Before we get to the camp reports, a surprising bit of news from the Men's Basketball team. Matt Derenbecker has announced he is withdrawing from the team and LSU immediately for "personal reasons." D-Beck averaged over 6 points a game and started all but one of last year's SEC games. Along with Garret Green's transfer to San Diego St., and Aaron Dotson and Daron Populist back in April, LSU has lost 4 players with significant playing time last year, 2 of them regular starters.
Derenbecker's father talked to Tiger Rag shortly after the announcement was made, and while he wasn't clear about the reasons, it seems that Derenbecker will be finding his way onto another team at some point. (It's hard to speculate what the reason is. If it's grade troubles, why would he be looking at Tulane?)
One last Basketball note: The Dale Brown documentary that we first heard about more than a year ago is finally going to premiere later this month. Man In The Glass will premiere Sun Aug. 28th at 3:00pm at the Carver Theatre in Birmingham, Al as part of a film festival that weekend. There are no announced plans for wider release as of yet.
Full Squad practice on Saturday was "Sloppy as Sin." The unspecified injury list now includes FR RS WR Armand Williams and SO FB J.C. Copeland. Les East, the new guy at The Advocate, thinks Kragthorpe being shifted to the QB coach role might be a great thing for Jefferson (and works in a Bull Durham reference)
There's more practice footage after the break and you can also see some free stuff at these links from the paysites TSD and BBI.
This year's inductees for the LSU Sports HoF is as good a class as it's ever had with 2x National Player of the Year Seimone Augustus, 2x All-American Football WR Wendell Davis, 3x T&F national champion triple jumper Suzette Lee, Baseball 1992 National Player of the Year Lloyd Peever, Skip Bertman and long-time athletic director Carl Maddox.
Summer Graduation was last week and there were a few football notables who walked the stage: Ben Wilkerson, Bennie Brazell, Travis Daniels, T.C. McCartney, and Alex Russian. Russian's graduation is of particular note due to continued rumors that he might be the odd man out if Mickey Johnson passes the NCAA clearinghouse and puts LSU at 1 over the scholarship limit.
TeamSpeedKills looks over LSU's schedule and sees the same September horror we do. Possibly because of that, TSK also sees LSU as one of the top ten teams most likely to be unranked at the end of the season.
CFN Scout has some predictions up for the SEC race this season and sees the old specter of a 3-way tie in the West with a late loss to Arkansas being the Tigers' downfall.
The lines for the LSU-Oregon game seem to flip on a daily basis, but as of this weekend, LSU is a 3 point favorite.
Perfect Game has some very early preseason rankings for SEC baseball, with all 3 of last year's giants from the SEC-E before selecting LSU at #4 and the best of the West.
The NCAA's retreat for presidents and commissioners starts tomorrow, where it's expected that SEC Comish Mike Slive will work to get the proposals he announced at SEC Media Days more support and eventually proposed as reform.