By Matt Moscona
Brian Kelly put LSU through a full pads practice Saturday at the Charles McClendon Practice Facility. The Tigers spent 45 minutes indoors before finishing the practice outdoors for 90 minutes.
During the media viewing period, the Tigers had two 11-on-11 periods and a 7-on-7 period. They also worked situational special teams. The punters practiced angling kicks, pooch kicks and kicking out of their own end zone.
Peyton Todd and Blake Ochsendorf continue rotating with the first team. Zavion Thomas is the first returner with Aaron Anderson and Kyle Parker backing him up.
During the individual periods, Sai’vion Jones had a dominant win against Emery Jones in pass rush and Bradyn Swinson beat Will Campbell—something I’ve only seen happen twice all camp.
The first 11-on-11 period was a “thud” period despite full pads. After the first offense converted two first downs, Garrett Nussmeier was picked off by PJ Woodland on an attempted throw away. Safety Kylin Jackson blitzed, forcing Nussmeier to throw toward the right sideline. Woodland made a great play, dragging his right foot to complete the INT. Javien Toviano also forced an incompletion on a safety blitz.
We saw a Zone Read play where Nussmeier called his own number for a short gain around right end. He’s obviously not Jayden Daniels, but we have seen Nussmeier scramble and carry on designed runs in camp.
During 7-on-7 drills, the offense ran plays in the red zone. CJ Daniels caught a touchdown inside the front left pylon through contact from Jordan Allen. Aaron Anderson caught a pass in the flat, turned up and walked into the end zone untouched.
The play of the day in 7-on-7 came from freshman Trey’Dez Green who caught a touchdown on the back line of the end zone over PJ Woodland on a throw from freshman Colin Hurley. Chris Hilton injured his ankle on a touchdown catch. Allen and Hilton collided on the catch. Hilton came up limping and did not return to practice.
The final 11-on-11 period was a full tackle period with the offense working on goal line situations.
The first offense had to burn a timeout before their first snap. After an incompletion to Zavion Thomas and a run stuff by West Weeks, Ka’Morreun Pimpton scored off a play fake. Kaleb Jackson scored on a power run on the first play of the next set of downs.
The next set of downs for the 1’s was starting at their own one yard line. Kyren Lacy had a nice sideline grab but he was hit hard by Harold Perkins and knocked out of bounds.
The second defense sacked Rickie Collins for a safety.
Starting center DJ Chester was absent due to a stomach bug, according to Brian Kelly. Freshman Coen Echols and Senior Garrett Dellinger took reps at center.
