LSU football has notable absences during 12th fall camp practice

BATON ROUGE — As LSU football reached the back half of fall camp with its 12th practice of the preseason, it did so without some notable names on Tuesday, Aug. 18.

The Tigers worked another full-padded practice at the Charles McClendon Practice Facility in the hot evening. No. 13 LSU is set to kick off the Lane Kiffin era in Baton Rouge in 18 days when they host No. 23 Clemson for Kiffin's highly-anticipated debut in Week 1 inside Tiger Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 5 (6:30 p.m. CT, ABC).

Media members were allowed to view two periods of Tuesday's practice as the team worked through two individual position drills.

Here's what stood out at LSU's 12th fall camp session.

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Sophomore tailback Harlem Berry was not spotted at practice for the second straight day. This has been a new development as Berry participated in LSU's first preseason scrimmage and had a standout performance Saturday inside Tiger Stadium.

But following that, the running back has not been seen in practice. Caden Durham and Stacey Gage have been filing in behind Dilin Jones.

Junior defensive end Jordan Ross also was not seen practicing for the second straight day. Up until Monday, the 6-foot-5, 246-pound pass rusher not had missed any time.

Ross has been having a good camp and has been working with the ones opposite of senior Princewill Umanmielen at the other end position. In Ross' absence the past two days, junior Dylan Carpenter has been taking reps with the first-team defense.

For the first time this preseason, star sophomore cornerback DJ Pickett was donning a gold non-contact jersey at LSU's practice. He was in a purple jersey Monday during the media viewing period.

Despite the jersey switch, Pickett did not look to be slowed by anything as he worked through a couple of different drills with the cornerbacks. But his status will be something worth monitoring as the Tigers aren't very deep at the position.

LSU junior quarterback Sam Leavitt was pretty efficient during the media viewing period. The quarterbacks and receivers worked through varying depths of routes in the 12 minutes.

On the intermediate routes, Leavitt's throws were high but he did go 2-of-3. His pass to Jayce Brown went off Brown's fingertips. But on the deeper balls, Leavitt was a perfect 6-for-6. His best throws were to Jackson Harris and Malik Elzy on 35-yard passes that were over-the-shoulder at the pylons.

Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU football has notable absences during 12th fall camp practice