Two LSU Tigers who suffered season-ending knee injuries last season were on the practice field for the first day of preseason camp. Running back John Emery sustained a torn ACL against Florida on November 11th. Emery is among four scholarship running backs available to carry the football. Coach Brian Kelly says they’ll use camp to see what Emery can do.
“Emery, we want to stress him in making sure he feels great with that knee, if he feels great, he’s fearless and he’s going to go,” Kelly said.
The former Destrehan star is entering his sixth and final season at LSU, trying to live up to the expectations set after a great high school career.
Emery carried the football only 23 times last season, a collegiate career low. But he should get more opportunities this season. Josh Williams, Kaleb Jackson, and Caden Durham are the only other scholarship running back available to play.
Cornerback Zy Alexander is also back after tearing his ACL on October 21st. Kelly says Emery and Alexander will use the first few days of camp to see how their repaired knees respond.
“When you have a knee (injury), you need to experience some things, like getting tripped up in the hole or cutting off of it, and feeling the scar tissue and going oh my goodness that’s what that feels like so I think Alexander has to go through cutting, planting and feeling that,” Kelly said.
Alexander is expected to start at one cornerback spot, who starts at the other is a big question. Freshman PJ Woodland is a possible candidate. Kelly says they are looking for consistent play from their corners.
“We got to test the mettle of our young players, we got to see consistency and performance and it will be about his consistency or Ashton Stamps consistency or Sage Ryan or whoever we roll out there and that’s kind of what we are looking for with a lot of our younger players,” Kelly said.
Ryan worked as a safety during spring football, but on the first day of preseason camp, Ryan was a first-team cornerback, along with Stamps.
Jardin Gilbert and Jordan Allen lined up as first team safeties, with Major Burns lining up at STAR, which is a hybrid safety-linebacker position.
Javen Toviano was also at practice, despite facing video voyeurism charges. Kelly said Toviano was reinstated by the university, but he still faces criminal charges.