As LSU begins fall camp this week ahead of the 2024 season, it’s getting its first look at a pair of potential contributors in quite some time.
Both cornerback [autotag]Zy Alexander[/autotag] and [autotag]John Emery Jr.[/autotag] saw their 2023 seasons end prematurely due to knee injuries, and they missed spring ball as they went through the rehab process.
As the Tigers kicked off camp on Thursday, coach [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] said that both have been totally cleared for participation, though the team is being cautious in how it brings them back into the fold.
He’s been cleared for everything,” Kelly said of Alexander. “But when you have a knee, you need to experience some things like getting tripped up in the hole and cutting off of it and feeling the scar tissue and going ‘Oh my goodness, that’s what that feels like.’
“So he’s full-go, but he’s in that process of getting back into football activities and that sometimes takes some time before you feel real comfortable.”
The same is true for Emery, who Kelly said the staff wanted to put in some “high-leverage situations” to get him comfortable following his recovery.
“Talking to (running backs coach) Frank (Wilson), we wanted to do two things,” Kelly said. “We wanted to put John in a position where the reps mattered and mattered in the sense of he had to cut, he had to be stressed.
“He’s cleared, so we wanted every rep that he got to be, maybe this is a bad analogy, but a high-leverage rep, if you will. We didn’t want him out there, you know, just blocking or taking a rep that didn’t force him to put his foot in the ground and accelerate. We want to really stress him in the sense of making sure he feels great with that knee, because if he feels great, he’s fearless.”
Alexander was a bright spot in LSU’s secondary before his injury last fall, and Emery is expected to play a key role in the running back rotation after flirting with the transfer portal this offseason.
Both may be limited during fall camp, but there’s optimism they’ll be ready to go for the start of the season.
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