Baseball America has a scouting report on all Super Regionals. What they think about LSU:
"You've got to pitch to beat them. That's the strength of their club is the offensive part of the game. You've got to hold them to four or five runs, you can't let them bang it around like they have been. That'll be an interesting matchup because they have two totally different styles of play. Irvine's the California short game-type deal, they're going to be playing in Alex Box Stadium, where the ball travels well—it's a hitter's ballpark. LSU definitely has more power, so Irvine will definitely have to keep the ball in the yard. It's hard to pick against a team that's won 23 in a row and is playing at home. I like LSU. They're a good team and hot—there's a lot to like."
They also have LSU ranked fifth and UC-Irvine eighth in this week's top 25.
Associate AD Verge Ausberry discusses football scheduling (audio file) in a 17-minute interview with 1210-AM The Score.
LSU comes in 8th when averaging 13 different preseason football rankings. The Tigers were as high as fifth (Sports Illustrated) and as low as 16th (CBS). If you know anything about me, I have great disdain for Dennis Dodd and this won't help his cause. His was the only ranking to have LSU lower than 12th.
The Major League Baseball Draft begins today and LSU will likely have a number of players taken as well as a handful of signees. Baseball America ranks (subscription only) the top 40 prospects in Louisiana and there are Tigers peppered among the top of the list. Ryan Verdugo is 6th, Blake Martin 7th, Louis Coleman 9th, Matt Clark 12th, Jared Bradford 19th and Jordan Brown is 24th. Expect to see most of these guys drafted at some point, the key is whether or not the juniors return for one more year or begin chasing their dream.
The Arizona Cardinals website has a nice feature on Ali Highsmith, who saw his draft stock plummet after running a 5.0 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine. The Cardinals are high on their undrafted free agent:
"At LSU this kid made all kind of plays. This guy was all over the field, he understood what was coming at him, he covered guys, and a lack of speed never showed up on film, just in a 40 yard dash. He has a great chance to make it in the NFL."
Use this as an open thread for the day as we welcome comments and discussion.
