As the LSU football team took the field for the first time this spring as it kicks off Year No. 2 of the Brian Kelly era, there was one position with noticeably thin ranks.
That came at running back, where none of the three major contributors from last season -- John Emery Jr., Josh Williams and Armoni Goodwin -- were in attendance.
Williams isn't far off as he continues to work back from injury. Goodwin isn't expected back on the field until the full camp, dealing with an injury of his own. But John Emery's situation, as it has been for much of his college career, is a bit more confusing.
“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."
Academics issues have been a common theme for Emery throughout his college career, and a major reason he's only appeared in 30 games since arriving at LSU in the 2019 season. While Kelly didn't specify the benchmarks this time around, the goal at this point is to make sure he's where he needs to be in that regard prior to any issues materializing going forward.
"That was the deal with John, in talking to his family, is that if his primary focus is academics and taking care of his degree, then we would have a conversation about football," Kelly said. "And so right now his focus is 100% on that.”
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Freshman Trey Holly was among the group getting extensive work on Day 1, and he took his lumps. That's to be expected, but it's how he reacted afterward that was telling. He waited in the hallway and was looking for RBs coach Frank Wilson, hoping to apologize for his mistakes.
"I said, ‘just keep showing up. Just show up every day. You’re gonna be fine,' " Kelly explained. "He’s got a great motor. He’s got a great attitude. He’s got all of the things that you want, it’s just the first day and he’s swimming.”
DELIBERATE SCHEDULE
The Tigers kick off practice today, and have another day of work this week before spring break hits and the players get a week off. And that was intentional, Kelly said. The team is working in those off weeks as a way of extending the total camp program.
“It just allows us the ability to spend more time in terms of meeting and contact hours with our football team," Kelly said. "So that’s kind of the, I guess the tactic, if you will, in terms of trying to spread it out over a longer period of time.”
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ON WALKER HOWARD'S TRANSFER/NUSSMEIER SURGERY
Highly-touted freshman Walker Howard opted to enter the transfer portal this offseason, rather than sit behind Jayden Daniels and Garrett Nussmeier for another season.
“You’re ready for everything," Kelly said. "You want to do a great job of retention and sometimes it’s out of your hands.”
The good news for the Tigers is that Nussmeier is back and offers premium depth behind Daniels. The junior did undergo offseason corrective surgery, but was out throwing on Thursday and should be a full-go in the coming weeks.
“I think [Nussmeier] is excited and I think [Freshman Rickie Collins] got a lot of work today, so we’ve got three quarterbacks that will get a lot of work in the spring. I think we’re in a good place.”
NABERS PRESENT
Malik Nabers was on the field for Day 1 of spring practice. Brian Kelly told The Advocate earlier this week that his discipline was handled internally and would not result in any missed games.