By ANDRE CHAMPAGNE, TIGER RAG STAFF Reporter
Brian Kelly knows he has to approach his fourth year with LSU differently than his first three seasons. After going 0-3 in opening games, LSU is changing the way it operates fall camp. Kelly and his staff are slowly ramping up the Tigers in a way that allows them to increase load management each day of camp.
“This is all about acclimatization. We’re going to have seven days where you are going to have to acclimatize your football team,” Kelly said.
The Tigers are going to practice for four days straight and then have a recovery day. After the recovery day, LSU will practice for three days straight and then have another recovery day. That process will be duplicated for the next three weeks. By using this process, Kelly says that soft tissue related injuries can be limited.
“We want to make sure we get through these seven days acclimatized without any soft-tissue injuries,” Kelly said.
The changes are cautious ones. Kelly is making sure that he and his staff can get the most out of his players during camp while limiting any setbacks. Not only are the first seven days of fall camp important when looking at the data relative to injuries, but it is also instrumental for player and team development.
On Wednesday, Kelly mentioned that his staff had to evaluate the entire way LSU operated during fall camp, not just in preparing for week one competition.
““If you’re just reacting to not having a win in the opener, then you’re reacting in a manner that doesn’t give you an opportunity to be successful,” Kelly said.
Even if fall camp operations are a bit different, the goal has been the exact same as the past few years. And that’s starting off in the win column.
“We’ve made it pretty known what our goal is and that’s to go 1-0,” Kelly said.
“Different in years past is that we were so much more intentional about getting to August 31st in January and that focus has remained the same for the last seven and a half months,” Kelly added.
LSU is preaching not only to go 1-0 starting the season, but to go 1-0 each week. “1-0” is all over the screens at the football operations building.
With just two practices down, LSU has only seen one notable name absent at practice. Wide receiver Aaron Anderson was not seen at practice on Thursday. He participated in practice on Wednesday. Anderson is LSU’s most productive returning receiver, where he totaled 61 receptions for 844 yards and five touchdowns last season. Kelly mentioned that they will be cautious with load management this season, especially at the wide receiver position, so Anderson’s absence may come as precautionary.
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