LSU Practice Report: August 5

By Hunt Palmer and Matt Moscona

Tuesday morning the Tigers put full pads on for the first time in camp. It was also the longest practice to date.

Brian Kelly is taking the elements seriously, so for the first fully padded workout, everything as a slow build to the final period of 11-on-11 work.

First Team

1st and 10 – Garett Nussmeier tucked the ball quickly and ran for a handful of yards. Gabriel Reliford was offsides.

1st and 5 – Caden Durham ran for three yards. The defensive front clogged things up.

2nd and 1 – Bernard Gooden ripped the line for a tackle for loss on Durham.

3rd and 3 – Sack of Nussmeier. I couldn’t see who reached out and touched him to draw the whistle. The pocket collapsed.

1st and 10 – Gooden with another tackle for loss, this time on Harlem Berry.

2nd and 12 – Jardin Gilbert with a pass breakup on Trey’dez Green over the middle.

3rd and 12 – Jack Pyburn beat Tyree Adams for a sack on an inside spin move. Pyburn has worked relentlessly hard on his pass rushing.

Candidly, the defensive ate the offense alive in this period, particularly up front. Gooden continues to terrorize LSU’s offensive line from the defensive interior. Some of that work has been on Josh Thompson, and some has been done on Coen Echols.

Second Team

1st and 10 – Kaleb Jackson ran hard for five yards off the offensive right side.

2nd and 6 – Zavion Thomas took a handoff and shook a tackle for loss but only got back to the line of scrimmage.

3rd and 7 – PJ Woodland broke up a pass intended for Baron Brown. Great play on the ball.

1st and 10 – Freshman JT Lindsey hit a nice run for 10 yards.

1st and 10 – Lindsey got two more and was tackled by Davhon Keys.

2nd and 8 – Michael Van Buren tucked the ball and ran for a positive gain.

3rd and 7 – Tylen Singleton came free up the middle for a sack of Van Buren.

This period was more dominance by the defense which clearly won the day. But the offense did throw a few punches.

First Team

1st and 10 – This session started the way the first began when Pyburn dropped Durham for a five-yard loss on the first snap.

2nd and 15 – Nussmeier was forced to check down to Durham for about one yard.

3rd and 14 – Then Nussmeier hit Kyle Parker over the middle for 19 yards.

1st and 10 – Next snap Durham took a counter handoff off the offensive right side, broke one tackle on the second level and took it to the house for a 45 yard touchdown. He’s busted a long run every day so far.

Finally, the offensive found some traction. It completely fair, in my (Hunt) opinion to suggest that the defensive front is giving the first team offensive line a very difficult time. Nussmeier is under some pressure on most dropbacks, and the running, aside from the big plays, has not been effective. It’s still very early, but that’s a trend we anticipated. It’s playing out.

Some notes that don’t involve play-by-play…

Harlem Berry was working with the first team a lot today backing up Durham. Kaleb Jackson spent more time with the second team. I think they’re getting Berry ramped up to be a contributor.

DJ Pickett spends almost every 1-on-1 rep across from Chris Hilton. He gets beat almost every time. I draw two things from this, neither is that Pickett is “struggling”. They are giving him the most difficult test on the roster every day. That’s the first thing. The second is that Hilton is having another monster start to camp.

Speaking of good starts to camp, Ashton Stamps is really covering well. He holds his own in 1-on-1s which are severely slanted toward the offense and makes multiple plays on the ball every day in 7-on-7. LSU needs much better play from the corners, and Stamps is locking one of those spots down.

I also spent time watching the STAR position go through individual drills. Harold Perkins leads them. He’s the starter. But I was curious who the others would be behind him. My answer was Charles Ross, CJ Jimcoily and Austin Ausberry.

Ross is built like Perkins. He’s also got high school track speed like Perkins. They’re the two freaky fast linebackers. Jimcoily looks like a junior or senior in pads. He’s 6-foot-3 and 220 lbs. Eric Reid was listed at 6-foot-2 and 215 lbs. his LAST year on campus. The star position requires a ton of versatility, and those are the guys the staff think have that trait behind Perkins.

Aaron Anderson sat out once again. The hope remains for him to join practice on Wednesday.

The first 11-on-11 period of practice was also dominated by the defense. These were situational plays, mostly 1st and 10.

First Team

1 – Durham run stuffed

2 – Nussmeier scramble right, incomplete for Sharp (Perkins in coverage)

3 – Durham 5 yard run

4 – Berry 3 yard run

5 – Berry 4 yard run

6 – Deep pass underthrown and incomplete in the endzone intended for Hilton

Second Team 

(Van Buren at QB)

1 – High Snap from Cohen Echols. Play blown dead

2 – Short gain by Berry (Woodland on the tackle)

(Hurley at QB)

1 – Z. Thomas reception for 9 yards

2 – Fumble handoff, defense scoop-and-score