LUNCHANDDINNERWITHDACOACHO - Bye Week Special

It being the bye week, the traditional media gathering with LSU’s head coach on Monday is scrapped and in the past that meant a somewhat media blackout for LSU football. Any word on injuries or other things would only come out at post practice pressers during the week, if those happened at all. But It’s a new era at LSU and DACOACHO had some glad-handing to do around the state on Tuesday.

First stop was the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation’s weekly Quarterback Club lunch. Normally, this thing is only on my radar when some LSU Athletics administrator (like LSU scheduling czar Verge Ausberry) or a former great coach/player makes an appearance, but this time DACOACHO himself showed up to talk about his team so far and take a few questions from the boosters in the room.

O starts by working the room, talking about how 1/3rd of the roster is from the New Orleans area and thanking the numerous HS coaches in the room for all the work that they do. He then talked about how he got the team to start pulling together and also talked about how Leonard Fournette did all he could to work with the team during the weeks when he was still rehabbing his ankle. It’s all stories we’ve heard from various sources over the last few weeks, but I’d be lying if it’s not motivating to hear it again from Coach O himself. Talking about how Etling has managed the game: “All he’s got to do is throw it to the right receivers, give it to #7 and give it to #5. I mean, [LSU Football Director of external relations Charles]Baglio can do that.” Lots of compliments about the hard work Enzminger and Aranda have done the last few weeks. O talked about how “at an old job that I wasn’t successful at” he would have spent the bye week running the team through scrimmages every day. Monday they took off to just look at film. “Monday was Tell The Truth Monday, and the truth was we kicked Ole Miss’ butt.” On Thursday, before releasing the team for the weekend, the younger players will scrimmage while some of the Senior players will coach and call plays. He also talked again about how he’s not focused on getting the job right now. What happens happens, he’s just focused on getting the team ready. During question time, he said that Clapp, Fournette, and Weathersby are all healthy and that the bye week rest is going to help those players. He also gave compliments to OL coach Grimes for getting more Zone blocking implemented in the middle of a season. Does he think LSU has enough depth to hang with Alabama? “Hell Yeah”

Coach O also met with the media a few moments afterward, but really just rehashed some of the same points. He did mention that after some recruiting trips on Friday, he’s off to Lake Chuck to see his boys play for McNeese.

Then it was back to Baton Rouge for practice.

Injury report from practice has DJ Chark out with a sprained finger, JD Moore out with a cervical strain, and Colin Jeter was out with a sprained wrist. Weathersby and Clapp went most of the reps, while Valentine has had some noticeable weight loss and is moving faster. When talking about scheme for Bama, he was very complimentary about how Lane Kiffin uses tight ends and talked about how you cannot make mistakes against Bama. Towards the end Coach O mentions that OLB Corey Thompson, who fractured his leg in August, now seems to be headed for a redshirt for this season.

For more on practice, Dellenger at the Advocate has a good writeup of what the media saw at practice, along with a lot of footage.

In other news, LSU’s lawsuit with John Chavis will now continue until the heat death of the universe.