Ed Orgeron Says LSU Not Healthy Enough for Full Padded Practice This Week
This has not and will not be a typical week of practice for the purple and gold. The Tigers are extremely beat up after the last two months of tough, physical practices and equally exhausting Saturday games.
Currently the Tigers don't have enough players to go full pads and practice the way the team would like during an open date. Instead, LSU has taken the last few days to focus on itself and some of the areas that have plagued this team in 2021. Most of the practices this week have been walkthroughs with a focus on fundamentals but there are a few key areas the program has attacked in recent days.
"Gap responsibility, being more disciplined in our gaps, open field tackling," Orgeron said. "No. 1 on offense is protecting slants and blocking slants and stunts. Those three areas need to be improved."
Life in the SEC has its difficulties and one of those is the number of injuries that can crop up on a team because of the physical style of play. Some teams survive the injury bug longer and more successfully than others but LSU has been decimated over the last several weeks.
Derek Stingley, Elias Ricks, Kayshon Boutte, Anthony Bradford, Ali Gaye, Andre Anthony, Jared Small, Major Burns and Cordale Flott are just some of the key pieces missing. It makes scheduling and designing a practice pretty difficult when a large chunk of the team is sitting out and unable to fully grasp what's going on.
"We have a formula here that's been very successful and I try to stick to the formula but it does vary according to each team," Orgeron said. "This week we'd usually go full pads today and tomorrow we'd have the Tiger Bowl but we don't have enough players to do the Tiger Bowl scrimmage tomorrow. We don't have enough players healthy enough to practice so you have to make adjustments."
There's hope that Cam Wire and Chasen Hines will be back along on the offensive line, as well as Flott but the team certainly doesn't want to risk further long term injury in the secondary. With four games remaining, LSU will be playing for pride over the last month of the season and have something to build on for the future of the program.
"It's a challenge. You're going against great coaches, against great players and I just think it's a great challenge," Orgeron said. "The expectation to win is very high but you accept that when you take the job."
