LSU offensive coordinator Joe Sloan spoke with the media today to give an update on how the offense is doing entering his second full offseason as the Tigers’ offensive coordinator.
“It’s been a great spring so far. It’s been fun to watch the guys work together. I think every year it’s a new team and watching this group, how we play, watching how they’ve come together, how they have fun playing with each other, play with energy, play with passion, I think that’s carrying over to our physicality at every position. That’s what I think has been the most fun to see and the most exciting to see, really on both sides of the ball. I think the defense is playing excellent. A lot of good stuff, a lot of back and forth, a lot of different situations and guys have responded to it well.”
LSU Offensive Coordinator Joe Sloan
After calling plays for the first time since his tenure at Louisiana Tech, Sloan knows what he wants to improve on as a play caller heading into his second full season calling plays for the Tigers.
“I think the biggest thing is we have to make sure as an offense that we can attack people in multiple ways. Different defenses and what we see, we’ll call for some different things. But we’ve got to make sure that we create a balanced offense, that we can attack people in a lot of different ways. At times maybe there were some things that we could get better at. I think we’ve attacked those things in the offseason. That’s the big thing. That’s where I see not only with Garrett but with the entire offense, how we’re focusing on just building multiple ways to attack defenses.”
“Here’s the thing, it takes all 11. It takes every single guy from our receivers and the way they come in and block, the way they crack safeties to our tight ends, to our alignment, to our quarterback’s understanding and all that. I think we’ve attacked that really well in January, February, leading into spring ball. That’s been the exciting thing. So that’s what I want to continue to see grow.”
LSU Offensive Coordinator Joe Sloan
Speaking of Garrett Nussmeier, he also enters his second season as a full-time starter at the quarterback position. For any team’s success, it is important that a play caller and a quarterback have good rapport, and both feel like they do with another spring together.
“Garrett was prepared to play, but then there are certain things that he needed to go through that you can only get prepared for by playing. You can only get the experience by playing. I think he’s learned from that. This offseason, he’s been able to be a little bit different because now he’s going back and when he’s studying, he’s not just studying his practice tape or maybe our tape and what could happen. He’s looking at specifically some stuff that he needs to improve on. He’s been really intentional. I think really some of our staff did a great job of breaking some different things down for him so he could really see some individual things and he could take back control of those situations.”
“I’ve really seen his leadership. I think his confidence and who he is as a person, just his leadership carry over. He was always a leader. But I think he’s done an excellent job of that, just really being organic, being real, being genuine. The guys are gravitating to it. It’s been good to see.”
LSU Offensive Coordinator Joe Sloan
As the team’s quarterback coach, Sloan also gets the chance to work closely with Mississippi State transfer Michael Van Buren Jr. and Ju’Juan Johnson, who is making the position change back to quarterback where he excelled at his high school football career at LCA.
“Let’s start with Mike. Obviously played extremely well, did a lot of great things at Mississippi State last year. So when we had the opportunity to add him to our roster, we couldn’t have been more excited. I think Mike, when you watch, when he gets comfortable, when you’ve really seen it, we’ve seen it a lot this spring, his comfortability in the pocket is exceptional. I mean, it is exceptional. I think that’s a really huge talent for him. He can drive the football now. He can touch every piece of the field with his arm. So I’ve really liked his growth. Some of the things that we do, he hasn’t necessarily done, but he’s a quick learner. Once he does it once and as he feels it, he’s been able to make the adjustments and make the growth. We’re able to kind of split off and really focus on what the individual guys need. I think that’s helped Mike a ton.”
“Ju’Juan wanted to come back to quarterback. I couldn’t be more excited to have him. He’s obviously a different style of quarterback than the other two guys. You’re going to have to respect his feet. You’ve seen his growth from a passing standpoint. He throws a good ball, but in terms of his read progressions and doing the things he needs to do, his footwork and commanding the huddle, I think he has great leadership skills. Obviously he’s been electric with the ball in his hand. Made a couple of big plays when we’ve been in live tackle situations. He’s been fun to coach. He’s attentive and he’s getting after it.”
LSU Offensive Coordinator Joe Sloan
There will be a lot of new pieces to the offense such as incoming transfers Barion Brown (Kentucky), Destyn Hill (Florida State), and Nic Anderson (Oklahoma), but Sloan is excited about the continued development not only from the newcomers, but the familiar faces as well.
“It’s not just the guys we brought in, but the guys that are back. We have a ton of talent. I couldn’t be more excited about the receiver room, tight end room, running back room. When it comes to the weapons and the skill-type players that you’re talking about, from the kind of football that Chris Hilton’s playing to what Aaron’s doing. This time last year, raise your hand if you said Aaron was going to be probably one of our leading receivers.”
“Just the way he’s attacked this off-season, I couldn’t be more fired up. Then to Zavion and the way he’s playing. And Kyle Parker, even though he is not able to go full speed, he’s out there attacking it every day. The additions from Destyn to Barion to Nick, the different guys that are moving through with some of our young guys. I don’t think it’s about any one guy. It’s about the core of receivers and I think that’s the thing that makes it exciting.”
LSU Offensive Coordinator Joe Sloan
The receiving room is not limited just to the receivers, but the tight ends are expected to be heavily featured despite having to replace its all time leading receiver at tight end in Mason Taylor.
“Bauer [Sharp] and Trey’Dez [Green] have really hit it off as well as Donovan [Green]. I think Alex [Atkins] is doing a great job of putting those guys in that room and creating an environment where they work together and push each other. Just how those guys are pushing each other and competing with each other. They both have excellent skill sets on the perimeter but at the same point in time, I think they bring a little bit different things when it comes athletically. So does Donovan.”
“I’ve heard people describe a tight end room as you want it like a basketball team. Everybody can’t be the same. We’re going to have a lot of different assignments and roles that we ask those guys to play. I think when you look back, what Coach Kelly has done with tight ends and now what we’ve done with tight ends, really mostly one guy, Mason Taylor. The emergence of Trey’Dez as we got through the second half of the season and then you watch his growth this off-season and I think he’s going to speak to the development of the team. His attitude is infectious. The way he attacks things is infectious. He can be as good as he wants to be.”
LSU Offensive Coordinator Joe Sloan
The running game has been a big talking point this offseason and how that needs to be an area of improvement if the Tigers want to contend for a College Football Playoff berth. Sloan also talks about the running backs and how they have been performing.
“From the running back standpoint, last year, really only had Kaleb and then Josh was kind of hobbled working through the spring. Now this year, to be able to have Caden, Kaleb, Harlem, I think that group’s been pushing each other, creating competition. I think Kaleb’s had some of his best practices as a Tiger. I think Caden’s been great and working into his second year.
“Harlem really started to get comfortable and show flashes. I love what I’m seeing from the different pieces of the group and we’re going to need everybody. We’re going to need everybody to accomplish what we want to accomplish. That’s kind of the mindset. We got to push each other. We got to have competition. We got to create depth and an environment where I’m going to step up when my number’s called.”
LSU Offensive Coordinator Joe Sloan
Opening up holes for the running backs will be a new look offensive line that will be replacing four of its five starters up front. With a new group, the emphasis will be on being more physical at the point of attack than what they were last year.
“”The fun thing about the offensive line group is that there is now a lot of competition. Every day you got to go out there and bring it. Because if not, there’s somebody else who’s breathing down your neck.
“We’ve been rolling a lot of different guys, giving a lot of guys opportunities. But we’ve made an emphasis, not just at o-line but at every position, about the physicality we’re going to play with. I think that starts up front. When they’re doing it up front, then it carries over to receivers. The way we’ve been blocking on the perimeter, I think that’s changing. That’s a massive piece to what we need to do for our offense. It opens up so many different things.
“The emphasis on coming off the ball, moving people. I think the kids are taking heed to it, getting after it. The competition is bringing out the best in all of them.”
LSU Offensive Coordinator Joe Sloan
The biggest hiccups to the offense was its inability to punch the ball in the end zone when driving in the red zone. Developing the run game in the red zone is a point of emphasis that Sloan wants to focus on the rest of spring.
“I think there’s multiple things that come with that, right. When you get down low, being able to block the extra hat and do different things to account for him. Sometimes that’s quarterback run game, sometimes that’s blocking with receivers. We’ll attack in a lot of different ways. That’s been a huge focal point this offseason. The other piece is when we have opportunities to make plays and one-on-one opportunities, we’ve got to make sure we get the right guys in those spots. Then give them the tools to make the play.”
“We’re working on all those different pieces. That goes into the touchdown percentage in the red zone. That’s critical and we’ll focus on from now all the way through the season. We know we’ve got to be great there because we’re going to be in a lot of games that come down in the fourth quarter. It’s going to be about did you settle for three or did you get four a couple of those times when you had those trips. I think the whole thing is simplicity, showing the same pictures to the offense and then letting them execute in those situations.”
“That’s where you bring out their physicality. That’s where you bring out their violence. If we can continue to do that and be confusing for the defense. Our guys can go play fast and we’re trying to create that for them.”
“We got to be multiple in the run game, right. Garrett needs to run more. He knows that. That’s something that we’ve talked about. But Garrett’s not going to go run for 1,000 yards next year. So we need to be multiple in our run attack and be able to attack people in different ways.”
LSU Offensive Coordinator Joe Sloan
On Thursday, we will be back with another practice report this time hearing from LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker.
Check out the latest episode of The Chase With Jace during spring football!
