BATON ROUGE — For much of this spring session for LSU football, defensive players have regaled at how new defensive coordinator Blake Baker has come in and injected some energy into that side of the ball.

It was the side that needed some new vibes after one of the statistically worse seasons in LSU history in 2023. Ultimately Brian Kelly decided to bring in Baker, who spent one season with the Tigers in the year before Kelly took the job, after overhauling his defensive staff after the season. Baker bolted for Missouri when he was offered the defensive coordinator position by Eliah Drinkwitz back in 2021.

Baker has been a hands-on coach his entire coaching career, dating back to his Louisiana Tech days in 2015-18. His latest cause has been wearing cleats in practice with LSU.

"I got to chase them, man. I tell them, if I catch you, we're in trouble," Baker said with a laugh. "But I do wear cleats in practice."

"As a (graduate assistant). To me, it does kind of send a little message to the guys that we're going to fly around. It's got a lot of different levels to it. Two, I don't want to bust my butt out there demonstrating drills. And three, if I'm wearing cleats and I catch you, you ain't running fast enough."

Kelly hopes Baker can turnaround the Tigers on defense as the unit ranked 105th in college football in total defense in 2023, giving up 416.6 yards per game. LSU's pass defense was abysmal with teams passing for 255.6 yards on it, which ranked 115th in the nation.

REQUIRED READING LSU football spring practice: Players describe new DC Blake Baker's defense

At Missouri last season, Baker's defense was the 33rd best in the country in total defense, allowing 336 yards per game. Mizzou was 30th in rushing defense at 122.8 yards per game while giving up eight touchdowns on the ground in 13 games. Through the air, opponents managed 213 passing yards on Missouri's defense.

"The style of defense we play helps. But we allow our kids to play free. They need to play within the structure of the scheme but there's a lot of opportunities to make plays within the scheme. We want to be a vertical, one gap defense where we're creating havoc in the backfield.

"Keeping it simple for our guys but making it complicated on the offense. But most importantly, it's an attitude and a mindset. I think our guys are enjoying it but they seemed to have taken to it."

For Baker, he's enjoying being back in Baton Rouge, a place and in a position that he's been shooting for his entire coaching career.

"We enjoyed our time in Columbia but the opportunity to be close to home, to family," Baker said. "My kids right now are at their grandma's, they're on their spring break so they're in Mandeville right now. Things like that, you can't take for granted when you have this opportunity in this profession, especially at a place like LSU. This, to me, has always been one of those dream jobs when I first got into coaching. I've always dreamed of being the defensive coordinator here."

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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's DC Blake Baker wears cleats in practice. Here's why.