A confidant Les Miles strode to the podium on Monday afternoon to address the assembled media in the LSU Athletics Administration Building. Now in his fifth season as the lead man in Baton Rouge, this program is all Miles’.

He’s itching to play this weekend.

“I’m glad to be in game week. I’m glad to be with you all to start the new season. I can tell you that our guys are looking forward to playing a game. We’ve been going against each other so regularly that the plays that are being made just aren’t being celebrated as much as they would if you were playing an opponent, so we’re very much looking forward to starting the season. We got into our preparation for the Washington game a couple of days prior to this week, and we feel like the preparation is well underway. We look forward to going to Seattle.

This Washington team has great tradition. Don James ran a program that has been run in the past that is a storied program on the west coast that everyone has enjoyed for years. I can tell you that when I was at another school we played them in several Rose Bowls. I understand the abilities that Washington has to recruit and the style of athletes that we’ll play. I also look forward to seeing our fans travel to Washington. I can’t tell you how people have come up to me and said, ‘I’ll see you there, coach.’ It’s a heart-felt feeling when you represent LSU and you travel and you see your LSU fans there. I look forward to seeing our guys dressed in gold. The good fortune of our opponent is that their color scheme is the same or very similar, so we would like you to stand out in gold.

“What we need to do is play like we play and play like LSU has played in the past and the style of play that we’re accustomed to. Offensively, we want to play run and pass with balance, play efficiently, don’t turn the ball over and go down the field. Defensively, we have to be fast to the ball, play with great enthusiasm, make big plays and get takeaways. On special teams, we need to execute, and that’s the goal. That’s what we need to accomplish to start the season, and that’s what we need to accomplish from Week 1 on out.

“Washington did not have success last year, but that was last year. If you look at a team that returns eight starters on offense and defense, the truth is that they have talent, they had a great recruiting class, their quarterback (Jake Locker) is back healthy and the likelihood is that they will be a much improved Pac-10 team. We will have to play well and execute to do what we want to do on the west coast. When you return a veteran quarterback to a team, there are just so many things that you can do. (Head coach) Steve Sarkisian was a great offensive coordinator at USC. He coached two Heisman Trophy quarterbacks, and I’m certain he’s thrilled to be at Washington with Jake Locker. He’s the style of player that is very similar to the guys that he’s coached. I know that Washington will be prepared. Nick Holt, the defensive coordinator, and coach Sarkisian will prepare that team extremely well. I know that it will be a great challenge to our football team and look forward to it.

“I’ve never been to Washington and played there, but I’ve followed that program. Anybody in college football has followed that program with real respect. We look forward to going and playing well.”

Miles knows what a formidable foe Washington Quarterback Jake Locker is.

“Any time you play a quarterback that has mobility, there are a number of ways that he can be used. He throws very well on the run. At USC, they used a very extensive naked bootleg package that gets the quarterback on the run and gives him options to throw the football and run. Certainly, that’s one of the things they can do as well as call his number on runs, so it’s something certainly that we have to prepare for.”

Miles knows that Jake Locker will definitely line up against the Tigers, other than that he can only presume what the Huskies will do.

“We suspect what they are going to play. There isn’t a book on them (coaching staff). They have not called a play at Washington and what is USC’s personality and the type of talent they had would lend to the play calls that were offense, defense and special teams from there. I’m not certain that is what they are going to do. When you line up in the first one and you don’t really know what to expect, you have to have a pretty broad-based game plan so that you can handle the things you might see.”