The second closed scrimmage of the year was held yesterday (indoors again due to the threat of rain I'm sure most of our reading audience experienced yesterday) and while most are focusing on Coach Miles' (probably pulled out of the air) stat lines for the QBs (Jordan Jefferson 15/25 100 yds 1 TD; Jarrett Lee 9/14 111 yds; Zach Mettenberger 6/11 71 yds 2 TDs; and somebody threw a pick to S Craig Loston) my big concern is the O-Line, which continues to be beat up. To what extent, we don't know, but Miles did say that some of them might be "in question" for the opener. The silver lining is the performance of Fr OT La'El Collins, who impressed while subbing at guard for the day. A partial copy of the press conference is after the break.
The Men's Basketball schedule for the year is out and features a few interesting non-conf names. Boise St., Marquette, UVA, and UC-Irvine (GILLESPIE!!!!) all come to the PMAC this winter. The season will open at home against the same Nicholls St squad that destroyed LSU's 82 game win streak against in-state schools last year. The opener against the Commies is going to be on Nov. 12th, the same day as the WKU football game (AND LSU Salutes AND Homecoming, a very busy weekend) and admittance will be free. The SEC slate is highlighted by home games with UK and Tenn. Like last year, all SEC games will be on live TV on a combination of ESPN, FSN, SECTV, and Cox Sports.
This is probably the last place to tell you abut it, but if you haven't seen Yahoo! Sports Megaton drop on Miami, stop what you are doing right now and go read it. TeamSpeedKills has a rundown of which SEC players and coaches are involved. (thankfully, none of ours) There is tons of reaction out there, but the best I've seen is from SB Nation's Miami blog The 7th Floor who believes the root cause of the trouble was a broke program trying to compete in the big money world of college football.
In the other big story of the week, not much has advanced since the Aggies gave President Loftin the go signal. It'll probably stay quite for ano....OMG PLANE CARRYING MIKE SLIVE GOES TO COLLEGE STATION FROM TALLADEGA AND COMES BACK A FEW HOURS LATER! IT'S A SIGN!!!11! (seriously, Aggie message boards are passing around FlightAware links now. They are more than ready to join the SEC)
SB Nation's excellent team previews hit Oregon this week. Bill Connelly's work continues to the best in the business.
West Virginia has revealed the details of their beer vending plans for home games this year, including a 5-point Code of Conduct for fans, 4 of which I fully intend on breaking.
Coaches By The Numbers tells the haters to stop worrying and love The Hat.
You Recruiting Gurus out there are going to love this breakdown by Scout.com of how LSU and the other in-state schools do when it comes to signing in-state talent vs. out of state schools. As expected, some of the big out of state winners are A&M, Ole Miss, and....Southern Miss?
Tulane has announced an in-state home-and-home with USL. USL has unveiled new uniforms that continue to violate state Dept. of Ed. rules on identifying names and OMG FLEUR-DE-LIS EVERYWHERE!
The first athletic contest of the school year is this afternoon as LSU Soccer opens at Memphis, more on this later.
After the break, Miles' press conference from yesterday, and the Mikie Mahtook Farewell press conference.
Les Miles Post-Scrimmage Press Conference
Mikie Mahtook Farewell Press Conference