Spring Practice Report: Days 3, 4 and 5

We have reached full pads everyone, I repeat, we have reached full pads. And with full pads comes the big cat drill, a fan favorite of sorts. You can watch that video on Billy's post here.

Now to the actual report.

These practices brought us to a little more up-tempo feel and coaches working in signals and calls. I watched a little bit of everything in the time I was allowed, but I got a real good look at the defensive line, defensive backs and quarterbacks

The defensive line group looks really impressive. I was genuinely impressed by our first and second groups along the line and really feel that they have improved since last season. Christian LaCouture has emerged as the leader along the line for sure. He is making all the calls and moving guys around where they need to be. Orgeron is still super enthusiastic in case any of you were curious.

The quarterbacks however I feel are about the same, at least the two that most of you care about. But with that being said, it is kind of a good thing? I am just going to put this is as simple as possible. Anthony Jennings is Anthony Jennings. Same guy he was last year is the same guy I see in practice. He is incredibly energetic and is a leader when it comes to drills and encouraging his teammates.

Brandon Harris is the most impressive looking to me when it comes to throwing the ball, though. He just throws the ball so effortlessly and still has a lot of zip on his throws. His biggest question mark is his ability to read defenses and slide protection. That I will not be able to analyze in practice with such ease.

As Billy mentioned in one of my earlier pieces, the footwork is off with both Jennings and Harris a bit. That could be the root of the timing issues that we saw last year with both of them. I imagine this will be a point of emphasis during these practices. Hopefully we can see one of these two emerge as the true number one option. I know nobody wants this 1-2 punch the whole year again.

The defensive back group looks great. I really like the unit as a whole this year and it could be one of the strongest we've had in some time. I think it will be the depth of this group that will be the reason it is so strong. The fact that Kevin Toliver II is pushing Ed Paris for a starting job shows just how talented of a player Toliver really is. Ed Paris was considered the "future LSU star safety" before Jamal Adams committed to us at the Under Armour game. Basically, I just think we have a lot of young talent in the secondary that I can't wait to see hit the field.

I have yet to get a good look at the offensive line, running backs or linebackers due to the last two days of practice only being 15 minutes long. Half of those 15 is spent on the Big Cat which we get from another source so I essentially get seven to eight minutes to photograph/video whatever position groups I can get quality picture on.

This brings me to my next point/question for you guys... Would you prefer videos or pictures? I personally am a big fan of video, but I understand majority of the previous coverage you guys have gotten from this site is pictures. So whatever you want is fine by me: I just want to make you happy (crying).

Anyways, for this post I made a little video highlighting the drills I was able to see at these couple practices. Let me know what you think and enjoy!