Alright gang, it's the time everyone has been waiting for. Fall camp is officially here, day one is now in the books. Nothing like a hot 93-degree day with a "feels like" of 107 to kick things off right? The first practice was split up. The first half was indoors, and the second half was outdoors.
Coach Brian Kelly talked about wanting to get the players acclimated to the heat, so I think we'll probably see a similar format for the first few days of practice.
The first 15 minutes of practice well at least the first 15 minutes that were available to the media they allowed us to observe from the catwalk in the indoor practice facility. So, for today all of the photos/videos will be from the catwalk.
First thing I want to point out is that Brian Kelly talked a little about the Jimmy Lindsey situation. They don't have anything new to report. They should get another update today; they hope that this is just something short term and the changes they had to make will only be for the immediate future. John Jancek is going to move to coaching the defensive line position and Bob Diaco who was a senior analyst previously will take over coaching Jancek's old positions of special teams and outside linebackers.
"Both of these are trusted and valued coaches that have had opportunities to work with me at multiple stops along my career and will do an outstanding job with the preparation of our players going through camp and our thoughts and prayers are with the Lindsey family," LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly said after practice.
Also want to note John Emery was not at practice today, but Brian Kelly addressed that during his post practice availability. He said he was finishing up an internship today and they gave him the day off of practice to focus on that, rather than have him rushing and running in the building with his shoes untied or something. He also said that he'll be with the team tomorrow and going forward, so it appears that he took care of whatever business he had to take care of and is back with the team.
Another thing to note is that Kelly said they're taking a similar approach to injuries as the NFL. They're going to be a lot more transparent with injuries. They'll update injuries twice during the week and then on Saturday they will give the available/unavailable designation on game day.
So on to some of the observations during the open media portion, which today we got see quite a bit. We just couldn't shoot anything after the first 15 minutes. So, I don't think I need to remind anyone it's day one, obviously not dressed out in full pads and very limited contact.
- I will preface everything below by saying again it's day one. They're in helmets, coach Kelly kind of reiterated this in his post practice availability that they're going to be moving guys around a lot and he's not going to worry too much about depth chart concerns until probably after practice six. So, I may note guys getting reps with first teamers, but it doesn't necessarily mean these are first team guys. What I would take away from it is, if they're getting reps with first teamers it probably means they figure into the rotation at least at the top end of the rotation because more than likely you're not going give first team reps to everyone.
- The quarterbacks looked particularly crisp throughout their drills, as did the receivers overall. Jayden Daniels definitely looks like your starting quarterback should, he threw a lot of balls today and most of them were crisp and tight. He did have one errant throw (noted later) the quarterback group as a whole, their best passes came in the short to intermediate routes. They're a little off with the timing on some of the deeper throws down the field, needing to put just a little more air under the ball to hit the receiver in stride. But I would say looked very sharp considering this is only day one. Granted all of the throws today were with no rushing defense so, they did have that going for them.
- It's day one and you can probably attribute this to getting back in the groove of things, but I did notice that during the indoor session the safeties struggled a bit during their individual drills working with the coaching staff, there were quite a few bobbled and dropped "interceptions" during warm up drills that should have been easy snags, these weren't the only ones, but I know I saw Greg Brooks and Sage Ryan drop a few passes the coaches threw right to them.
- Maason smith was participating, which wasn't really in doubt. He was wearing a brace on his left leg though and I think he was getting less reps than some of the other guys in some of the individual drills, but it is possible I missed a few of his reps trying to watch other areas of practice. I will say though he doesn't appear to be hampered at all which is pretty much what we expected.
- I noticed Sai'Vion Jones and Jacob Guillory getting quite a few reps next to Maason Smith during a lot of the team defense (no offense) drills that were done inside.
- Zy Alexander and Duce Chestnut appeared to be getting the most reps with what appeared to be the first team defense.
- Texas transfer Ovie Oghoufo was getting a good number of reps with the first team as well. This is a guy that Kelly called a "Big Addition". Oghoufo played for Kelly as a freshman, then transferred to Texas before transferring to LSU this offseason.
- A guy probably further down the depth chart compared to some of the other receivers, but had the best catch I saw all day probably was Landon Ibieta. The 5-foot-11, 195-pound receiver made a nice one-handed catch with his left hand on an out route toward the right sideline during the indoor portion of practice.
- During one on ones, the receivers clearly had the better day against the defense. Not surprising considering these types of one on ones are slanted severely towards the offensive players who had pretty much 50-yards of field to work with against man-to-man coverage, so the success rate is naturally skewed towards the receivers. So much so that when Brian Kelly was asked about it during his post practice availability, he even talked about the advantages that the offensive palyer has against the defensive player in those types of situations and he's not wrong.
- Talking about some of those one-on-one battles, Kyren Lacey won a rep against safety Greg Brooks JR.
- JK Johnson won a rep against Chris Hilton Jr deflecting Garrett Nussmeier's pass.
- Duce Chestnut won a rep against Landon Ibieta playing the hook route perfectly timing his deflection.
- Rickie Collins completed a nice pass on a go-route to Kyle Parker, safety Jordan Allen was in coverage.
- Rickie Collins completed a nicely timed comeback route to Chris Hilton JR.
- Ka'Morreun Pimpton had probably the second-best catch of the day that I saw, going up and over safety Welton Spottsville. Spotsville had the advantage and position, but Rickie Collins put where only Pimpton could catch it and he did just that.
- Garrett Nussmeier completed a long pass to Brian Thomas Jr down the right hash, Laterrance Welch was on the coverage but had no chance. I will say Nussmeier could have put a little more air under it to hit Thomas in Stride, he had to slow down a bit to catch it.
- Jayden Daniels only errant throw of the day (That I saw) came on a slant route to Shelton Sampson JR, cornerback JK Johnson was in coverage. This one was just a miss by Daniels, probably a miscommunication more than anything but Sampson turned his hips to hit the slant inside and Daniels sailed it left, away from both players and out of harms way.
- Kyle Parker caught a nice pass from Jayden Daniels on the very next play, missed who was in coverage on this one couldn't see the number.
- Jayden Daniels hit Khai Prean with a deep pass down the right hash, could have put a little more air under it as Prean had to slow down to make the catch.
- Zy Alexander made a great defensive play against Gregory Clayton JR, he stayed tight in coverage and knocked the ball away.
- Rickie Collins completed a long pass to true freshman Jalen Brown; Jeremiah Hughes was in coverage.
- I was impressed by redshirt freshman WR Aaron Anderson, the Alabama transfer was quick, shifty and showed good hands. Interested to see more from him. Some you may remember; Anderson was arguably the top prospect out of Louisiana in the class of 2022. He was a 6.1 five-star recruit here on Rivals and signed with Alabama. Was a little banged up throughout his freshman season and decided to transfer to LSU this offseason.
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- During the outdoor session they ran some offense vs defense passing drills where it was team drills. During this sesson Jayden Daniels hit Chris Hilton Jr down the right sideline for a nice play. Probably would have gained 30-yards in live action. It was on the far sideline, I missed who was in coverage on this one.
- Rickie Collins completed a nice pass to Shelton Sampson JR during the outside session.
- Brian Thomas JR had a really nicely timed comeback route on the right sideline during the outside session receiving a dart from Jayden Daniels.
- Walked over to get a glimpse at some of the O-line working out and saw true freshman offensive tackle Lance Heard working out at right tackle position in some one-on-one drills. He held his own for being day one for a true freshman. I saw him win about 85% of a rep against Quincy Wiggins, looked really good up to the point where he lost his leverage and had ended up holding. Was really impressed with his hands though for a true freshman.
- Paul Mebenga won a rep against Tygee Hill and then Tygee Hill came right back and won the next rep.
- Will Campbell, Garrett Dellinger, Charles Turner, Miles Frazier and Emory Jones were getting the first team reps on the offensive line left to right.
