SportsLine wire reports
April 26, 1999

Baton Rouge, La. -- The trend continued Saturday.

Sloppy play and a boring game ended with an all too common result.

LSU beat themselves.

Sound familiar?

This time it was the football team, again.

"We were experimenting with a lot of new things," tight end Jamal Pack said.

It helped a little that the Tigers were playing themselves, though, as the White team defeated the Gold 7-6 on a late touchdown pass from Josh Booty.

The low score is a testament to the massive turnaround Lou Tepper's defense continued with another strong performance in the spring game.

"How 'bout that defense," DiNardo joked after the game. "No complaints now, huh? Little pressure, little man-to-man. Hell, what about the offense?"

THE DEFENSE STEPPED UP ITS play after falling under much criticism last season. The Gold and White teams combined for 12 sacks, seven by the Gold team.

"I think we progressed as a group really well," Bubba Alexander said.

Alexander's "teammate" Kareem Mitchell lead all players with three sacks for a total of 19 yards.

"There's a lot of enthusiasm going through the defense right now," Theo Williams said. "Everybody was ready for the spring game, get the spring over with, so everybody was hyped for that."

DiNardo has been pleased with the improvement in the defense.

"I thought the pursuit's been really good and Jeremy Lawrence has shown some good speed off the edge," he said. "Bubba Alexander has had a knack for making plays all spring and he did it again tonight."

Last season's problems may have shifted sides of the ball this spring. DiNardo now faces the task of finding a starting quarterback for his team.

THE LESS THAN ENTERTAINING DISPLAY on offense Saturday did not go unnoticed by the players and left the coaching staff with a tough evaluation job.

DiNardo was not ready to name a number one QB after the game.

"I don't think you can get enough out of tonight to do that," DiNardo said. "They were balanced going in, so they came out balanced."

A new offensive system is being put in place by coordinator Bob McConnell and had the trio of quarterbacks facing many challenges that are relatively new to them.

"Of course we didn't put on a good show tonight because we're trying to experiment with four receivers, three receivers, two tight ends, just a whole bunch of things we're going to try to do in the fall," Pack said.

After the team returns for fall practice DiNardo's wish is to have a "clear-cut starter" by time the season starts.

"The first week would probably be soon because you're not in pads for three days," DiNardo said. "So it might be the second scrimmage."

EVALUATION TIME: The big question left for DiNardo and his staff to answer is who will be the number one quarterback .

All three QB's put up similar numbers Saturday night in Tiger Stadium. Rohan Davey completed 9-of-16 passes for 123 yards and one interception. Booty completed 11-of-19 for 111 and Craig Nall completed 10-of-20 for 135. Both Nall and Booty threw one touchdown pass.

With the large amount of sacks in the game and the trio putting up similar numbers DiNardo has a different way of helping him decide who his starter might be.

"I think all three have good escapability, though it's a different quarterback then Herb, but I think the hardest thing to evaluate is who's going to stay in there when they know they're not protected," DiNardo said. "You have two choices. You either unprotect them during camp or you go into the season not really knowing how they're going to react."