As LSU football prepares to travel to the L.A. area on Thursday ahead of its opener at UCLA, it'll likely be without the services of a handful of players.
LSU coach Ed Orgeron said the team will practice at the Rose Bowl on Friday and those players' statuses will be something he's looking at, but that group doesn't include star cornerbacks Derek Stingley Jr. or Eli Ricks, both of whom have returned to practice after battling nagging camp injuries.
The team has been working in Houston since evacuation ahead of Hurricane Ida this past weekend.
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"Most of our team, not all, are back. Two or three guys are probably, I'll need to see Friday, two or three guys are probably not going to be ready to play," Orgeron said on this week's SEC coaches conference call, "but most of our team are back and we're excited about that."
One of the players not expected to get on the field is freshman Malik Nabers, who has been impressive in camp practices but likely to miss multiple weeks. The young receiver suffered a shoulder injury, according to a report from The Advocate.
Orgeron didn't name the players who could miss the opener, but noted that top running backs John Emery and Ty Davis-Price had both returned to practice.
Even without Nabers, LSU has an abundance of weapons at wide receiver, led by sophomore Kayshon Boutte who set records late last season with quarterback Max Johnson.
"We had our best practice of the whole camp yesterday at [the Houston Texans' NRG] Stadium," Orgeron said. "We played music. Our guys were fired up."
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MORE FROM ORGERON
ON PLAYERS CONTACTING HOME AFTER HURRICANE IDA
"They've been on the phones with mommas and daddies and families. Our administration have been kind to help if any of our families need help so as far as our players feeling that family is okay, everybody's okay. Some of the houses are really damaged, some of them need to be displaced in the hotels, but I think for the most part, everybody is fine."
ON HOUSTON EVACUATION, HOW PLAN DEVELOPED AHEAD OF STORM
"It was Friday morning when we heard the hurricane was coming. As you know it came up fast and met with the administration. I think everybody was on the same page. The thoughts were if we stay in Baton Rouge, first of all, are our players going to be in harm's way. I didn't want that, No. 1.
"No. 2 if we did stay, we were taking a chance that we could practice or we couldn't practice. We definitely need an opportunity to get our players safe and an opportunity to practice. We thought about Dallas first because ... they could say the hurricane's coming to Louisiana, it could turn to Houston, but then we heard that it's definitely coming to Louisiana. Houston was quicker so we decided to come to Houston."