**Brian Kelly and LSU Tigers Welcome Back Key Players to Fall Camp**
Brian Kelly and the LSU Tigers continue to progress through Fall Camp, with several players making their return to the practice field on Friday. With a couple of athletes recovering from ACL tears and another reinstated by the university, LSU saw nearly full attendance on Day 2 of Fall Camp.
**The Availability Report:**
**Javien Toviano: Cornerback**
Toviano was back on the practice field on Thursday for Day 1 of Fall Camp but did not participate in team drills. By Friday, he rejoined the defensive backs after using Day 1 to acclimate to the Tigers’ program. Toviano returned from a suspension following an arrest on July 21st, with Brian Kelly confirming the university’s reinstatement of the second-year Tiger.
“Javien [Toviano] has been reinstated by the university,” Kelly said after Thursday’s practice. “He is back in football activities. We will get him going again and back in the mix. He will be a competitive player for us. He played for us last year (as a freshman). We will get him going as he works through his legal matters.”
**Zy Alexander: Cornerback**
Alexander, who spent Thursday on the sidelines, returned to the field on Friday after rehabbing a torn ACL suffered during the 2023 season. Now fully cleared, Alexander is focused on earning a starting cornerback role, likely alongside Ashton Stamps.
“He’s been cleared for everything,” Kelly said of Alexander. “But when you have a knee, you need to experience some things like getting tripped up in the hole and cutting off of it and feeling the scar tissue and going ‘Oh my goodness, that’s what that feels like.’
“So he’s full-go, but he’s in that process of getting back into football activities and that sometimes takes some time before you feel real comfortable.”
**John Emery: Running Back**
Emery, also recovering from a torn ACL in 2023, returned to the program and took reps with the first team on Friday. He showed agility and the ability to make cuts, working both out of the backfield and catching passes on screen routes.
“Talking to (running backs coach) Frank (Wilson), we wanted to do two things,” Kelly said. “We wanted to put John in a position where the reps mattered and mattered in the sense of he had to cut, he had to be stressed.
“He’s cleared, so we wanted every rep that he got to be, maybe this is a bad analogy, but a high-leverage rep, if you will. We didn’t want him out there, you know, just blocking or taking a rep that didn’t force him to put his foot in the ground and accelerate. We want to really stress him in the sense of making sure he feels great with that knee, because if he feels great, he’s fearless.”
**Absentees:**
– Shelton Sampson: Wide Receiver
– Bradyn Swinson: EDGE
– Jalen Lee: Defensive Tackle
Sampson was the only absence due to medical reasons, having hit his head on the ground after making a pair of contested catches on Day 1. The Tigers are exercising caution by holding him out after he was shaken up on Thursday. Swinson and Lee have excused absences as they work towards earning their LSU degrees, with graduation approaching in the coming weeks.
LSU will return to the practice fields on Saturday for Day 3 of Fall Camp, with full pads coming next week.
