Yesterdays end of season press conference from CTJ has raised several concerns going into the Signing period which begins next month. It would seem someone besides Bo is facing academic issues and CTJ may be over signing to compensate for an academic casualty. (He's right to be concerned as the program is still recovering from APR issues) He also admits to being very candid about this situation with both his players and the recruits, even though it may affect their decision to come play here. CTJ seemed very tense at the beginning of the meeting, at least compared to how jovial he was last year when he and everybody knew how this year would be. Later on, he relaxes a bit and even makes a starting five out of the beat writers in the room.
Some other odds and ends from the press conference: Barring another water leak, the team moves into the new practice facility in just a few days. Because of this, the team will not have a preseason camp up at Louisiana College as it has the past few years. The walk-ons have all been let go from the team and ideally (and unfortunately) only 1 or 2 spots will be available next year. Ludwig will try to put on 20+ lbs for next season. CTJ doesn't think any of the teams in the Final Four have good coaches (he's taking Duke).
One of the more odd LSU-related stories you'll see this week: Pistol Pete's high school sweetheart has released the love letters he sent her back then. The piece in the Charlotte Observer goes into great detail of what his high school playing days were like.
Everybody's got their reviews of the spring game up. Laney at the Advoc focuses on Lee's INT. Over at the Times-Pic, Kleinpeter likes what he sees from the young defense, and DeShazier focused on Ford's breakout performance. Dandy Don had a good overview look at the game and expressed his concern about JJ's performance. In fact, most of his Monday update was about e-mails about the current QB situation, including a poll which has Chris Garrett leading Jordan Jefferson as preferred QB for this season.
GYM, featuring SEC Gymnast of the year Susan Jackson, is the #2 seed in the Penn St. Regional which will be in 2 weeks. NCAA GYM has a semi-baseball tournament form of 6 6-team regionals followed by the Super Six championship meet.
T&F had a good outdoor opener on Saturday even though the winds were high enough to disqualify some runs from counting.
The #11 ranked LSU Rugby club team lost in the Western Rugby Union Championship 20-14 to Texas A&M on Sunday. However they have earned a spot in the 16 team USA Rugby National Guard College Club Championships.
Baseball moved up to 4/5 in the polls this week. This Saturday's home game against UGA will feature the Re-retirement of Skip's number. Also last night was the first episode of The CPM call-in radio show (busted mics and all). It's posted after the break.