Spring Football Practice No. 4 News and Notes

Apologies for not having something up from the third practice, basketball’s run in Indianapolis took up all of my focus.

Anyway, the football team took to the practice field for the fourth time this spring and the Tigers are just a little banged up at the running back position.

Tyrion Davis-Price got banged up during Thursday’s scrimmage as did Josh Williams. John Emery, wearing a non-contact jersey, wouldn’t be able to participate so LSU only had one healthy running back—who Orgeron didn’t name, so I’m assuming it was Tre Bradford— and he had, wait for it...39 (!!!) carries.

So Orgeron and the coaching staff turned to Jontre Kirklin, Koy Moore, and Trey Palmer to take some toss plays and “they did pretty well,” per Orgeron. Freshman safety Derrick Davis Jr. was also asked to play running back Tuesday and gave it a shot.

“That was a teachable moment,” Orgeron said. “We’re on the football field we gotta have the goal of next man up, you can never tell when your time is gonna come. It showed me a lot of unselfishness, I think our team is more together this year.”

Orgeron then elaborated on some of the positions battles he’ll have his eye on these remaining 10 practices, specifically wide receiver, running back, linebacker and safety.

“We gotta find a tight end,” Orgeron said. “They blocked better today but we’re still not where we need to be. We gotta find some guys that are gonna catch the football and make plays.”

Speaking of linebacker and safety, Orgeron said that Navonteque Strong is impressing and Jay Ward may have to move deep, meaning Cordale Flott would be the slot corner. Orgeron and that he feels the defensive line goes eight-deep and he “could see” Maason Smith emerging as a starter, and at the very worst in the rotation.

Orgeron capped his interview by saying how he can tell there’s already a change with this group as opposed to last year. He joked he won’t compare this group to last group, saying he learned his lesson from last year, but Orgeron simply had this to say.

“I can already see a difference in this team as far as execution and practice wise as opposed to last year. We’re practicing better with more energy.”