Miles has fun as Tigers prep for title game
It’s New Year’s Eve, a time for frivolity even if you’re the head coach of a team that’s nine days away from playing in college football’s ultimate game.
One reporter asked LSU coach Les Miles after Friday’s practice whether the team had already put in the Alabama game plan in preparation for the No. 1-ranked Tigers’ rematch with the No. 2 Crimson Tide in the BCS National Championship Game.
“No, we thought we would put in the Oregon game plan, see how it might work,” Miles said with a sly grin.
“I’m just teasing,” he quickly said. “I’m allowed to have fun.”
Yes, LSU is definitely well into its plan for Alabama. But there was some truth to Miles’ joke about the Oregon game plan:
No matter who the opponent, the Tigers’ plan of attack is never all that different.
“We do what we do,” Miles said. “We’re not changing. We’re going to hopefully execute better and do the things that got us here.”
One area where Miles knows the Tigers must improve is in the passing game.
Against LSU’s four highest-ranked opponents, the Tigers passed for more than 100 yards only once. LSU had 98 yards passing against No. 3 Oregon, 91 yards in the first game with No. 2 Alabama, 208 yards against No. 3 Arkansas and 30 against No. 12 Georgia, a record low for any team in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game.
Considering how stacked Alabama will be to stop the run, Miles knows LSU’s passing must be much more fancy.
“I suspect those guys will throw and catch more balls and that we’ll be more efficient than we were,” Miles said. “We have to. They’re a very, very quality defensive front against the run. We’re going to have to throw it some.”
Trevon Randle, Gore gone
Linebacker Trevon Randle and running back Jakhari Gore have left the team, Miles confirmed.
Gore, a 5-foot-9, 175-pound redshirt freshman from Miami and the cousin of San Francisco 49ers running back Frank Gore, played in two games and had eight carries for 25 yards.
Randle, a 6-1, 205-pound true freshman from League City, Texas, did not record any stats this season.
Miles said he did not know where the players intended to transfer.
In good health
Though Miles typically doesn’t like to discuss injuries when he has them, he maintained Friday that all of his available players are good to go and that no one has yet missed significant practice time in the pre-BCS workouts.
Asked specifically about free safety Eric Reid — who played against Georgia with a partially torn quadriceps muscle suffered Nov. 19 against Ole Miss — Miles said the sophomore has practiced the entire time.
Make it loud
The Tigers worked outdoors Friday evening with speakers on the sideline pouring in recorded crowd noise as the players went through their paces.
Miles said that despite an expected home-field advantage in the Mercedez-Benz Superdome for the BCS title game, he and his staff learned from the BCS championship game against Ohio State four years ago that crowd noise can still be a problem.
“We figured out we needed to have worked more against crowd noise,” Miles said.
The noise was clearly audible from the street to anyone happening by the LSU practice fields.
“It’s really good,” Miles said of the simulated din. “You can’t really communicate effectively when you’re cranking it up.”
Remaining schedule
The Tigers will practice at home Saturday, Sunday and Monday, take Tuesday off and hold one final on-campus practice Wednesday morning before busing down to New Orleans that afternoon.
LSU will practice in the Superdome on Thursday and Friday, at the Superdome or the New Orleans Saints’ practice facility in Metairie on Saturday, and at the Saints’ facility on Sunday.