BATON ROUGE — An early afternoon thunderstorm that blew through the Baton Rouge area on Saturday forced the LSU football team indoors for its second scrimmage of the spring as the Tigers held a two-hour workout inside at the Charles McClendon Practice Facility.
The Tigers spent the first half of the scrimmage in a game-like situation, while the second part of the workout had the Tiger offense working on third and long, red zone and the two-minute drill situations.
The Tigers will practice on Monday and Wednesday of next week before wrapping up spring drills with the annual spring game at 5 p.m. in Tiger Stadium on Friday, April 11.
“I saw a lot of improvement out there today on both sides of the ball,” LSU coach Nick Saban said after the scrimmage. “I thought we were a little crisper, it was a different look to be going indoors than to be in the stadium. It’s very unusual not to be scrimmaging in the stadium or at least outside. That’s the first practice we’ve had indoors. I thought the players adapted to it pretty well and once the scrimmage got going there were a lot of good things that happened out there.”
Quarterback Matt Mauck, along with running backs Shyrone Carey and Jason Spadoni, highlighted the scrimmage for the Tigers. Mauck, who continues to comeback from a foot injury suffered midway through last season, completed 17 of 26 passes for 283 yards and three touchdowns. Marcus Randall, splitting time with the Nos. 1 and 2 offense, connected on 11 of 21 passes for 138 yards and a pair of interceptions.
Carey led all rushers with 143 yards on 12 carries, including touchdown runs of 43 and 74 yards. Carey’s 74-yard TD run came in the situational portion of the scrimmage. Spadoni rushed for 73 yards and one touchdown on 14 carries, while Joseph Addai had 77 yards on eight attempts.
Michael Clayton led all receivers with 104 yards and one touchdown on six catches, while Devery Henderson had a team-best nine receptions for 83 yards and a score. Addai added five catches for 92 yards and one TD. Mauck threw all three TD passes.
“Matt (Mauck), who has played really well all spring long, has gotten better and better,” Saban said. “I thought he had a really good day today and made some big plays offensively. We made a couple of big play runs. A couple of them were situational type things, but Joseph (Addai) and Shyrone both made some big play runs so that was a good thing.”
Saban said one area of concern on offense were the fumbles the Tigers had during the scrimmage.
“We didn’t take care of the ball very well today ,” Saban said. “It’s kind of a goal of ours this spring offensively to really take care of the ball and not put the ball on the ground, whether we lose the ball or not. We had a few too many turnovers for our liking. The ball was on the ground four or five times at least today. I don’t care what team did it or who did it, that’s not a good thing.”
Defensively, cornerback Ronnie Prude had five tackles, intercepted a pass and returned a fumble 35 yards. Corey Webster returned an interception 69 yards for touchdown, while Jason LeDoux returned another interception 40 yards.
Chad Lavalais led the Tiger defenders with two sacks to go with his three total tackles.
“Defensively we did not tackle as well as I’d like to see us tackle,” Saban said. “A lot of the plays that were made were created by missed tackles on defense and that’s something we need to continue to get better at.
I thought the hitting was better and the intensity was better. I thought the players were into it a little bit more. I am pleased with the progress we have made to this point in the spring. We have two more practices and a spring game and we’re going to take full advantage of those in terms of what we want to try to accomplish and get done.
“I think everybody has the right attitude about trying to do that. I was encouraged by there were more players playing the kind of football we need to play on both sides of the ball. The two’s were a little better. They showed a little bit more maturity out there. So, hopefully we’re going to be able to continue to improve the depth of our team if those guys keep doing what they’re capable of doing.
LSU Football – Spring Scrimmage No. 2 Statistics
Rushing
Player Att. Yards TD
Shyrone Carey 12 143 2
Joseph Addai 8 77 0
Jason Spadoni 14 73 1
Ryan Gilbert 6 12 0
Passing
Player Att. Comp. Yards TD Int.
Matt Mauck 26 17 283 3 0
Marcus Randall 21 11 138 0 2
Lester Ricard 12 2 27 0 1
Rick Clausen 3 2 18 0 0
Receiving
Player No. Yards TD
Devery Henderson 9 83 1
Michael Clayton 6 104 1
Joseph Addai 5 92 1
Gino Giambelluca 4 72 0
Skyler Green 2 42 0
Eric Edwards 1 6 0
Interceptions
Player No. Yards TD
Corey Webster 1 69 1
Jason LeDoux 1 40 0
Ronnie Prude 1 6 0
Defensive Leaders
Willie Demps 6 tackles
Ronnie Prude 5 tackles, 1 int., 1 fumble recovery
Chad Lavalais 3 tackles, 2 sacks
Nick Saban Post Scrimmage Quotes
April 5, 2003
“I think I saw a lot of improvement out there today, really on both sides of the ball. I thought it was a little crisper, it was a different look to be going indoors than to be in the stadium. It’s very unusual not to be scrimmaging in the stadium or at least outside. That’s the first practice we’ve had indoors. I thought the players adapted to it pretty well and once the scrimmage got going there were a lot of good things that happened out there.
“I think the two things that we definitely need to improve on, we made some big plays on offense today. Matt (Mauck), who has played really well all spring long, has gotten better and better and better and I thought he had a really good day today and made some big plays offensively. We made a couple of big play runs. A couple of them were situational type things, but Joseph Addai and Shyrone Carey both made some big play runs so that was a good thing.
“We probably didn’t take care of the ball as well today . It’s kind of a goal of ours this Spring offensively to really take care of the ball and not put the ball on the ground where we lose the ball or not. We had a few too many turnovers for our liking. The ball was on the ground four or five times at least today. AI don’t care what team did it or who did it, that’s not a good thing.
“Defensively we did not tackle as well as I’d like to see us tackle. A lot of the plays that were made were created by missed tackles on defense and that’s something we need to continue to get better at. Although I thought the hitting was better, the intensity was better. I thought the players were into it a little bit more. I am pleased with the progress we have made to this point in the Spring.
“We have two more practices and a Spring game and we’re going to take full advantage of those in terms of what we want to try to accomplish and get done. I think everybody has the right attitude about trying to do that. That is my thoughts without looking at the film relative to my impression of out there today.
“I am not disappointed, I am not displeased. I was encouraged by there were more players playing the kind of football we need to play on both sides of the ball. The two’s were a little better. They showed a little bit more maturity out there. So, hopefully we’re going to be able to continue to improve the depth of our team if those guys keep doing what they’re capable of doing.”