BATON ROUGE — After a week off for spring break, the LSU football team returned to the practice field on Tuesday as the Tigers went through a two-hour workout in full pads here at the Charles McClendon Practice Facility.
The Tigers will practice again on Wednesday and Friday followed by the team’s second scrimmage of the spring on Saturday afternoon in Tiger Stadium.
“Everybody came out with a great attitude today,” LSU coach Nick Saban said. “It was probably a good decision to watch the film yesterday (Monday) and let the players get back reoriented to school and let them work out in the weight room. It helped the practice today, but we got a little tired and did not sustain our intensity like we would like to in practice, which could be expected because 10 or 12 days off carrying pads is a tough thing to come back from. I was pleased with the effort and the carry over that we had.”
Saban again used Tuesday’s workout as an opportunity to experiment with players on both sides of the ball, moving defensive tackle Brandon Washington to offensive line, while continuing to work both Corey Webster and Ronnie Prude at defensive back and wide receiver.
“We’ve got some new guys playing new positions out there,” Saban said. “Again, all are experiments, nothing permanent. We are looking at Brandon Washington on the offensive line. He is doing a pretty good job (at defensive tackle) but we’re just taking a look at him to see if this is a position that he may be better suited for.”
At linebacker, the staff moved redshirt freshman Darius Ingram from outside linebacker to inside backer, while shifting junior linebacker Kenny Hollis to a defensive lineman.
“We changed the linebackers and moved them around a little bit. We just continue to do some different things moving guys around to get them the opportunities to evaluate and see what is the best fit for us to get the best 11 players on the field.”
With nine practices down and six remaining this spring, Saban said he’s been pleased with what the team has been able to accomplish.
“I am pleased with the way we have progressed on offense,” Saban said of the first half of spring practice. “I am pleased with the way the quarterbacks have progressed and the young receivers have progressed. The offensive line has come together pretty nicely; we just need to keep working on depth there.
“Defensively, we have parts of our team that seem to be doing okay but we don’t have all of the pieces of the puzzle together yet. We have some very young players that are filling in at some positions and new players that really don’t understand the LSU way, the system or the scheme. I think it has taken us a little longer to develop the type of chemistry our defense would like to have and that’s of some concern. We’ve done a lot of good things this spring and there are a lot of things that we need to continue to work on.”