• By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Mar 27, 2009 - Page: 1C

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When LSU football coach Les Miles walked into his indoor practice facility Thursday morning, an exercise bike sat in the middle of one end zone.

How’d that get there? The force of the violent storm early Thursday morning had blown open two service doors on the west side, with the bike getting pushed through one of those openings by the barrage of winds that swept through in the early morning hours.

More significantly, much of the facility’s roof got peeled back and twisted, with the underlying insulation pulled out and strewn around the area.

There remained a layer that had been below the insulation, so there were no major holes, aside from one exposed strip.

However, early that evening, rain came through in spots, and sections of the practice field were covered by tarps in an effort to avoid water damage to the artificial grass surface.

“The concern is to be able to drain the water that might leak through,” Miles said. “That’s a serious issue.”

With those tarps down, the damage had an immediate effect, because LSU had to halt midway through a spring practice because of rain and lightning. Usually, LSU would have trotted inside the facility and resumed practice.

Miles said he was optimistic at least minimal repairs — pulling off the damaged metal and laying down new roofing — would allow the indoor field to be available by the middle of next week.

Spring practice runs through April 18, although LSU has one week off for spring break.

LSU senior associate athletic director Herb Vincent said there was no timetable for how long the roof repairs would take.

“I think they want to do the right thing, rather than tear it down and create a bigger job,” Miles said. “The want is to repair it right. … If the weather stays bad, it’ll keep them off the roof.”

Elsewhere, fencing along the west side of the practice fields that had been blown down by Hurricane Gustav in September was blown down again.

Segments of the fencing next to the entranceway of the football complex had been blown out. Plus, tile above the football operations offices had been pulled away, and a tree in the middle of the parking lot in front of the complex’s entrance had been snapped in two. Miles said light poles were damaged by flying debris.