Spring Practice 2022

[houtiger]

Spring Practice Dates:
Thursday, March 24
Saturday, March 26
Tuesday, March 29
Thursday, March 31
Saturday, April 2
Tuesday, April 5
Thursday, April 7
Saturday, April 9
Tuesday, April 12
Thursday, April 14
Saturday, April 16
Tuesday, April 19
Thursday, April 21
Friday, April 22

The annual Spring Game will take place on April 23 at Tiger Stadium.

LSU's Pro Day is set for April 6.

[Hatchertiger]

Also 1:00 baseball game on April 23. Wonder what time spring game will be?

[LSUDad]

1 hour ago, Hatchertiger said:

Also 1:00 baseball game on April 23. Wonder what time spring game will be?

Will try to make both, I’m sure they will jockey them to separate the games. They play Missouri that weekend. 

Edited February 18, 2022 by LSUDad

[LSUDad]

 

 

[houtiger]

First practice is Thursday, thought I'd remind everyone.

From the Advocate, late Feb.
 

Quote

 

There are still basic ideals Kelly wants from the offense — physicality, discipline and putting the ball in playmakers’ hands — but he and Denbrock have similar philosophies. Denbrock also wants LSU to run the football at will, be physical and create explosive plays.

What exactly that looks like is “a work in progress.”

“We're just at the beginning stages of that,” Denbrock said. “To say we're going to run my offense would be pretty arrogant on my part, especially considering the talent that's in this room. We're going to run an offense that's LSU's offense.”

Much like his defensive counterpart Matt House, Denbrock wants to use multiple formations. He has called 10, 11, 12 and even 14 personnel during his career, and he expects to implement various looks, including with the quarterback under center, something LSU largely removed the previous three years with a run-pass option scheme.

“We're in the process of trying to figure out exactly what direction that's going to end up taking,” Denbrock said. “We're a personnel-driven offense at its core, which means it's multiple enough that we can do what we need to do with whichever personnel grouping we decide to do it with.”

Spring practice will be crucial for learning what those players can do. The new coaches emphasized this week they haven’t spent much time with the team yet, and though they can watch plenty of previous film, they want to give everyone a fresh start with no preconceived notions of their talent.

Denbrock and the rest of the offensive staff will still bring concepts to teach at the beginning of spring practice, which they have discussed since meeting one another earlier this month. None of them has worked together, and only offensive line coach Brad Davis worked at LSU last season.

In the month before practice starts March 24, the coaches will continue to review different schemes and verbiage as they develop an understanding of the playbook. Then once spring ball arrives, quarterbacks coach Joe Sloan said, they’ll be able to decide what to focus on with this team.

“I think that will be an ever, ongoing challenge throughout the spring to understand where we can highlight our strengths and hide our weaknesses as an offense,” Sloan said, then he winked. “That's coach Denbrock's job.”

 

 

[houtiger]

 

I found this significant about spring practice.  The press will be allowed longer access "on occasion".  We should get a better read on how things are going, who's winning battles.  From Dandy Don a few days ago:

Quote

10. Jumping back to football, spring football is right around the corner. A week from today, on March 22, Coach Brian Kelly will hold a Spring Practice Preview Press Conference. Two days later, on March 24, LSU will hold its first spring practice. The good news for us in the media is that we will get more access than in recent years. Typically, we could only view 15-20 minutes of individual drills, which rarely made it worth my time to drive from Lafayette to Baton Rouge. This year, there are a couple of days where the media can stay the entire practice and multiple days with extended viewing. Also, there will be interviews with all three coordinators. I hope to make it out to two or three practices and have Jim Kleinpeter cover a few for us as well. We’ll look forward to providing updates and videos.

 

[houtiger]

Brian Kelly's spring practice opening press conference:

 

[Herb]

Thanks for posting that @houtiger.

The more I listen to CBK, the more I am confident that he knows what he is doing and that the program is in great hands. I appreciate his overall tone and intelligence and he doesn't come off as being arrogant, which was kind of his rep before he got here.

[houtiger]

He's very enjoyable to listen to.  He seems to think that getting the players to buy into his value system, the standards they want to see achieved, the players coachability and willingness to listen to their coaches, are all very important.  Without saying it, he's sort of saying that was missing the last two years.  I wonder how he would have handled a kid like Eli Ricks.

When asked about the early enrollees, he basically just mentioned Will Campbell, "he's a beast".  He said Campbell appears to have the physical tools to compete this year, you can see it in the weight room.  Will he, its too early to tell (keep him motivated).  He said Walker Howard is talented, but when you look at Alabama and aTm, he needs experience.

Edited March 25, 2022 by houtiger

[houtiger]

Mike Scarborough and Buddy Songy give their update on day 1.  They are enthused.

 

[LSUDad]

https://tigerbait.com/s/3980/watch-lsu-inteviews-with-brennan-ojulari-bech-and-gaye

[Herb]

 

[LSUDad]

LSU Offense to Have Familiar Cadence With New Wrinkles Mixed In

Goals of Tigers' offense to get ball to athletes in space, spread the ball around

• GLEN WEST
• 3 HOURS AGO

Every year when it comes to scheme on either offense or defense, the most common phrases are "versatility" or "spreading the ball around to playmakers." It's the broad description of how every team hopes to operate on the field but for LSU this spring, a completely new coaching staff is attempting breathe new life into the familiar idioms. 

When head coach Brian Kelly took over, there were certain facets he immediately needed to address and many came on the offensive side of the football. Now as spring ball heats up, the goals were to construct a scheme around the talent LSU has offensively.
 

 

Quarterbacks are being encouraged to extend plays with their legs, get the ball out quicker and really keep the defense on its toes. Up front, it's hard not to recognize the tall task offensive line coach Brad Davis has in finding the right mix of talent to ensure better run and pass blocking than the previous two years. 

As for the receiver room, likely the deepest on the roster when fully healthy, the expectations haven't changed. This offense wants to get the ball in their hands and use their athleticism to make plays. With Kayshon Boutte and Malik Nabers dealing with injuries, it's opened up more opportunity to see just how deep this group really is. 

 

Jack Bech is now working with the receiver group full time after spending most of his freshman year as a hybrid tight end. The terminology may be a bit different but he's noticing the energy and execution have been different in these first few practices.

"It's going to be more versatile and it's gonna open up everything," Bech said. "It's only the second day but the way we run our offense, it gives the QB the sense of doing what he needs to do to get it to the open player. A lot of our offense is going to be built around getting the ball to somebody in the open field and making our athletes make plays in open field." 

For Bech personally, getting that extra time with the receivers to work on technique and catching more balls has really helped in his development since the end of a very productive freshman season for him.
 

Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock and Kelly both have a history of success with more mobile quarterbacks so there's definitely a blue print of what the two are looking for in who leads this offense behind center.

But the reality is the Tigers haven't had the offensive line nor the consistency at the quarterback and skills positions the last few years that make for a smoothly run offense. Kelly and the new staff spent countless hours addressing the first issue and there's going to be true competition up front but getting the ball out quickly is something Brennan and the other three scholarship quarterbacks have stressed in the first few days of spring. 

"We're going to spread the ball around and what we're emphasizing is getting the ball to our playmakers and make them runners," Brennan said. "Let them get the ball and go make plays. They're gonna be the guys to out run people, out jump people so as quarterbacks we're going to get the ball out as quick as possible."

The chemistry this offense develops over the now 13 practices remaining in the spring session will tell Kelly and the staff a lot about what needs to be tweaked before implementing some more nuanced play designs and schemes. And the only way to find the answers to the lingering competition across the roster is through repetition. 
 

"I love intensity through repetition. I think it's the best way to learn and creating that environment has been really good," Kelly said. "Everybody's got really good players but I think it's about preparation and this has been a way I've learned to prepare a football team for Saturday's."

[houtiger]

From a recent interview with Mike Cauble on spring practice:

Bigger gap between Brennan and Daniels than he thought (Brennan looks better).  Daniels did not throw good spiral and was off target.  He wondered if Daniels was brought in to run the ball.

Brian Thomas is the most impressive guy on the field (WR).  Chris Hilton catches your eye.

About the o-line, they were getting their guys blocked mostly, but the speeed of play is 85-90% right now (and DT Roy was not there Saturday).  Nobody stood out.  Asked about Will Campbell, he said he looks like if he gains 10 lbs. he would be ready to play.

He said among the freshmen and transfers, some guys don't look like D1 guys.  They're a couple of inches short, a few pounds lite, and a step slow, said it really showed up with DB's against our WR's, our WR's won.

This guy made it sound like we have some star talent, and we have some holes.  He said TE is a glaring weakness, one of them can't catch.

This sounds like more of a rebuild than I thought.  He made it sound like on the portal transfers we signed, BK had to rebuild the roster and did the best we could.  But there is a reason those guys were in the portal.

There has been little mention of the diet and strength coaching, but BK has mentioned a few times about building new habits, and that is one are he has mentioned.  The player may begin to tell a difference from Jan. to April, but to see a difference it will take until August.  I wonder how that is going to work out?

Kelly keeps talking about "teaching them to prepare".  Interesting.

We're a long way from "go", but it's starting to feel like 8-4 would be a good year.  But, with talent at QB and WR, if the o-line can keep the QB upright, we'll have a chance.

[houtiger]

I listened to Shea Dixon tonight, review from Saturday.  He said the best position group is the DL, Quality plus depth.  He said early on the o-line was blocking them, but the d-line wore them out then they took over.  He liked the safety position.  On offense, the WR look like the best position group, quality and depth.  I've heard a couple of guys mention that John Emery is at 215 and he looks stronger.  Shea said he thinks they would like to see John win the position.  If he does good, I'm sure it will be his last year as a Tiger.

[houtiger]

With the word being that the WR's dominated the corners, then Shea Dixon said he still didn't think we had adequate depth at CB, will we see more zone coverage than man to man?  It would seem so.  Seems like this will be the first time in a long time where at least one of our corners was "the #1 ranked high school corner in the nation" coming out of high school.  Sting to the NFL, Ricks to Gumps.  Ugh.  We have 3 spots left that BK can fill from the portal.  TE, CB, see what is available after spring practice, maybe an OL.  After spring practice, who is going to enter the portal from LSU?  We have a lot of RB, maybe a safety?

Kids are going to have to be careful about the portal, I think you just get one transfer and can play without sitting out for a year.  They should choose their course of action carefully.

Edited April 6, 2022 by houtiger

[houtiger]

 

[LSUDad]

This is a very informative listen! 
 

Polian is a good one to follow. 
 

 

[LSUDad]

https://darik.news/oklahoma/tigers-practice-report-another-high-energy-11-on-11-period-for-lsu-football/202204560635.html

[houtiger]

Always good to listen to Brian Kelly.  He seems to have a grasp of a lot of details about players all over the offense.  He goes into a lot of nuance.

 

[houtiger]

If you want to have a good season, you have to get settled at Center.  He is going to call the protections for the o-line.  CBK when asked about Charles Turner said he likes his athleticism and he has a good football IQ.  His bio says he is from Ohio, high school at IMG Academy, listed at 6' 4", 285, in the video he mentions 295.

 

[LSUDad]

 

[LSUDad]

More: 

 

https://www.si.com/college/lsu/.amp/football/lsu-next-phase-spring-camp-2022-football

[Herb]

 

[houtiger]