LSU Spring Game: White 23 Purple 14

The Tigers are set to kick off their annual spring game. The biggest question heading into today, who will be under center on September 4 into Pasadena? However, do not expect head coach Ed Orgeron to name a starter after today’s game. Although Coach Orgeron has already mentioned the scrimmage will be “pretty vanilla” with the play calling. It is still a live scrimmage and it will be the 1’s vs the 1’s and 2’s vs the 2’s, with bragging rights on the line going into the summer.

The White team would get the ball to start the game, sophomore quarterback Max Johnson would lead them out, unfortunately, the white team’s drive would stall at the purple six yard line on a fourth down attempt. Johnson would play out the first quarter, going 4 of 10, before Brennan came in.

Brennan led the Tigers on a three straight scoring drives, the last of which was a fake spike touchdown pass, at the end of the first half that rivaled Dan Marino. It got the White team sideline pumped and I also think it might have woken up Max Johnson’s competitive side. Brennan would finish the first half 11 of 15 and 1 TD.

 Some questions were answered today, the play of the secondary is much improved, which in 2020 was a liability for the Tigers. “I think our best area of improvement is our DBs.” said Ed Orgeron. “You can attribute that to Coach Jones and Corey Raymond.” Orgeron would later go on to praise Jones again saying “I tell you what, this Durante Jones is a talented, talented football coach.”

Jones’s defense showed out today, forcing 13 PBU’s and 5 interceptions. Even for not showing their hand on either side of the ball, these are impressive numbers. Dwight McGlothern stepped up for Elias Ricks, who was out due to injury, and Jay Ward had an impressive day considering the position change. Ward says he loves the change because “it allows me to use my instincts more.”

The play of walk on linebacker Jared Small payed dividends today. The senior linebacker led the team in tackles today and has earned playing time this season. “Jared Small had a great spring.” said Orgeron. “I haven’t mentioned him much, but he’s going to play for us.”

Damone Clark was second on the team in tackles and has grown this past off-season as a vocal leader on the team. “The biggest thing we need to do is just stay together as a family.” said Clark “If we stay together, nobody can mess with that. And I truly believe that. As long as we’re ‘One Team, One Heartbeat’ can’t nobody mess with us.”

With a much depleted running back corps Ty Davis-Price got the bulk of the carries, however, we did get treated to a special package with Koy Moore running the ball. Moore ended the day with two carries for 14 yards. His longest carry was 15 yards. I would definitely like to see a goal line package with him and Kardell Thomas lining up in the backfield. Davis-Price ended the day with a very good 15 carries for 76 yards.

The Tigers could be getting back to that 2019 form again, we saw some hurry up, a lot of the spread, running backs emptying the backfield to setup mismatches against the defense. Not a lot of bunch combos, not a lot of tight end throws. I think September 4th cannot get here fast enough.

Final score:

White 23

Purple 14