- My Forums
- Tiger Rant
- LSU Recruiting
- SEC Rant
- Saints Talk
- Pelicans Talk
- More Sports Board
- Coaching Changes
- Fantasy Sports
- Golf Board
- Soccer Board
- O-T Lounge
- Tech Board
- Home/Garden Board
- Outdoor Board
- Health/Fitness Board
- Movie/TV Board
- Book Board
- Music Board
- Political Talk
- Money Talk
- Fark Board
- Gaming Board
- Travel Board
- Food/Drink Board
- Ticket Exchange
- TD Help Board
Customize My Forums- View All Forums
- Show Left Links
- Topic Sort Options
- Trending Topics
- Recent Topics
- Active Topics
Started By
Message
Nice write-up on LSU....
Posted on 8/5/08 at 10:39 am
Posted on 8/5/08 at 10:39 am
LINK
I especially like the part referencing KW, CS, and RM all in the backfield at the same time...
If you happen to traffic with Alabama people today, consider this an opportunity to be rude and dismissive and make fun of them. The Gumps have been boasting that they would come into Louisiana and steal players away from LSU, but yesterday one of their top targets, Rayville wide receiver Kenny Bell, did what everybody around here knew he would - namely, commit to the Tigers. He makes 17 current commitments for the 2009 class, a number which grows as high as 19 if you count Rockey Duplessis and DeAngelo Benton, both of whom should hopefully join the LSU roster by January.
Bell, rated the second-best wide receiver in Louisiana for the 2009 class behind all-everything Reuben Randle of Bastrop, said lots of nice things about Alabama, but it appears that was just to make things interesting. LSU has a big-time pipeline into Rayville right now, starting with Richard Murphy back three years ago and Chris Tolliver coming in as a freshman this year. LSU also has a pretty good pair of freshman walkons from there this year in offensive lineman Tyler Simmons (6-2, 295) and linebacker Harold Butcher (6-2, 225). Bell will make five Hornets on the Tiger roster when he shows up next year; five guys from one high school is a lot.
Bell, who has been clocked at under 4.4 in the 40, brings a major deep threat to LSU. He's also known for a great pair of hands, which he used to his advantage as a junior last year to outpace Tolliver with 55 catches for 989 yards and 12 touchdowns and All-State honors. He's very slight of build at 6-0 and maybe 170 pounds dripping wet right now, but that size is more or less identical to what Jhyryn Taylor brought to the table when LSU landed him last year - and Taylor is now right at 185 after arriving in June and working out in the Tiger strength program for a summer.
Meanwhile, Alabama is still holding on to some hope that they might pull Barkevious Mingo or Randle out of North Louisiana. Message to the Gumps: don't bet on it. You're better off sifting through LSU's leavings and trying to outwork Mississippi State and Tulane for the guys the Tigers don't want out of Louisiana. Take heart in that - there will be some very good players left after LSU finishes off this recruiting class. And they're almost through doing just that.
I especially like the part referencing KW, CS, and RM all in the backfield at the same time...
If you happen to traffic with Alabama people today, consider this an opportunity to be rude and dismissive and make fun of them. The Gumps have been boasting that they would come into Louisiana and steal players away from LSU, but yesterday one of their top targets, Rayville wide receiver Kenny Bell, did what everybody around here knew he would - namely, commit to the Tigers. He makes 17 current commitments for the 2009 class, a number which grows as high as 19 if you count Rockey Duplessis and DeAngelo Benton, both of whom should hopefully join the LSU roster by January.
Bell, rated the second-best wide receiver in Louisiana for the 2009 class behind all-everything Reuben Randle of Bastrop, said lots of nice things about Alabama, but it appears that was just to make things interesting. LSU has a big-time pipeline into Rayville right now, starting with Richard Murphy back three years ago and Chris Tolliver coming in as a freshman this year. LSU also has a pretty good pair of freshman walkons from there this year in offensive lineman Tyler Simmons (6-2, 295) and linebacker Harold Butcher (6-2, 225). Bell will make five Hornets on the Tiger roster when he shows up next year; five guys from one high school is a lot.
Bell, who has been clocked at under 4.4 in the 40, brings a major deep threat to LSU. He's also known for a great pair of hands, which he used to his advantage as a junior last year to outpace Tolliver with 55 catches for 989 yards and 12 touchdowns and All-State honors. He's very slight of build at 6-0 and maybe 170 pounds dripping wet right now, but that size is more or less identical to what Jhyryn Taylor brought to the table when LSU landed him last year - and Taylor is now right at 185 after arriving in June and working out in the Tiger strength program for a summer.
Meanwhile, Alabama is still holding on to some hope that they might pull Barkevious Mingo or Randle out of North Louisiana. Message to the Gumps: don't bet on it. You're better off sifting through LSU's leavings and trying to outwork Mississippi State and Tulane for the guys the Tigers don't want out of Louisiana. Take heart in that - there will be some very good players left after LSU finishes off this recruiting class. And they're almost through doing just that.
2
Posted on 8/5/08 at 10:40 am to SouthEndzoneTiger
2nd part of the write-up:
Good Vibes From First Day Of Fall Camp: LSU had two practice sessions yesterday as Les Miles' crew opened fall camp for 2008. In the morning practice, for which Tiger Sports Digest supplied an excellent report which I think doesn't require a subscription to read, Miles put the returning veteran players through a rather fast-paced session - so much so that reportedly the offense installed as much as 25 percent of its package. Miles said that was possible thanks to the good preparation of his two leading quarterbacks in Andrew Hatch and Jarrett Lee. The verdict seems to be that both of them showed up ready to run the offense and looked crisp out there executing things; as was the case in the spring Hatch seems to be a little more of a coach on the field while Lee is a bit more polished and accurate as a passer.
In the afternoon session, thundershowers spun off of Tropical Storm Edouard out in the Gulf forced the freshmen and veteran squad players inside for what turned out to be a pretty intensive diet of teaching. Miles said afterward he's very impressed with Jordan Jefferson as well and stated flat-out that the Destrehan product will not redshirt this year. Based on that it's a good bet that LSU will rotate quarterbacks in and out of the first three games against Appalachian State, North Texas and Troy on a pretty regular basis in an attempt to get people some experience and see if anybody can grab the job by the throat.
It's not just about quarterbacks on the Ponderosa, though. Today's Times-Picayune has an article about defensive end Rahim Alem, who reported to camp at about 265 and is absolutely rock solid. Alem is stuck behind Kirston Pittman, who came back for a sixth year of eligibility despite leading LSU with 8 1/2 sacks last year, but by all the accounts I've heard he's good enough to start for just about any defensive line in the country save for the one he plays on. His brother Chad Jones is given similar status by Miles, who said yesterday that any defensive play Jones isn't on the field for is a mistake by the coaches - which probably means that LSU will be going to a base nickel defense this year with Jones as the nickel man.
Tiger fans would likely break out into hives at the mention of the word "drop linebacker," a leftover from the bad old days of Lou Tepper, so I almost hate to say this, but a guy like Jones would probably make Tepper's scheme not look so bad. After all, Kevin Hardy was a drop linebacker for Tepper at Illinois and nobody could get a first down against that defense. Funny how the scheme doesn't work so well when Jamal Hill and Bubba Alexander are trying to play drop linebacker. Jones is more like Hardy, and you'll see him playing a hybrid nickel back/linebacker position on most downs this year.
Miles also said that Charles Alexander, fully recovered from a 2007 knee injury, has his weight up and his body fat down. That sounds good, though yesterday morning Alexander and Marlon Favorite were working behind Ricky Jean-Francois and Drake Nevis at defensive tackle. How ridiculous is LSU's depth there when I haven't even mentioned Al Woods yet?
More, Perry Riley is completely recovered from the foot injury which robbed him of his spring camp. Riley is a starter along with Darry Beckwith and Kelvin Sheppard at linebacker; behind them are Shomari Clemons, Jacob Cutrera and Kellen Theriot. A tidbit out of the afternoon practice yesterday is that the LSU coaches also really like walkon Jonathan Nixon, a sophomore transfer from Grambling who has nice speed and hits hard. Nixon might be a guy who shows up on special teams a good bit this year.
There were apparently more drops in the morning practice than the coaches would have liked to see, though it's not a big concern on the first day. Brandon Lafell and Demetrius Byrd, however, do appear to have really stepped up as leaders on LSU's offense; both of them are 210 pounds or so and look almost like linebackers out there. LSU might be able to continue its tradition of having big, physical wide receivers who can punish a defense; that went away a little last year once Early Doucet got hurt. Miles said freshman DeAngelo Peterson looks like he can contribute to that tradition, and he also praised Tim Molton's hands coming out of the afternoon workout.
Based on the way the depth chart looked in the morning, there is an opening for a second-string right tackle at present. Will Blackwell and Josh Dworaczyk back up Herman Johnson and Lyle Hitt at the guards, Ernest McCoy is behind Ciron Black at left tackle and Ryan Miller is behind Brett Helms at center. But the easy solution is to move T-Bob Hebert up at center, slide Miller to right guard behind Hitt and let Dworaczyk, who probably is the most impressive of the redshirt freshmen, move over to tackle. None of the true freshmen has popped out of the pack yet, though; if that happens it could provide the coaches with another option.
Another item of interest is that LSU will apparently have a look at using all three tailbacks on the field at the same time. Charles Scott will play both tailback and fullback this year, much like Jacob Hester did as a junior in 2006, and Richard Murphy will reprise his role playing in the slot a good bit. So if you line Scott up at fullback and Murphy in the slot, with Keiland Williams at tailback and Hatch at quarterback, you've got FOUR potential ballcarriers on any given play - and you've also got Byrd and Lafell on the field at the same time as the wide receivers. How would you like to try to scheme against that?
As for injuries, backup linebacker Ace Foyil is out this week with a turned ankle, and kicker Colt David might miss some time as well after stepping on a football yesterday. Wide receiver Ricky Dixon also missed practice yesteday with some undisclosed "non-serious medical condition" that Miles did his best not to describe. Otherwise, LSU is in pretty good shape so far.
Most of all, the vibe coming out of LSU's camp seems awfully positive and focused. That seems very different from Florida, where kids who shoot AK47's at people get let back on the team when depth gets short at their position, or Georgia, where the coach has to spend 45 minutes after practice apologizing for the way his kids are terrorizing the people of Athens in the offseason. Certainly both teams should be very good this fall, but even with needing to flush Ryan Perrilloux out of the program LSU had a very uneventful offseason compared to them. You've got to like how things look for Miles and his crew right now.
Good Vibes From First Day Of Fall Camp: LSU had two practice sessions yesterday as Les Miles' crew opened fall camp for 2008. In the morning practice, for which Tiger Sports Digest supplied an excellent report which I think doesn't require a subscription to read, Miles put the returning veteran players through a rather fast-paced session - so much so that reportedly the offense installed as much as 25 percent of its package. Miles said that was possible thanks to the good preparation of his two leading quarterbacks in Andrew Hatch and Jarrett Lee. The verdict seems to be that both of them showed up ready to run the offense and looked crisp out there executing things; as was the case in the spring Hatch seems to be a little more of a coach on the field while Lee is a bit more polished and accurate as a passer.
In the afternoon session, thundershowers spun off of Tropical Storm Edouard out in the Gulf forced the freshmen and veteran squad players inside for what turned out to be a pretty intensive diet of teaching. Miles said afterward he's very impressed with Jordan Jefferson as well and stated flat-out that the Destrehan product will not redshirt this year. Based on that it's a good bet that LSU will rotate quarterbacks in and out of the first three games against Appalachian State, North Texas and Troy on a pretty regular basis in an attempt to get people some experience and see if anybody can grab the job by the throat.
It's not just about quarterbacks on the Ponderosa, though. Today's Times-Picayune has an article about defensive end Rahim Alem, who reported to camp at about 265 and is absolutely rock solid. Alem is stuck behind Kirston Pittman, who came back for a sixth year of eligibility despite leading LSU with 8 1/2 sacks last year, but by all the accounts I've heard he's good enough to start for just about any defensive line in the country save for the one he plays on. His brother Chad Jones is given similar status by Miles, who said yesterday that any defensive play Jones isn't on the field for is a mistake by the coaches - which probably means that LSU will be going to a base nickel defense this year with Jones as the nickel man.
Tiger fans would likely break out into hives at the mention of the word "drop linebacker," a leftover from the bad old days of Lou Tepper, so I almost hate to say this, but a guy like Jones would probably make Tepper's scheme not look so bad. After all, Kevin Hardy was a drop linebacker for Tepper at Illinois and nobody could get a first down against that defense. Funny how the scheme doesn't work so well when Jamal Hill and Bubba Alexander are trying to play drop linebacker. Jones is more like Hardy, and you'll see him playing a hybrid nickel back/linebacker position on most downs this year.
Miles also said that Charles Alexander, fully recovered from a 2007 knee injury, has his weight up and his body fat down. That sounds good, though yesterday morning Alexander and Marlon Favorite were working behind Ricky Jean-Francois and Drake Nevis at defensive tackle. How ridiculous is LSU's depth there when I haven't even mentioned Al Woods yet?
More, Perry Riley is completely recovered from the foot injury which robbed him of his spring camp. Riley is a starter along with Darry Beckwith and Kelvin Sheppard at linebacker; behind them are Shomari Clemons, Jacob Cutrera and Kellen Theriot. A tidbit out of the afternoon practice yesterday is that the LSU coaches also really like walkon Jonathan Nixon, a sophomore transfer from Grambling who has nice speed and hits hard. Nixon might be a guy who shows up on special teams a good bit this year.
There were apparently more drops in the morning practice than the coaches would have liked to see, though it's not a big concern on the first day. Brandon Lafell and Demetrius Byrd, however, do appear to have really stepped up as leaders on LSU's offense; both of them are 210 pounds or so and look almost like linebackers out there. LSU might be able to continue its tradition of having big, physical wide receivers who can punish a defense; that went away a little last year once Early Doucet got hurt. Miles said freshman DeAngelo Peterson looks like he can contribute to that tradition, and he also praised Tim Molton's hands coming out of the afternoon workout.
Based on the way the depth chart looked in the morning, there is an opening for a second-string right tackle at present. Will Blackwell and Josh Dworaczyk back up Herman Johnson and Lyle Hitt at the guards, Ernest McCoy is behind Ciron Black at left tackle and Ryan Miller is behind Brett Helms at center. But the easy solution is to move T-Bob Hebert up at center, slide Miller to right guard behind Hitt and let Dworaczyk, who probably is the most impressive of the redshirt freshmen, move over to tackle. None of the true freshmen has popped out of the pack yet, though; if that happens it could provide the coaches with another option.
Another item of interest is that LSU will apparently have a look at using all three tailbacks on the field at the same time. Charles Scott will play both tailback and fullback this year, much like Jacob Hester did as a junior in 2006, and Richard Murphy will reprise his role playing in the slot a good bit. So if you line Scott up at fullback and Murphy in the slot, with Keiland Williams at tailback and Hatch at quarterback, you've got FOUR potential ballcarriers on any given play - and you've also got Byrd and Lafell on the field at the same time as the wide receivers. How would you like to try to scheme against that?
As for injuries, backup linebacker Ace Foyil is out this week with a turned ankle, and kicker Colt David might miss some time as well after stepping on a football yesterday. Wide receiver Ricky Dixon also missed practice yesteday with some undisclosed "non-serious medical condition" that Miles did his best not to describe. Otherwise, LSU is in pretty good shape so far.
Most of all, the vibe coming out of LSU's camp seems awfully positive and focused. That seems very different from Florida, where kids who shoot AK47's at people get let back on the team when depth gets short at their position, or Georgia, where the coach has to spend 45 minutes after practice apologizing for the way his kids are terrorizing the people of Athens in the offseason. Certainly both teams should be very good this fall, but even with needing to flush Ryan Perrilloux out of the program LSU had a very uneventful offseason compared to them. You've got to like how things look for Miles and his crew right now.
Posted on 8/5/08 at 11:07 am to SouthEndzoneTiger
Nice article.
That would be fun to watch
quote:
Charles Scott will play both tailback and fullback this year, much like Jacob Hester did as a junior in 2006, and Richard Murphy will reprise his role playing in the slot a good bit. So if you line Scott up at fullback and Murphy in the slot, with Keiland Williams at tailback and Hatch at quarterback, you've got FOUR potential ballcarriers on any given play - and you've also got Byrd and Lafell on the field at the same time as the wide receivers. How would you like to try to scheme against that?
That would be fun to watch
Posted on 8/5/08 at 11:54 am to SouthEndzoneTiger
The Wizard has plenty to work with this season.
Posted on 8/5/08 at 12:04 pm to SouthEndzoneTiger
thanks for posting that
quote:
Most of all, the vibe coming out of LSU's camp seems awfully positive and focused. That seems very different from Florida, where kids who shoot AK47's at people get let back on the team when depth gets short at their position, or Georgia, where the coach has to spend 45 minutes after practice apologizing for the way his kids are terrorizing the people of Athens in the offseason.
Posted on 8/5/08 at 12:41 pm to SouthEndzoneTiger
Great news, thanks!
Posted on 8/5/08 at 12:43 pm to SouthEndzoneTiger
lets hope Randle does, indeed, come here.
If so, best WR core undubitably in terms of talent.
If so, best WR core undubitably in terms of talent.
Page 1 of 1
Popular
Back to top
Follow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News