Miles: Players healthy, not overlooking Ole Miss

LSU coach Les Miles said his team will be healthy and ready to go for the Tigers' game at Ole Miss this weekend.

Senior defensive end Kendrick Adams didn't see much time on the field in LSU's 42-9 win against Western Kentucky on Saturday due to a knee injury, but Miles said Adams was back at practice this week and will be ready to play Saturday.

Following the suspension of Ole Miss starting junior quarterback Randall Mackey, fellow junior quarterback Zack Stoudt will start for the Rebels against LSU this weekend.

Stoudt spent time at the University of Louisville when LSU quarterbacks coach Steve Kragthorpe was coaching the Cardinals.

Miles said the Tigers will be prepared for Stoudt.

"We've gone back and looked [at Stoudt]," Miles said. "We've seen their offense and we expect that there will be pieces of the best of their offense on display Saturday."

Miles said he hasn't decided on a starting quarterback for the game. While both senior quarterbacks Jordan Jefferson and Jarrett Lee saw time against Western Kentucky, Jefferson took a vast majority of the snaps.

While students may be looking ahead to a possible Southeastern Conference Championship game and other big games down the road, Miles said LSU has done well focusing on Ole Miss.

"I'm not noticing the distraction in how we practice," Miles said. "That's really my greatest parameter for how my team is. They come to work and they're interested and they're plugged in and enthusiastic and wanting to be better."

Miles also deflected any talk about the 2009 Ole Miss game, now infamous for a clock mismanagement debacle.

"I step out of the past," he said. "I go back and I hash it out and go forward."

According to Miles, the Tigers' tough early season games against Oregon, West Virginia and Mississippi State prepared LSU for the situation it faced at Alabama and will face as the season goes on.

Miles said he always consults his team before scheduling tough early-season games, such as the one against Oregon.

"I have always turned to my team and asked them if they wanted in, because it's not about the coach, it's about the team," he said. "The team wanted to prepare."

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Contact Albert Burford at aburford@lsureveille.com