Lolo Jones finished 3rd in the final heat of the Women's 100m Hurdles at the US Olympic Trials this weekend, qualifying her for the US Olympic team. You can see the race here (curse NBC's stingy video policies.) Lolo willed be joined in London by former Tigers Richard Thompson, Kelly-Ann Baptiste, and Semoy Hackett, who will compete for their native Trinidad & Tobago. It was revealed last week that Lolo's been working with motion capture programmers and scientists while practicing at LSU to perfect her form. Red Bull has a whole site dedicated to their work with her filled with videos and more information explaining the process.
Meanwhile, the US Olympic swimming trials begin today in the arena behind the outfield wall of the CWS. LSU has 10 current and future athletes competing in various events. Additionally, Les Miles daughter Kathryn "Smacker" Miles is qualified to compete, though Les said in an ESPN chat last week that her recent shoulder surgery may keep her from participating.
Soph S Sam Gibson and RS-FR CB David Jenkins both left the team last week, transferring in search of more playing time.
Last week, 104.5 ESPN Radio spent a whole day at the LSU football complex and interviewed many of the position coaches we don't often hear from. They're all worth a listen, particularly Tommy Moffitt talking about the offseason workout schedule and Justin Vincent, who now works in the Personnel Development department.
Also last week, Miles went up to ESPN for a day and was labeled the "Arbiter of Swagger" Nothing really newsworthy occurred during the visit, but many in the national press have become obsessed with Les Miles' supposed crusade against Gunner Kiel, which really was just Miles saying the same things he's said in the past. If Miles had brought it up unprompted there would be an issue, but he was just answering ESPN's questions.
Over the weekend Former Tigers Terry Robiskie and Eddy Furniss were inducted into the LA Sports Hall of Fame.
The talent agency IMG is starting a charter high school in Florida with the explicit purpose of developing high school football players, a move that could be the birth of a true AAU-style system for the sport.
LSU is doing fine in the APR rankings, passing in all sports. The highest mark goes to women's cross country, who scored a perfect 1000, while Men's basketball (still recovering from the end of the Brady Era) and men's cross country bring up the rear at 911 each. Alarmingly, 3 Louisiana schools (Southern, Grambling, and ULM) are all on some form of probation.
In the preseason magazines released so far, LSU is the consensus preseason number 1 ranked team.
Next year's SEC football schedule has a few oddities, including Mizzou playing at A&M for the 3rd straight year and UF finishing their SEC slate on Nov. 3rd.
Recruiting football players to Tennessee may be one of the most difficult jobs in the SEC when comparing program expectations to locally available talent. That certainly isn't helped when Lane Kiffin gives you one of the worst recruiting classes in history.
Maryland did indeed test a black turf football field, but for now is sticking with a typical green field.
Miss St.'s famous billboard campaign may hit the brakes for a while after the specific placement of one was ruled a recruiting violation.
The Wall Street Journal took a look at the increasing use of complicated pitch calling wristbands in college baseball.
Some point to the heady days of the WAC as evidence that the "superconference" can't work. Our SBN Kansas St. friends at Bring On The Cats points out that it's never really worked on any level of collegiate athletics.
The long dry offseason is a boring place, but it also gives an opportunity to catch up with some of the legends of the game. Check out these interviews of Barry Switzer and Howard Schnellenberger.
Shaq just turned 40 and Sports Illustrated has a great gallery of photos from his LSU days.