Last Few Weeks of Practice Have Brought Great Teaching Moments for LSU Football Players
LSU has been about the next man up mentality ever since coach Ed Orgeron arrived in Baton Rouge. But what happens when 30-40 of your scholarship players are out of commission for two weeks' time?
It's not exactly that easy as players have to switch positions, learn new tendencies, schemes and even play second team quarterback for the first time since high school. That's what the last two weeks of LSU football have been about on the practice field as the Tigers adjusted to football in a COVID-19 world while simultaneously preparing for Arkansas.
Yet because of the way all of the players and coaches handled the situation for what it was, guard Ed Ingram didn't seem to notice much of a difference at practice.
"The only difference really was there were way fewer people on the field but I think we really didn't skip a beat," Ingram said. "We had less guys in practice but we still had a task at hand so I think all of our guys handled it well."
A few defensive linemen even trotted over to fill the void on offense and even snapped last week during practice. That was news to Ingram, who was so locked in on trying to get his and the offensive line’s play dramatically improved ahead of this weekend’s matchup with Arkansas.
"Practice was really no different from a normal week of practice," Ingram said. "We had one extra padded practice getting ready for Arkansas but everything was pretty straight forward and we didn't skip a beat."
The last two weeks have been great for the defense as not only did some of the younger players further down the depth chart get some added reps in practice but it was a good time period to ensure everyone was healthy from an injury perspective.
Linebacker Jabril Cox said that it's felt almost like another fall camp as the Tigers have been chomping at the bit to get back out on the field. Having to sit with that 48-11 loss to Auburn for the last three weeks has only made the players more determined to continue to show improvement.
"It was something that was good for us and helped a lot of players get healthier," Cox said. "It helped us come together as a team and bond and get better with the plays. I think this is something that we're gonna go into Arkansas and just show people these last two weeks were good for us and as a program we developed."
Missing so many players, including starters was difficult at times because there were plenty of new faces playing new positions according to Cox. But Cox never really looked at is as a challenge but rather a good teaching moment for younger players and veterans. It allowed guys to get out of their comfort zone and other players on the defense to be more vocal about what they should be doing.
Because it was missing so many players, another one of the major concerns that Orgeron talked about was the importance and emphasis of live tackling this week in practice. Even when the team was relatively healthy, it's been a problem that has consistently popped up this season.
Cox said that the defense has certainly continued to make corrections from some of the miscommunication and missed assignment issues that plagued the unit for the first half of the season. It also helped that even the quarantined players were watching film and practice the entire time to help with the transition once they returned to practice early this week.
"We've been working on us and fixing ourselves," Cox said. As far as live tackling, we've been going against each other and just making each other better. They [quarantined players] were getting up to speed on things, they just couldn't be there physically. Technology has helped a lot through this whole process of having guys quarantined and most of the guys are back now."
