Brian Kelly likes what he sees in LSU's first spring football practice

After the first LSU football spring practice of 2023 Thursday morning, Tigers’ head coach Brian Kelly immediately noted the natural progression of a program starting its second year under him.

“Last year, guys were trying to figure out where they were and what their place was,” Kelly said. “We were talking much more about emotional control. We were talking about how to practice, about not going on one knee (to rest) during practice, not taking your helmet off, not throwing your helmet.

“So you can imagine from my perspective and the coaches, it's great when you can go out into a drill and just talk about competing, and not about whether you won or lost the drill, but whether you use really good technique.”

There’s enough returning players from last season’s 10-4 SEC Western Division championship team – 36 lettermen including 26 who started – to provide the necessary leadership for the newbies including 12 transfers with at least half of those likely to start.

“Today, we reminded our players it's really a progression of what we do every day,” Kelly said. “And that progression of what we do every day is building on the things that go to being successful.

“There's no scoreboard out in spring practice. There's no winners, there's no losers. What it's really about is the total development of the individual and understanding that you need more than just talent alone to win a national championship.

“This next five, six weeks is really about your total preparation. And it's about how you continue to develop the traits necessary to be elite.”

One immediately noticeable thin position on day one was running back. Noah Cain and Trey Holly were the only available scholarshipped RBs.

Missing were fifth-year seniors Josh Williams and John Emery Jr. and junior Armoni Goodwin. While it was already known that Williams and Goodwin aren’t practicing while recovering from off-season knee surgery, Emery’s absence for academic reasons is a surprise and a disappointment for someone who has battled injuries and academic problems his entire college career.

“John is focused strictly right now on his academics,” Kelly said. “He's got some marks that he has to hit from an academic standpoint before we talk about football with him.

“That was the deal with John in talking to his family. His primary focus is academics and taking care of his degree, then we would have a conversation about football.”

The Tigers practice Friday (closed to the media), and then are off next week on spring break.

They return to practice March 21, followed by practices on the 23, 25, 30 and April 1, 4, 6, 11, 14, 15, 18, 20, 22.

Pro Day is March 29 and the high school coaches’ clinic is April 13-15.

Here’s Kelly on other subjects:

On setting up the spring practice schedule to have two days of practice and then a week off for spring break rather than scheduling the start of spring practice after spring break

“It allowed us more contact time with the team and then allows you to elongate the schedule because you don't have to count these days that we're at break. We also have the Easter break where we don't have to count days. So, it just allows us the ability to spend more time in terms of meeting and contact hours with our football team and spread it out over a longer period of time.”

On losing QB Walker Howard who transferred to Ole Miss and the return of backup QB Garrett Nussmeier

“You want to do a great job of retention and sometimes it's out of your hands, you know?

“Garrett is was out there today, even after he's had some corrective surgery. He was out there competing and throwing. He'll probably be another week or so before he's full-go.”

On early enrollment freshman quarterback Rickie Collins

“Certainly, as a quarterback, you'd benefit greatly just coming in learning the system. There's so much as a quarterback, as you can imagine, from just looking to the sideline and picking up the signals to being coached and hearing a different voice as you transition into a new system. Finally, trying to put it together in a faster environment. Everything's quicker, everything's faster, quicker decisions.

“And so from a quarterback standpoint, mid-year enrollment covers everything from the intellectual development to the physical development in the weight room to the mental development and dealing with the ups and downs of transitioning into college life as somebody that should still be in high school.”

On the new transfers

“It's pretty clear that some of the defensive players that we brought in (Texas linebacker) Ovie Oghoufo, (Oregon State linebacker) Omar Speights, (West Virginia defensive tackle) Jordan Jefferson are going to be impactful guys. The depth of the cornerback position, all of them are really talented players.

“(Alabama wide receiver Aaron Anderson) is coming back from surgery, so we haven't seen him yet. But we know about his story and how great of a high school player he was here in the state.

“There's some things that we'll continue to evaluate. It's day one, but I’m pretty confident that the transfers that we brought in will make an impact.”