| Good morning, LSU fans. While the men's and women's basketball teams get deeper into their seasons, football is always a hot topic in these parts — even if winter temperatures have finally settled in. Monday was no exception when Brian Kelly and his staff received some great news on two fronts. First, Kelly's starting punter at Notre Dame, Jay Bramblett, decided to follow his old coach and special teams coordinator Brian Polian south and take a shot at being the successor to Tigers' punter Avery Atkins. Then, veteran receiver Jaray Jenkins, who snared the last-seconds touchdown throw that shocked Texas A&M in the season finalwide e, decided to stick around for another season rather than enter the NFL draft. Also, Wilson Alexander takes an in-depth look at Kelly's first LSU on-field staff, which was officially completed Monday with the announcement of New Orleans native Cortez Hankton as the Tigers' wide receivers coach. On the basketball front, men's coach Will Wade told beat writer Sheldon Mickles that starting guard Xavier Pinson remains day-to-day to return from a knee injury that has sidelined him for the Tigers' last two games. Wade said Pinson, who was hurt in a Jan. 8 game against Tennessee, will be a "game-time" decision for Wednesday night's huge SEC game at Alabama. In the new polls released Monday, Wade's team dropped just one spot in the AP rankings to No. 13 and four spots to No. 16 in the coaches' poll after the Tigers split two games last week — beating Florida on the road before a late-game scoring drought did them in against Arkansas. Kim Mulkey's team took another step forward, however as the Tigers rose to No. 11 in the AP poll after beating Missouri and Vanderbilt this week. It's big news for the improving program as it's the highest ranking for LSU women's basketball since the Tigers were No. 5 on Dec. 20, 2009. That's all for now. Please support our work by subscribing to one of our three print editions — The Advocate, The Times-Picayune or the Acadiana Advocate — or online at TheAdvocate.com or NOLA.com. Until next time, The LSU beat team (Sheldon Mickles, Scott Rabalais, Wilson Alexander and Leah Vann) | 
