Brian Kelly and the LSU Tigers are more than halfway through fall camp, and the team has remained healthy through the first two weeks of preseason practice.
Aside from some minor injuries, the Bayou Bengals have been trending in a good direction after 11 practices.
Both Zay Alexander and John Emery continue to practice after tearing their ACLs during the 2023 season. How are their recoveries progressing?
LSU Availability Report:
LSU defensive tackle Jacobien Guillory injured his left knee during a fall camp practice on Tuesday and missed most of Day 10. Guillory was worked on by trainers, evaluated and eventually spent the second half of the day on a bike ride without his helmet.
Guillory returned to the practice field on Wednesday as a full member of the roster without restrictions and was hot in 11-on-11 action for the Tigers, who cannot afford to lose Guillory in 2024 given their lack of depth on the line.
LSU wide receiver Jelani Watkins sprained his foot and ankle. He was injured Tuesday and participated in Wednesday's practice on crutches and in a boot.
Watkins landed wrong during a 2-on-2 drill and immediately grimaced in pain, causing trainers to pull him aside for the rest of the day. Staff are hopeful he'll return soon, and it doesn't appear this will be a long-term injury.
Tobiano rejoined the program in fall camp after some off-field trouble in the offseason, returning from a suspension following his July 21 arrest, with Brian Kelly confirming the university had reinstated the second-year Tiger.
“Javien (Tobiano) is back in action from college,” Kelly said after LSU's first practice of camp. “He's back in action for football. We're going to reactivate him and get him back on the team. He's going to be a competitive player for us. He played for us last year (as a freshman). We're going to keep him active while he works through his legal issues.”
Now he's a star player for the Tigers.
Alexander remains limited throughout fall camp, particularly in the 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 portions of preseason practices.
After spending the summer rehabbing a torn ACL that took him out of the 2023 season, the second-year Tiger returned to the field as a participant, but it's clear the program is moving slowly.
Alexander isn't currently in the second tier of cornerbacks, but as he continues to improve, we could see the Tigers move up in depth in his second year.
“He's been cleared for everything,” Kelly said of Alexander, “but if you're hurting your knee, you've got to go through that, tripping over a hole and cutting it off and feeling the scar tissue and going, 'Oh, this is what it feels like.'”
“He is fully recovered but is in the process of returning to football activities and it may take some time before he feels truly comfortable.”
Emery also suffered a torn ACL in 2023 and returned to the program after rehabbing during the offseason.
He practiced a few times with the first team during camp and looked agile and capable of making cuts on several occasions, with Emery even drilling him coming out of the backfield while carrying the ball and catching a pass on a screen route.
But the knee is still obviously sore. He's missed three games so far this camp while trainers work on the knee where he recently had surgery. Emery has been getting a fair amount of playing time this camp, but getting back to 100% will be key.
“I talked to (running backs coach) Frank (Wilson) and I wanted to do two things,” Kelly said. “I wanted to put John in a position where practice was important, he had to cut, he had to stress.”
“Now that he's cleared, we wanted every rep he did to be what I would call, if that's a bad analogy, high-leverage rep. We didn't want him to just block or do a rep where he didn't have to put his foot on the ground and accelerate. We really wanted to stress him in terms of making sure his knee was in tip-top condition, because when it's in tip-top condition, he's fearless.”
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