Tag Archives: Russell Shepard
LSU Tigers Prepare for Saturday’s Spring Game
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After today’s practice, the LSU Tigers are 3 days away from the culmination of spring practice, the annual Spring Game. It will be held in Tiger Stadium on Saturday at 5pm. The Purple will take on the White and we are all excited as hell about it. Here is a behind the scenes video of some spring practice action brought to you by lsusports.net. There’s more after the jump…..
The main draw might be the quarterback situation with Jordan Jefferson, Jarrett Lee, freshman lightning bolt Russell Shepard, and Chris Garrett all competing for the spot. We all know how last season went with Jarrett Lee at the helm. It’s been reported that he is having a pretty good spring. I hope we haven’t forgotten that we heard the same bull shit last spring about Lee. I’ve got to think, it’s much easier to throw a ball in the spring than it is against an SEC opponent in front of 90,000 plus in the fall. You agree, huh? Let’s all hope that if he sees the field this year, he’s made major strides in his anti-interception abilities. Jefferson was the man in the end, earning bowl MVP honors after the 38-3 crushing of Georgia Tech in the Chik-fil-a Bowl on New Year’s Eve 2008.
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LSU Spring Football Takes a Break, Les Miles Handles Toughest Job #4
Following the 2nd full scrimmage of the 2009 Spring football season, Les Miles seemed pleased with the players’ efforts as well as the progress made on offense, defense, and special teams. Both offensive units ran roughly 30 plays each as did special teams.
Miles said, “It was a pretty even go; the offense made some plays and the defense made some plays. There were a lot of ones versus ones and twos versus twos. Progress was made, but we are a long way away.”
He singled out Jarrett Lee, Charles Scott, Keiland Williams, and Richard Murphy on offense and Drake Nevis, Harry Coleman, Chad Jones, Karnell Hatcher and Pep Livingston on defense.
Jarrett Lee threw two touchdown passes, one to Brandon LaFell and another to newly converted tight end, Deangelo Peterson. The offense also accounted for another touchdown on the ground by Keiland Williams. I really thought the Jarrett Lee days were behind us, but it sounds like he is making positive strides.
This was a much better showing for the offense than in the 1st scrimmage, in which the defense controlled the ball. This made Coach Miles happy and he said that each of the quarterbacks were pretty even with their play. “Jarrett Lee threw a few more completed passes and Jordan Jefferson made a couple of nice throws and completed touchdown passes throughout the scrimmage.”
The coaching staff is still searching for a fit for true freshman/lightning bolt, Russell Shepard. Trust me, he’ll see plenty of the field right away. Some of the fastest players on the team even comment on how fast he is.
Les Miles was a happy man after this scrimmage. He let the guys go on their university-wide spring break and seemed to feel good about where the Tigers are right now. However, as quoted above, he knows they have a long way to go….typical coach-talk.
Miles has definitely had an above average career so far at LSU. He has a good record (42-11 (.792)), which includes 4 bowl wins in 4 tries, one of which is a national championship. It should also be noted that all LSU’s four bowl wins under Miles were more than decisive. 40-3 over Miami in ’05, 41-14 over Notre Dame in ’06, 38-24 over Ohio State for it all in ’07, and 38-3 over the favored Georgia Tech in Atlanta this past season.
You give Miles a month to prepare for a team and he destroys them (see above bowl game scores).
However, LSU may not have had the dream season last year, but Miles certainly knows how to handle the pressure that comes along with being the head football coach for the Tigers. In fact, in a recent article on The State.com, the LSU Football head coaching job was ranked #4 in the country in college sports’ toughest jobs, behind only Kentucky basketball, BAMA football, and Notre Dame football.
Last year was a rough one for everybody. It seemed the Tigers could never really get going in any game. They weren’t focused, interceptions were thrown and then run back for touchdowns, blah, blah, blah….you know, normal stuff. But this year, the Tigers are mad as hell and they want to get back what they lost in ’08. There’s a new attitude on defense with the new coaches and the offense has more weapons at it’s disposal as well as the reliable ones from past years that decided to stick around one more year (Scott, K. Williams, Holliday, and LaFell,). It is exciting and I speak for all Tiger football fans out there when I say, I can’t wait to see how they look in the Spring game on April 18. Tickets for sale here. Just enter the promo code, ‘SPRINGGAME09′ for a $1 ticket to print at home.
Enjoy the break guys. Go to the beach, get your club on, hang out with a pretty lady or two, etc. …… Just come back as fired up as you left. This year, there’ a lot of work to be done.
GEAUX TIGERS!!!!
-Bury Me on the 50
National Signing Day: What does it all mean??
WARNING: You need to get ready for it. That ridiculous co-worker of yours is going to tell you this morning about how awesome LSU is going to be next year because we had a good recruiting class. He’ll tell you how we signed all these massive recruits and regurgitate a bunch of stats to you that he memorized in the last 24 hours…half of which are completely wrong. This phenomina happens each and every year after signing day and lasts about a week. The fact is, 80% of these guys wont see the field at all in 2009, and 95% of them wont make any kind of impact. I’m happy as a pig in shit we nailed damn near all the guys that we went after, but let’s have these guys get through prom before we annoint them BCS champions!
Looking back at yesterday, Kenny Bell’s defection to Bama isnt that big of a deal and Auburn can have DeAngelo Benton because someone told me that he’s legally retarded (but dont tell him I told you cuz I’m pretty sure he’s bigger than me). Trent Richardson was just pulling everyone’s chain and the rest of the guys who went elsewhere today were longshots at best. However, I would like to add that Nick Saban is Satan…he clubs baby seals and I have a friend who had a friend who said they he knows that Nick is meanie head pecker face.
As for the good stuff, on paper…this class is a brick shithouse. I mean, studs at every position. Randle, Shepard, Davenport, Montgomery, Mingo, Downs, Loston…the list goes on and on. Randle and Shepard will probably find the field next year in the receiving corps and make a difference. Downs, Davenport, Loston, and Montgomery will probably start to work into the lineup starting next year. And Mingo….a friggin 6′ 5″ LB that runs a 4.6. Sweeeeeet.
As for Janzen Jackson, I guess we’ll see. Obviously we’d love to have him, but if he takes off too…it wont be the end of the world. Anyway, the full class is after the jump.
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Russell Shepard, a ‘Class’ Act
I agree, it’s kind of a cheesy title, but it works. We all heard or read the stories of Russell Shepard during the recruiting season. Once he made the commitment to become an LSU Tiger, he started pushing for other high-profile, high school seniors he met to make the same commitment. He was actually helping Coach Miles and staff recruit for the Tigers. We heard the story about how he already knows his role on the team. He knows he hasn’t accomplished anything yet and said he’d even take out the trash if they asked him to. Not only is this guy going to be fun to watch on the field over the next few years, but he will also be a great example of a student-athlete to for others to follow.
After committing to Miles and the Tigers, Shepard enrolled at LSU in January to begin taking classes and practicing with the team. ESPN has highlighted what a normal day is like for Russell now that he has made the transition to college at LSU. It includes, class starting at 7:30am, strolling through campus and “free speech alley”, a visit to the COX Academic Center (which a lot of athletes claim as a big part of why they chose LSU), lunch in the Union, being recognized by some new fans, and work-outs with the team. Here is the link to the video you don’t want to miss (after the jump):
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LSU Tiger Football Expected to not Suck in 2009
So I went searchin on the interweb for some stuff on the 2009 version of the LSU Tiger football team and was pretty surprised at what I found. First, there’s Chris Low, the excellent SEC blogger for ESPN who said the following in his list of 5 things to look for in 2009:
LSU fights back: After underachieving for much of this season on defense, the Tigers will get back to their attacking style in 2009 under new coordinator John Chavis. They were missing that edge this season, but the fiery Chavis will see to it that they get it back on the Bayou.
Then, I went over to Rivals.com and saw their look ahead at the top 25 for 2009 . Much to my surprise, they have the Tigers at number 5! Their top 4….Florida, Texas, USC, and Oklahoma.
I stumbled on over to SI.com and Stewart Mandel, their top college football writer, had just put out his top 10 for 2009. Like Rivals…he’s got Florida, Texas, USC, and Oklahoma as his top 4. When I got to his #5, I actually “WTF’d” out loud. BAMA? Are you shitting me? If Bama finishes in the top 10 next year, I’ll get a full on Brazilian wax and post the video on this site. I actually see Bama finishing 3rd in the SEC West behind us and Ole Miss. No way. He’s got LSU at 9, which I think is about right.
I honestly think, WITH STEADY QB PLAY, the Tigers are a top 10 team. We have all of our playmakers returning from last year and have added at least two, in Russell Shepard and Craig Loston, who can contribute next year as well. <Fingers crossed> Add in a Rueben Randle and hot damn! We might have an offense that causes teams some real problems. Of course, you can score 35 points per game and still lose if your defense sucks. But I think we’ve addressed that little problem and we’ll see a huge difference next year. Here’s to a top 10 finish in ’09!
LSU Football Looks Forward to a Successful 2009
With the early enrollment of Russell Shepard to LSU and his first day of school today, ……by the way, this is something he said about coming to LSU:
“I’m coming in with a lot of hype, but I’m a freshman again, ” he said. “I want to learn what they have done to be successful. I haven’t done anything in college yet. I’m a team player. I’ll hold for field goals, I’ll take trash out, I’ll do everything to build their trust in me and become the player to, hopefully, help win titles.”…….. what a kid! More after the jump…
Along with the several new coaches on the defense, 2009 already looks to be a huge improvement on the 2008 season. An excellent article breaks down 16 different parts of the LSU team that should prove to make for a championship caliber team next season:
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Under Armour Game not kind – LSU to focus on Rueben Randle
The Under Armour High School All-America Game did not exactly turn out the way that LSU fans had hoped. First off, Russell Shepard was very hit and miss. His arm strength was certainly the weakest of all the quarterbacks thatt played in the game and his accuracy was suspect. His legs were awesome and after being coached-up, he should end up ok. Several highly touted recruits made their declarations as to which college they would attend in 2009. None of those, however, chose LSU. Coming off the good news on Friday that Craig Loston would attend LSU, the Tigers got kicked in the nuts by all the guys that had them on the short list. First, John Martinez from Utah chose to go play football in sunny LA for USC. Cant blame the dude. He’s from fuckin Utah and has a chance to go live like a rockstar in Los Angeles. More power to ya homie. Dyron Dye and Ray Ray Armstrong both chose that they’d rather be future criminals than win championships and will head down to Miami. And Andre Dubose, a five star guy that everyone thought was a lean to LSU, unfortunately chose a team that we play every year in Florida. This is only a day after another five star guy, DT William Campbell chose Michigan over LSU at the US Army All-Star Game.
The good news: the Tigers still have a top 3 recruiting class. According to Rivals, there are only 31 five star players in the nation and we have signed 4 of them…with a chance to sign one or two more. The most important of these being Rueben Randle , who is the number one ranked player by Rivals. Perhaps the Tigers can get back in the hunt for a couple other big prospects as well. Even if LSU doesnt sign another guy all year, the class is solid and will produce a few superstars. Plus, there’s always the hope that DeAngelo Benton from last year’s class can get his grades in order and add his talent to the wideout group.
Russell Shepard Awful at Under Armour Skills Competition
So Russell Shepard is human after all! I know, I thought he was a martian or neptunian or something. But dammit, he’s human. Yesterday at the Under Armour skills competition, Shepard finished last out of six competitors in the QB part of the deal. Each competitor was given 3 shots at a moving target from 10 and 20 yards, 2 from 30 yards and then they got one last throw where they got 2 points for every yard the ball traveled within the “landing zone.” Shepard missed the landing zone. I’m not judging our boy at all. He’s nervous, its tv, etc. However, his arm looked the weakest of the 6 QB’s by far. His accuracy wasnt there either and he was the only guy to not hit the bullseye on at least one target. Matt Barkley, a USC commitment, and the overall #1 player according Scout.com, won the competition and really looked impressive. Anyway, just a quick analysis of what I saw on tv. You can see all the guys play on ESPN Sunday night at 8pm EST. That’s 7pm for all you Louisianians. Have a good one.
