Miles: Things will be different, exciting

• By SCOTT RABALAIS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Feb 29, 2008 - Page: 1C

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

LSU’s road to the Superdome and last season’s BCS national championship was filled with one heart-pounding thriller after another.

LSU came back to win from double-digit deficits in four games — including the 38-24 win over Ohio State for the title. Two triple-overtime defeats left the 12-2 Tigers as the only team in America not to trail at the end of regulation play.

The players may have changed a bit since LSU coach Les Miles lifted the Bowl Championship Series crystal trophy football over Bourbon Street, but the game remains the same.

As the Tigers begin spring football practice today, Miles has this advice:

Hold on to your hat.

“It’s going to be a new cast,” Miles said. “It’s going to be different coaches, different playmakers, and I promise you some exciting times.”

LSU returns 44 letterwinners and 12 starters from last year’s team, a group Miles said for the most part had the best attendance for offseason workouts he’s seen in his four years in Baton Rouge.

“We just came through a period of coaches’ sessions,” Miles said, “high intensity workouts. They’re very difficult. Everyone starts in a gray shirt, and upon completion of the workouts without any issue you get a championship shirt.

“We’ve done that the last three springs. This is by far and away the best performance by the team in these drills.”

With, of course, one glaring exception.

Miles indefinitely suspended junior quarterback Ryan Perrilloux, the overwhelming favorite to replace Matt Flynn as LSU’s starter, earlier this month for violating team rules.

Though it was his third suspension in the last year, Miles didn’t rule out the prospect of Perrilloux rejoining the team — perhaps even before the April 5 Spring Game.

If or until that happens, LSU’s quarterbacking duties will be primarily split by junior Andrew Hatch — a former walk-on from Harvard — and redshirt freshman Jarrett Lee. Another walk-on, redshirt freshman T.C. McCartney, is the third-string signal caller.