By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – On the first day of preseason training camp opening his 35th season as a college head football coach, LSU’s Brian Kelly felt a range of emotions.
First, there was surviving a heat index of around 100 degrees as the Tigers finished their Thursday morning workout.
“I was lightheaded today out there,” Kelly admitted afterward in his post-practice press conference.
Secondly, Kelly still eagerly anticipates watching his program develop from year to year, finally getting to a point where he can teach the Xs and O’s rather than first developing a disciplined winning culture.
“It’s the development of your team, what they look like and how they handle themselves,” Kelly said. “For instance, we don’t take our helmets off (in practice) for water breaks.
“In my first season as a head coach (in 1991 at Grand Valley State), I had guys taking their helmets off and throwing them each other.”
Finally, it bolstered Kelly’s confidence when Matt Mauck, LSU’s starting quarterback on the 2003 national championship team, gave the current-day Tigers high marks after he attended Thursday’s practice.
“I was really impressed,” Kelly said, “when a guy like Matty Mauck come up to you and say `Coach, that was impressive for day one in terms of the way your guys looked.’ He’s being honest with you. He’s not going to blow smoke.”
Thursday was the first of 19 practices before LSU enters game week preparation for the Sept. 1 season opener vs. USC in Las Vegas. Kelly was reasonably happy after practice No. 1.
“The (player) leadership understanding of how important it is to compete even when you’re not in a full equipment situation really resonated for me today,” Kelly said. “I was really, really happy about the speed. I was really happy about the execution.
“I was pleased with the competitiveness, the focus of how they went through each and every drill.”
Graduate student running back John Emery Jr. and senior starting cornerback Zy Alexander, who sustained season-ending knee injuries in 2023, are slowly working back in the mix.
“John’s (medically) clear for everything,” Kelly said. “When you have a knee, you need to experience some things like getting tripped up in the hole or cutting off of it and feeling the scar tissue.
“Alexander’s got to go through planting (his foot) and cutting, so he’s full go. But he’s in the process of getting back into football activities. It takes time before you feel real comfortable.”
Kelly announced sophomore defensive back Javien Toviano has been re-joined the team after being reinstated by the university. He had been suspended July 12 on a video voyeurism charge for recording him having sex with a woman.
East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore said Toviano’s case remains under review.
“He’s back in football activities, and we’ll kind of get him going again back in the mix as he works through his legal matters,” Kelly said of Toviano.
Among the Tigers’ true freshmen class, 6-foot-7 inch, 245-pound tight end Trey’Dez Green is one Kelly said could made an immediate impact.
“He certainly looks the part, right? He controls his body really well and has a great deal of confidence. He doesn’t look out of place, in any shape or form, from a physical standpoint, but he’s picked things up very well for a guy that has not played this game very long. It’s coming to him.
“I don’t want to stand here today on Day 1 and say he’s gonna play in the first year. But my experience has told me that guys that transition quickly with his kind of physical attributes tend to show real quick.”
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com