An LSU starting safety has been shut down for the rest of the spring

LSU’s starting safeties did not practice Tuesday morning, and one of them won’t again this spring.

Coach Brian Kelly said after practice that junior Major Burns and senior Greg Brooks, who was wearing a walking boot early last week, are both dealing with ankle injuries.

Kelly said Burns re-injured an old ankle problem and will be shut down for the rest of the spring. He said Brooks could return from a sprained ankle as early as this weekend.

“We’ll have those guys back for all of their full training, but that’s just why you’re seeing young guys out there playing safety,” Kelly said. “We wanted to get healthy at those positions more so.”

LSU practiced for the 10th time this spring and opened the session for 20 minutes during individual drills. The Tigers will practice again Friday and Saturday and twice more next week before holding their annual spring game April 22 in Tiger Stadium.

True freshman wide receiver Jalen Brown, who was not seen in the last open practice April 4, worked on his conditioning. Kelly said Brown has a “Grade 1-plus” hamstring injury, but believes he will be cleared to return to full activity Friday.

Burns, a Baton Rouge native, has played in 14 games with 10 starts over the last two years since transferring from Georgia. He missed parts of both seasons with injuries. During his LSU career, he has recorded 63 tackles, an interception and 3 ½ tackles for loss.

Brooks has been recovering from the ankle sprain. He shed the walking boot and ran with other injured players during practice last Tuesday. Kelly said he can put 80% of his body weight on an anti-gravity treadmill.

“We won’t practice Major again,” Kelly said, “but we’ll probably get Greg back out there this weekend.”

LSU has a thin group of safeties with Brooks and Burns out.

Redshirt sophomore Matthew Langlois hasn’t practiced because of an injury, so the Tigers only have redshirt sophomore Sage Ryan, redshirt freshman Jordan Allen, early enrollee Ryan Yaites and early enrollee Javien Toviano. Ryan and Toviano spend more time at nickel.

“Yaites is playing a ton of safety,” Kelly said. “I don’t know if he would have gotten all this work. It’s great that we’re giving him this kind of work. He was out there in the two-minute (drill) today. He’s got to make a lot of checks.

“A lot of the adjustments have to be made on the back end. As a head coach, this is kind of a really cool spring in the sense that some of the young guys have to make a lot of checks. It’s been a good proving ground for them.”