Stubborn Mad Hatter learning to fly

Published 11:49 am Wednesday, March 9, 2016

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Ordinarily I would recommend strong caution and healthy skepticism on such matters, but I’m convinced — in fact, I’m here to tell you — that LSU will be throwing the ball much, much better next fall.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Probably not with reckless abandon, but with some long-awaited efficiency.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And it doesn’t really matter who the quarterback is.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Could be Brandon Harris. Might be Danny Etling.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Could be you or me. Wouldn’t really matter.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Maybe even Anthony Jennings.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But LSU will be chunking the ball come September.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It took only one spring practice to announce that loud and clear.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Again, you can make too much out of one practice, particularly one spring practice in shorts and T-shirts.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But this particular first spring practice on Monday told you all you need to know.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LSU hit the ground throwing and throwing and ?— this is important —also catching the ball.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“We’re heading toward the opportunity to throw the football better,” head coach Les Miles said. “That’s what we intend to do with the spring, and that’s what we are doing.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Yeah, that’s coach speak, the kind of thing you’d normally discount.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Not this time.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It was the talk of that first spring practice. Everywhere you looked, balls were taking flight, mostly finding the intended address.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Wide receivers were sprinting all over the place. Long passes, short passes, even the elusive intermediate routes.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">You’d have thought the circus had come to campus.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“I want to throw the football 15 practices (the legal spring limit) just like we threw it today,” Miles said with some defiance. “That’s our plan. What that means is we are taking an inordinate amount of time at the beginning of practice to set up technically our throwing game.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">OK, you could also get pretty suspicious that, just months after Miles survived the infamous coup attempt on his coaching job, he’s just making a big show of the whole thing — proving that LSU does, in fact, practice the passing game.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That’s not what’s happening here.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Trust me. Miles means it this time. He’s serious.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And when he gets something in that hard head of his, that defiant jaw juts out and it generally gets down.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">I know what you’re thinking.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">You’re thinking that Miles is too stubborn to change, certainly too stubborn to open up the offense and join the 21st century.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That’s where you’re wrong.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He’s just stubborn enough to get this thing fixed.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">True, it was that dreaded Miles stubbornness that turned the LSU offense into a no-fly zone to begin with. But that same stubbornness is what is going to make LSU’s passing game presentable again.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">This has happened before.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LSU and Miles have been down this road before, although it was a different road.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">After Miles’ 2007 BCS national championship — horror of horrors for Miles — the Tigers plum forgot how to RUN the ball.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That’s hard to believe, I know.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But the 2008 season the Tigers managed only 168 yards per game on the ground, which greatly annoyed Miles. Maybe he just thought it was a freak accident.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But the next year was rock bottom. The Tigers were almost helpless running the ball, just a measly 123 yards per game in 2009, which sent Miles into a tizzy fit.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">They had some running backs, that wasn’t the problem. The offensive line was OK.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But the Tigers flat couldn’t run the ball, couldn’t push the pile, got some sand kicked in their face, and it was driving Miles crazy. It had hit critical mass.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So the Tigers went back to the basics.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He decided it wasn’t Xs and Os, and it wasn’t personnel.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Running the ball, he knew, is a mind-set, and somehow the Tigers had lost their way.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So basically the entire offseason — including spring practice — was dedicated to getting into the proper frame of mind to just line up and beat somebody up.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It was as brutal as spring could be, a veritable boot camp, but a message was being sent, one not for the faint of heart.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Among other things it was during this attitude adjustment that the Tigers were introduced to the “Big Cat Drill,” which is basically mano a mano, Greco-Roman wrestling with shoulder pads.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LSU has been running the ball just fine ever since — maybe to the detriment of the throwing game.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Now, it’s obvious after just one practice, Miles has his stubborn mind set on throwing the ball.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“We all recognize that is something that makes our team better,” he said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It will get done.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LSU practiced again Tuesday, and will no doubt go through the remainder of the spring in a pass-happy mood.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But the tone was set with that first one. It will get done.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">My guess is that the spring game is going to look like arena football overdosing on energy drinks.</span>

<span class="R~sep~AZaphdingbatdot7pt">l</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Scooter Hobbs</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">covers LSU</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">athletics. Email him at</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">shobbs@americanpress.com</span>