By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – Spring football practices have no sense of urgency.
There’s usually a load of returning players sitting out recovering from off-season surgeries. Head coaches experiment with position changes. New coordinator hires are installing their offensive and defensive schemes while patiently expecting growing pains.
With the start of the regular season 4½ months away, you’ll rarely see any coaching staff member so exasperated they start yelling.
“Spring is more about technical work,” LSU head coach Brian Kelly.
And now after the first four LSU preseason practices with the Tigers’ Sept. 1 season-opener vs. USC in Las Vegas looming?
The LSU practice field, especially from its new defensive coaching staff charged with executing a miracle makeover responsibility of one of college football’s worst units a year ago, is filled with volcanic expletive-filled eruptions.
Maybe it’s because a heat index edging towards 110 degrees – a virtual furnace – greets the coaches and players each morning after they exit the cool-climate-controlled indoor facility.
Or maybe it’s because there’s a smoldering anger among returnees on defense not to be ranked 103rd or worse nationally in six stat categories as they were last season.
“Being able to adapt to our coaches and learn how they want things and how they yell and stuff like that is good, especially early in fall camp.,” LSU senior linebacker Greg Penn III said. “They are bringing the intensity. We (the players) have to match that intensity.”
It’s up to veterans like starting fifth-year senior defensive tackle Jacobian Guillory to explain to incoming freshmen not to take it personally if an assistant verbally unloads on them.
“I listen to the message and apply it to my game or whatever I did wrong,” Guillory said. “It’s not that they’re yelling at you. They’re yelling at the problem. It’s not an F-you or F-that.”
New defensive coordinator Blake Baker and new assistants Bo Davis (D-line), Kevin Peoples (edge rushers), Corey Raymond (secondary) and Jake Olsen are priming the pump daily in their daily individual position pre-practice meetings.
LSU junior All-SEC first-team offensive tackle Will Campbell, a projected 2025 NFL top 10 first-round draft choice, said there’s a noticeable attitude change in the 2024 defense.
“It’s night and day the difference between this year and last year with the juice that they come out to practice with,” Campbell said of the defense. “They come out ready to fly around, they’re ready to hit. They’re violent, ready to fight, ready to go. And that’s what we need at the end of the day.”
That’s a credit to Baker, LSU’s linebackers coach in 2021 who was Missouri’s defensive coordinator the last two seasons where his pressure defenses were known for creating turnovers and huge yardage losses.
“Pressures can come from a lot of different looks, but playing fast is really the essence of what has made Blake’s pressures so difficult,” Kelly said. “The teachability of Blake’s system allows our guys to play really fast without paralysis by analysis.”
Penn, who was a true freshman during Baker’s previous one-season stint with the Tigers, loves Baker’s defensive philosophy.
“He (Baker) wants to attack all the time,” Penn said. “He wants to be aggressive, be physical. If we’re watching film and he sees us playing timid, he’ll say `We don’t want no poodles.’”
Guillory said Baker wants the LSU defense to be “juiced up” every day.
“Even when our defensive backs make a play downfield, I want to run downfield, high-five him and pick him up,” Guillory said. “It’s about being a group and not individuals.”
On the defense’s back end in the Tigers’ secondary which ranked 115th nationally last season in passing yards allowed (255.6 yards per game), LSU senior wide receiver Kyren Lacy said he already sees improvement.
“Coach Corey got those guys right,” Lacy said. “They’ve changed everything. They come up with something new every day.”
CAMP NOTEBOOK
LSU sophomore tight end Mac Markway, a former 4-star recruit who played in 12 games last season, told Kelly Monday night he’s leaving the program. “He made a decision he’s not going to play,” Kelly said. Markway announced through social media he intends to transfer. Kelly is quite pleased sophomore Ka’Morreun Plimpton (6-6, 242) and true freshman Trey’ Dez Green (6-7, 237), the Tigers’ backup tight ends behind starter Mason Taylor. “KP’s run-blocking consistency and catching assignments have been really good,” Kelly said. “Trey’ Dez has assimilated as well as we could have expected for a true freshman. They’re both going to play.”. . .Returning defensive lineman Bradyn Swinson and Jalen Lee haven’t practiced with the team because they are finishing a morning Spanish class to graduate. “That class ends Monday,” Kelly said. “We’ve been bringing both of them here in the afternoons with an assistant coach, a strength coach and a trainer so they can stay on track.”
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com