Now it really feels like football around here. The spring premiere of the Big Cat drill. #LSU pic.twitter.com/fOcpmnHTBc — Emily Dixon (@emilyvdixon) March 12, 2015

Nothing says spring football to an LSU fan like the arrival of “Big Cat Drill” vids online. The concept is simple on the surface: Les Miles calls out two players, one each from the offense and defense. He lines them up against each other, blows the whistle, and they go at it. A win for a defender is getting past the offensive player, the offensive player wins by getting a stop.

The drill is more than just exciting offseason one on one battles though. LSU’s coaching staff carefully selects these matchups to get the most competitive fight possible. This means watching the vids is a preview of the upcoming roster.

Follow me here. You won’t see a scrub against a starter in Big Cat. Since the matchups are set to be equal talent wise if you see a guy you know is slotted as a starter on one side then the guy on the other side is also fighting for a starting spot. Since a lot of roster spots are currently up for grabs seeing who lines up in Big Cat and how well they succeed gives us a great indicator of who has the inside track on these coveted positions.

This matchup of Junior Guard Josh Boutte and Sophomore Defensive Tackle Greg Gilmore is a great example. Boutte is in a 2 way fight for the starting Right Guard spot and probably has the inside track. Defensive Tackle is wide open, with a half dozen players vying for time in a rotation coming off a disappointing 2014 campaign.

Putting Gilmore against starting talent means he is standing out to the coaches and they want to test him against the best. Gilmore gets off the ball quickly, uses near perfect technique to develop leverage and physically beats Boutte, who has to tackle him at the end. It’s only one play, early in spring, but everything about it says Greg Gilmore is on the short list at this point.

</iframe The other guard position is a two way battle between William Clapp and KJ Malone. This next Big cat vid opens with Clapp matched up against Maquedious Bain, who is fighting to lock down the starting Right End spot vacated by Danielle Hunter. Clapp is able to shut Bain down completely here.The next pair in this vid (0:07) are TE Hanner Shipley and DE Deondre Clark. We all know who Deondre Clark is, he’s one of the players in the mix for that starting Right DE spot along with Maquedious Bain. But who in the heck is Hanner Shipley? Maybe the least heralded player of our 2015 recruiting class, Shipley is a 3 Star recruit who enrolled early. He was signed as a TE, a lot of people project him as a future Tackle though. For a true freshman early enrollee in his first camp going up against Deondre Clark is a pretty big shot.

That is followed at 0:12 by backup (and former star recruit) Clifton Garrett going up against Jacory Washington, who is pushing for starters reps at TE. You have to do better than that to make the starting lineup, Clifton!

At 0:23 we get our first look at Kevin Tolliver II. He and John Diarse fight each other to a draw. Diarse is a high talent guy with experience and expected to play a big role this fall, it’s nice to see Tolliver matched up against top talent like that here.

At 0:36 Jamal Adams and Malachi Dupre lock up in a match of starters with very bright NFL futures ahead of them. The final battle of the vid features Trey Quinn and Russell Gage. Quinn will see heavy use in the receiver rotation again this fall, Gage is fighting for one of the top CB spots.