Tiger Practice Report: Few Key Pieces Absent in First LSU Spring Practice Indoors
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For the first time all spring, the weather didn't cooperate with LSU and the Tigers were forced inside, with a few more notable absences to keep tabs on.
On Tuesday, the Tigers were missing wide receiver Jack Bech and defensive lineman BJ Ojulari during the open portion of practice. It was the first practice either player had missed due to injury, adding a few more key players to the injury report.
As for the on field practice itself, there wasn't much seen that was dissimilar to what has been shown in previous 20 minute sessions. The 20 minutes of viewing the media was allowed to be present for mainly consisted of individual drills and towards the very end, some one on one battles between the offensive and defensive line.
Those drills have arguably been the most entertaining of all spring as the purple and gold work through the rotations and depth chart on both sides of the line. Xavier Hill, Tremond Shorts and Marcus Dumervil all had some nice wins in those one on one battles, as did rising sophomore defensive lineman Maason Smith.
Brian Kelly says the next several practices leading into the spring game will be more scripted towards figuring out the best spots for players to shine.
"Now as we get past the educational phase of how we want our team to prepare to practice, we gotta start looking at where are those guys positionally as we move into preseason camp? What's the roster start to look like?" Kelly said.
As for the offense between the quarterbacks and skills position players, Jack Mashburn and Kole Taylor continue to split reps at tight end, with Mashburn working with Jayden Daniels Tuesday and Taylor with Myles Brennan. Also in the group with Brennan were running back John Emery and receivers Malik Nabers, Brian Thomas and Jaray Jenkins.
Tight end and offensive line are two of the positions the Tigers will be looking at via the portal so as many positive signs the players currently on the roster can show the better. The other is cornerback, a position that continues to look razor thin behind Mekhi Garner, Demarius McGhee and Raydarious Jones.
How the Tigers handle those final three scholarships available via the portal will be one of the stories to follow as spring ball draws to a close.
