After a heated day yesterday in practice, today’s practice was a lot more mellow. Today, the media couldn’t film or take pictures, but were granted viewing access for the final hour of practice. The players that were involved in yesterday’s headlining scuffle all returned to practice today including Kyren Lacy and Malik Nabers, who were kicked out of practice yesterday.
LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly talked with the media after practice to give his thoughts on what happened in yesterday’s practice.
“It’s all about teaching moments. They’re 18-22 year olds. You deal with everything in front of you and bring everything back to your process. Every day is a teaching experience.”
“We extended the outdoor portion of practice by 15 minutes. We’re going to be smart, but we’re going to do what we have to do to get ready for our opener in Orlando, which will be very warm.”
LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly
For most of the time, the Tigers went into their individual position groups and spent a lot of time working on special teams coverage. However, we were able to see some 7v7 and 11v11 action. The coaches were focusing a ton on communication and being in the right position. Speaking of special teams, Kelly gave an update on the punt return game and the guys that have stood out to him so far through five practices.
With each day, it seems that despite the veteran talent, there are a lot of younger players getting reps. On the offensive side of the football, Kaleb Jackson got some reps with the second team in getting carries as Jackson’s physical abilities have stood out.
Kelly also stated that he likes the young guys, but in the end, most of the time, experience takes over, and he has a lot of it. As mentioned plenty of times before, there is only one football to go around, but plenty of mouths to feed in the backfield including guys that are getting first team reps in Josh Williams, , Logan Diggs , Armoni Goodwin, and Noah Cain along with guys that are capitalizing on second chances that are really talented like John Emery Jr. and Tre Bradford.
Young players getting a lot of reps is pretty much everybody at the tight end position, especially Ka’Morreun Pimpton, who is getting more and more targets in practice as he has been impressing more and more each day. Of course, Mason Taylor will lead the tight end position, but the young freshmen will certainly have a role on this team early on.
Cornerback has been a thing to watch out for as just like last season, new faces and names are taking over that spot, but just like last season, there is still a long way to go to see which of those names will be taking over. Players like Duce Chestnut, Zy Alexander, and Laterrance Welch were getting most of the reps throughout practice, but freshman Ashton Stamps got a significant amount of more reps today in practice. Coach Kelly gave his thoughts on what is going on in the cornerback room.
“Duce is a guy that has played a lot of football and has played a lot of winning football. He is competitive, smart. You are getting a veteran player there. The things that stood out to us was the he was smart, savvy, a great tackler and always around the ball. He is making progress.”
“LT is building off his spring performance. His spring was outstanding and has had a great summer. He continues to get better each and every day.”
“Ashton is a true freshman who put on a lot of weight. He was a bit underweighted at the position for us and we were excited about his competitiveness and his athleticism, but we challenged him to get in the weight room in the offseason, and he certainly did. He’s had a good summer and he has looked the part. He’s doing a really good job as a true freshman.”
LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly on defensive backs
The younger players are not the only ones that are trying to get back to routine, but a veteran that is also adjusting in how he recovers from his knee injury is Maason Smith, and Brian Kelly has seen a lot of positives from the preseason All-American.
“He looks pretty darn good to me. He worked through a lot in the summer so when he came into camp, there was no hesitation.”
LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly on Maason Smith’s progress
Sticking with the defensive line, the unit has adjusted getting to learn under Jimmy Lindsey to learning from John Jancek, who is filling in for Coach Lindsey after originally coming in to be the Jack coach.
“I recruited John. He has experience as a coordinator in the SEC. I don’t think we will miss a beat at all. He also works well with DC Matt House.”
LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly on John Jancek
Speaking of Coach Lindsey, Brian Kelly gave an update on how the defensive line coach is doing and needless to say, it is good news.
The next LSU practice report will be on Thursday as the media will be back to record video and capture pictures for the first 15 minutes of practice. We will also hear from offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock about how the offense is doing on that side of the football.
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