BATON ROUGE, La. -- When LSU's Anthony Jennings and Travin Dural hooked up for a 94-yard touchdown pass in last week's 56-0 win against Sam Houston State, they removed a current LSU assistant coach from the program's record books.
On his Wednesday night call-in show, Tigers coach Les Miles gleefully recalled tight ends coach Steve Ensminger's reaction -- perhaps overdramatizing the situation just a tad -- when his 36-year-old record was finally eclipsed.
"I looked around and I saw Steve Ensminger and he was going through a real tough time -- tears in his eyes, very emotional," Miles said. "I said, ‘Steve, what's wrong?' I thought something had happened. Somebody ran over his foot or something. He said, ‘Nothing. I'm hanging in there.' And I didn't really know what had gone on until I found out later that he held a record since [1978]."
Ensminger connected with Carlos Carson on an 82-yard passing touchdown against Georgia in 1978, a program record that stood all those years until Jennings-to-Dural last Saturday. So what did Miles do after the game to his assistant, whom he described as "a great coach and a great guy and loves his Tigers?"
He humorously twisted the knife even deeper, with an assist from the record-breaking quarterback and receiver.
"We gave what was the game ball to Anthony Jennings and Travin Dural to give to, then, Steve Ensminger," Miles said. "Here's what the ball said: the ball said: ‘Records were meant to be broken. The new record holders,' and then they signed their names and then listed what they had accomplished and they handed it to Steve."
NFL Tigers: The NFL announced on Wednesday that LSU had more active players on league rosters for opening weekend than any other college program. The Tigers' total of 38 was one better than USC, two better than Alabama and four up on Georgia.
LSU's total will increase to 40 this week with receiver Dwayne Bowe's return from a one-game suspension to open the season and linebacker Kelvin Sheppard's signing with the Miami Dolphins.
"Really I brought that to my team. I said, ‘OK, how many do you think are in this room?' And honestly there are a number. There may be as many as 38 yet again, right in that room," Miles said. "And I said, ‘But the balance is how do you work, how do you learn and how do you improve?' And if they do that, we may have another group that way. We have talent, we just need to play best."
Freshman DT practicing: Freshman Trey Lealaimatafao has recovered from a summertime arm injury and returned to the practice field this week, Miles said.
Lealaimatafao could get "into some live work here pretty quick. It's probably next week," Miles said, confirming that the freshman defensive tackle has been fully cleared to practice.
He's obviously off to a late start since the injury forced the former U.S. Army All-American to miss all of preseason camp and the first two weeks of the season, but Miles wouldn't guarantee that Lealaimatafao will redshirt this season.
"It's too early to tell," Miles said. "When he gets involved in the practices, should he be further ahead than we might guess, he might step in front of some guys. But it's likely that it'll take some time to evaluate him and see how he goes. I can tell you I think he learns [fast] and we expected him to be in the mix right now if he had not sustained injury."
Magee's workload: Two separate callers chastised Miles for not getting senior tailback Terrence Magee enough carries in the first two games.
Magee has carried the ball 12 times for 35 yards (2.9 yards per carry) compared to 14 carries for 65 yards (4.6 ypc) by freshman Darrel Williams, 21 for 110 (5.2 ypc) by freshman Leonard Fournette and 29 for 165 (5.7 ypc) by senior Kenny Hilliard. Fournette and Hilliard have also caught two passes apiece compared to none for Magee and Williams.
However, Miles insisted that Magee has not been demoted as one caller alleged.
"We want to give him a number of opportunities," Miles said, "and we will do so as we go forward and I am sensitive to the fact that he hasn't gotten enough carries and want to make that happen."