with higher completion percentages. We all recognize that is something that makes our team better,” Miles said. “I want to throw the football 15 practices just like we threw it today. That’s our plan. What that means is we are taking an inordinate amount of time at the beginning of practice to set up technically our throwing game.”
Miles mentioned the early enrollees were getting acclimated nicely, including a potential change in position for running back Devin White who took snaps at practice as a linebacker.
“He texted me and said, ‘I was thinking maybe if I played linebacker I could get on the field sooner.’ I said, ‘That might be true.’ What we did is we gave him an opportunity, and I think he is doing a lot with it,” Miles said. “It will be interesting to see how he goes from here.”
In addition to five early enrollees, Monday’s practice also marked the first time in Purple and Gold for three new coaches: defensive coordinator Dave Aranda, wide receivers coach Dameyune Craig and running backs coach Jabbar Juluke.
“I think they are doing pretty well,” Miles said. “Again, this is only the first practice. It takes some time to get it right. Dameyune certainly had some experience with spread offense at Auburn and gives us a number of ideas as we put the spring together. Jabbar has also been in a variety of offenses. We have used his experiences as well.”
Miles also complimented Aranda’s style of defense as the Tigers begin to implement it during spring drills.
“I think you will find that he (Aranda) will have the opportunity to gang up on opponents’ formations in the right way,” Miles said. “It’s a pretty well-conceived defense. I think you will enjoy it.”
LSU will return to the practice field Tuesday, and the team will go in shells (shoulder pads and helmets) for the third practice on Thursday.