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Link Gumbo 8/13/13

By PodKATT
Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sport

LSU held media day on Sunday, which provided the first (and in some cases only) opportunities for interviews with the coaching staff and all of the players. Les Miles' address wasn't that interesting because, as Les tends to do, he did his best to not give any definitive answers on anything. Whether the topic was Josh Williford's injury (would not confirm), the QB depth chart (only hinted that Jennings has pulled ahead of Rivers) or Hill's potential playing time in the opener (accomplished gymnastic feats with the english language that would make your head spin), Coach Miles answered in the style we are now all accustomed to. Cam Cameron also met with the general press for the first time since his hiring and got many of the typical questions new OCs always get asked, including the ever popular "who's calling the plays?" The players also got the typical new OC question and they are, of course, on board with the program.

(I've only linked Coach Chavis' video above, because the others of Les Miles and Cam Cameron are barely audible. You can find full transcripts of their comments here.)

Media Day usually leads to some great player profiles and this year was no exception. The best I saw were on WR Jarvis Landry and S Rickey Jefferson.

Remember Les Miles' brief mention of using a hyperbaric oxygen chamber in the offseason at SEC Media Days? Luke Johnson over at Tiger Rag did some excellent leg work to find out that Miles wasn't kidding and found a revolutionary new treatment for concussion injuries that Miles and LSU thinks could change one of the biggest issues facing the sport of football today.

The OOC scheduling for LSU Football over the next few years is now in complete upheaval. While still not officially set, the not-home-and-not-home series with Wisconsin in kinda nearby NFL stadiums for 2014-16 is an absolute certainty to happen. Both teams have been adjusting the rest of their OOC slates to make room, with Wisconsin pushing back a true home-and-home with Va Tech to the end of the decade. LSU's made room by pushing a true home-and-home with Arizona St. that was supposed to happen in 2015-16 to an undefined point in the future (because apparently LSU will never ever play 2 OOC games against BCS teams in the same season again if it doesn't have to). Issues with the NFL stadium nonsense aside, this will be a great marquee matchup between two storied programs, and our Badger counter parts are as excited as we are.

Ancillary to all this is the news that LSU may be playing Tulane in the Superdome early in 2015. This would pay off a long standing, owed game with Tulane that was promised after the last 10 year home-and-home contract fell apart after only 4 seasons. To accommodate the potential game, LSU has already canceled the 2015 home opener with Jacksonville St. While I like the idea of playing Tulane (if we are going to have rent-a-wins, they might as well be local), I think this is another bad move with regards to stadium choice. Anyone who's been to a Saints preseason game knows that the Superdome is a miserable, frigid place to watch a game when the stands are half full, and I highly doubt an LSU-Tulane game would even draw that many. This silliness is amplified by the fact that Tulane's excellent looking, new, smaller, on campus stadium will have already been opened for a year and would provide a much better atmosphere for a college game. Frankly, I'm surprised Tulane would even agree to give up a true home game for another quiet night in the Dome.

The new targeting rules are going to be one of the most debated things about the upcoming season, but in every media mention of them this off season we've only heard from conference officials and a few coaches. Luckily, one of the reporters on the Boise St. beat got a hold of the NCAA's official instructional video and put it up for all to see.

I thought there might be an official "Death of Toonces" when rumors started about an LSU logo announcement, but it turned out to be just something fancy for polo shirts.

LSU's inaugural season of Varsity Women's Sand Volleyball, a newly sanctioned NCAA sport, will be played at Mango’s Beach Volleyball Club off of Sherwood Forrest Blvd. Play begins this March.

LSU, and indeed all of the SEC, is way behind on releasing the schedule for the upcoming 2013-2014 season, but we can piece together the OOC matchups thanks to announcements from others. After a deal to play Texas and others at a mini-tournament in Dallas fell through at the last minute, LSU will be spending Thanksgiving at Disney World in the Old Spice Classic. LSU will (for the first time to my recollection) participate in ESPN's annual 24 hour College Tip-off Marathon, playing a road game at UMass at 10am on Tuesday, November 12th. Another big game that we know about was announced with little fan fare as it was noticed that Texas Tech lists a home game against LSU on December 18th.

The Women's hoops team is currently in the middle of a tour of Spain.

There are a ton of former LSU players in the NFL this preseason, making plays too numerous to list here. Thankfully, LSU has put together a nice breakdown of all 56 player's performances. If there is one player in particular to highlight, it's Tyrann Mathieu. Mathieu had 4 tackles, a solo QB sack, and a few punt returns in his first organized game of football in more than a year. He's also been impressing in camp. As you might be able to tell, I'm really excited about this. For all the troubles he's had, Mathieu is still one of the most exciting players I have ever seen in an LSU uniform. I was reminded of just how great his time at LSU was, and of all the personal baggage he carries, by an excellent piece on Grantland the other day.

One more eye-popping story out of the NFL preseason. Thanks to injuries and some great camp performances in Chip Kelly's first NFL stint, Russell Shepard isn't just making the roster with the Eagles. He's their presumptive #2 starting WR.

I admittedly dont read a lot of Sports Illustrated, but their annual roundtable about the state of College Football on TV is always an interesting read. The suggestion of Gerry DiNardo as a replacement for Lee Corso is not one i've ever considered, but DiNardo's work on both the B1GNet and his own Chicago radio show (which is worth a listen when he veers into CFB talk) has been really great. Who would you get to replace Corso?