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Team went through a “preseason game” type walkthrough on Sunday, working on game situations and getting substitutions. O gave a briefing of BYU’s past season, mentioned coaching against OC Ty Detmer who he coached against with Miami back in 1990 when Detmer won the Heisman as BYU’s QB. Coach O singled out BYU center Tejan Koroma as someone he and Pete Jenkins have studying and planing for all summer. O also mentioned SS Micah Hannemann, DE Corbin Kaufusi, OLB Fred Warner on the defense and QB Tanner Magnum and RB Squally Canada on the offense as BYU players they are focused on.
Coach O then proceeded to give an abbreviated two-deep starting lineup, which is good because one was not provided with the game notes this week. It is as follows:
Offensive Line
LT KJ Malone LG Garrett Brumfield C Will Clapp, Lloyd Cuhsenberry RG Saahdiq Charles OR Ed Ingram (both will play) RT Toby Weathersby.
Offensive Backs
QB Danny Etling.
TE 1s: Foster Moreau, John David Moore 2s: David Ducre, Jamal Pettigrew and Tory Carter.
RB Derrius Guice, Darrel Williams, “and you will see Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Nick Brossette get into the game.”
Wide Receivers
1s: DJ Chark, Russell Gage, Derrick Dillon
2s: Stephen Sullivan, Drake Davis, JaCoby Stevens, Racey McMath, Justin Jefferson.
Defensive Line
LE Christian LaCouture, NT Greg Gilmore (backed up by Ed Alexander), RE Rashard Lawrence
F (Field) OLB Corey Thompson and/or Michael Divinity Jr.
B (Bench or Buck, depending on your terminology) OLB “still up in the air. We have not decided who our bench linebacker is going to be. I coach that position. Arden Key will not play in this game. Ray Thornton, K'Lavon Chaisson or Andre Anthony will be the starter. That could be an up-to-game-time decision. I want to see how they practice all week.”
MLB Donnie Alexander, Tyler Taylor or Jacob Phillips.
MLB Devin White, Jonathan Rucker, Patrick Queen.
Defensive Secondary
Left CB Donte Jackson, Jontre Kirklin.
SS John Battle, Eric Monroe. “Todd Harris Jr. is going to play a little at strong safety but we'll start with all our special teams. I'm very proud of Todd, a freshman, one of our best special teams players already as a freshman.”
FS Ed Paris OR Grant Delphit.
Right CB Kevin Toliver II, Greedy Williams.
Nickelback Kary Benson OR Xavier Lewis.
Special Teams
LS Blake Ferguson. P Josh Growden. FG Jack Gonsoulin. K Connor Culp
KR Clyde Edwards-Helaire, PR Donte Jackson and/or Derrick Dillon.
Coach O wasn’t worried about how BYU looked against Portland St last weekend, mentioning how he was impressed with their O-Line performance. He isn’t worried about starting freshmen on the Offensive Line, and he knows they will make freshman mistakes, but they are prepared to play. He believes BYU has been preparing for this game throughout the summer, just like LSU has, and expects to see some new wrinkles they didn’t show in week one. When asked about his confidence in Will Clapp, who has never started at center: “He's a technician. Will was a very good guard. He knows the little nuances of playing center. The thing that we like about our center, he is the captain of the offensive line. He makes all the calls. He calls the protection, he checks, Mike here, Mike there, he makes all the checks up front. So that's why we want an experienced guy. Maybe not necessarily the physicality, because Lloyd has it. It was the ability to make the adjustments and protection in the run game and he makes those calls.”
Said Derrius Guice would be eased back into practice this week, but wasn’t 100% sure he would play yet (footage from practice open to the media later in the day seems to show Guice ready to go)
Derrius Guice is practicing. Here's videographic proof. #LSU pic.twitter.com/W4PxNHf8d5
— Nick Suss (@nicksuss) August 28, 2017
Coach O is going to let the position coaches make the decisions about the various ongoing starting battles. For BLB, he will probably make the choice after pregame warmups on Saturday.
The rest of the questions focused on the issues with the game location, which are now answered by the official move of the game to the Superdome that was announced later in the day.