I know I'm late to this but as a former Drum Captain at LSU and current Percussion Director I'll throw some more info in.

First, it's totally possible to make a drum your Freshman year. Plenty of people have done it, including me. You just need to show up prepared and have hands.

Be well versed in the PAS Standard Rudiments. You should be able to play all of them off the right and left hands. Also be well-versed in the more common hybrid rudiments (cheeses, fives, inverts, single-hand cheeses, etc) as they show up in the show music and even in the sequence music.

Timing timing timing timing. Everything you practice should be with a metronome with your feet moving. Everything. At various tempi. If you are going for a bass spot make sure to learn ALL the split parts, as you have no idea where they will put you in the end.

Practice on a drum. Look, pads are cool and all but it's definitely a different feel than a drum. Get on a marching drum as much as possible.

Record yourself. When you rep exercises record yourself playing and listen back to it, you will hear way more things than you do in the moment.

Reach out to current members. You can find them pretty easily on social media. I'm not saying stalk them or be a creeper, but they're pretty chill people and will be more than happy to give you tips and advice.

Check-in on the website and register! Don't forget to do this, then they send you the warm-up booklet and you can get going.

Wear high-quality musician's earplugs. Aside from protecting your hearing (important) these will filter our abrasive sound waves and actually let you HEAR what is happening better than without. Some examples are Etymotic, Earasers, and Eargasm.

Last. BE COOL. No one wants to be with a jerk for an entire season. Be a cool person...that's just general life advice.

Also, to my fellow Cavalier brother on here, what up!? I marched 2004-2006 in the Pit. Great to see another member on here!