DT Woods shines

Les Miles has spent many an early part of an LSU football practice this August watching his talented young defensive linemen at work.

“Now the freshmen, that was a lot of fun to watch,” the Tigers head coach said after LSU’s first day of workouts. “There’s some real talent there.”

At defensive tackle, what’s not to gush about? There have been nothing but rave reviews for rookies Chris Davenport and Josh Downs, and while Akiem Hicks is not a freshman, the junior-college transfer brings a load of talent.

But when looking for replacements for last year’s mainstays Ricky Jean-Francois and Marlon Favorite, Miles hasn’t forgotten his veterans.

There’s Drake Nevis, a key reserve last season who is solidifying a spot at one tackle. There is Charles Alexander, the oft-injured senior who started eight games last year and is hoping for a healthy senior year.

And there is Al Woods.

The senior from Elton is set to be a full-time starter for the Tigers for the first time since arriving as a highly touted freshman in 2006. He has watched Glen Dorsey and Jean-Francois go on to the NFL. And he has seen his own playing time go up — he was a significant backup on the 2007 national championship team — and down — last year, he had only 11 tackles.

This year, Woods is looking like the prospect he once was coming out of high school.

In the spring, the coaches awarded him the team’s Mike Miley Leadership Award, a sign that he was showing noticeable commitment. And on at least a couple of occasions, including Thursday, Miles has gone out of his way to praise Woods’ performance in August camp.

“The guy that stood out today was Al Woods,” Miles said Thursday. “Al Woods is really playing well.”

Not that anyone ever doubted that Woods was capable of it. He was a Parade All-American in high school who played in the U.S. Army All-American Game. But coming out of tiny Elton High School, a small-town Class 1A school in Jefferson Davis Parish not far from Kinder, the book on Woods is he had some bad habits he had trouble shedding.

Namely, Woods, who has played most of his college career about 6-foot-4, 324 pounds, has had a tendency of playing too high, which has allowed blockers to gain leverage on him. In high school, where he was often so athletically superior to his competition that he would be utilized at running back, he could play high and still be physically advanced enough to have his way anyway.

Given that experience, it was a habit he said he was initially resistant to changing at LSU.

“In my mind, I was seeing it in a different way than what they (his position coaches) wanted,” Woods said. “Now I see it the same way they see it, and I’m coming out like a cannon, to be honest with you.”

At the snap, a defensive tackle wants to be low to ground and wants to engage the offensive lineman before the offensive player can build a head of steam on the block. For Woods, it means a checklist of little techniques he needs to repeat every play.

“Butt up in the air,” he said. “Coming out with the hands and the hips and following with the feet. Reacting. Running to the ball.”

He goes through it like a morning routine, one that you get so accustomed to, you do it without thinking.

For Woods, the routine of proper technique is one he feels he has down.

“My pads are low, I’m playing with leverage,” he said. “I’m learning to stay down. I’ve lost a lot of weight.”

Woods said he weighs 304, the lightest he’s been since he arrived at LSU.

He credits the famously intense coaching of new defensive line coach Brick Haley for getting the most out of him and the other defensive linemen.

“We are OK right now, but we are striving for excellence, to be honest,” Woods said. “We are pushing and leaving no stone unturned. We are giving those coaches everything they ask for, and they are giving all of them. So we have to give them all love.

“There are no excuses. We have to give them what they give us. They give 100 (percent), we give 100.”

With so much young talent coming in at the position, Woods said he wanted to set an example, and it’s an example his coach has noticed enough to single out during camp.

At a position with so many questions, so far Woods’ name keeps coming up as an answer.

“I’m quicker and stronger than since I’ve been here,” he said. “It’s coming together for me. It really is.”