Fall camp has come and gone, the LSU Tigers are now focused on opening the season against UCLA in just 10 days. There were more than a few players who stood out from camp, such as freshman quarterback Garrett Nussmeier who threw for 533 yards and six touchdowns in the two scrimmages.
On the defensive side of the ball, one player who stood out was edge defender Ali Gaye. On Saturday, the senior had a few sacks in the scrimmage. He was listed as one of the top returning edge defenders in the SEC and for good reason. Gaye was a menace for opposing offensive linemen to deal with. Last season he led the team with 9.5 TFLs and 38 total pressures.
Recently 247Sports named their top camp performers for each SEC team, for LSU it was all about the former JUCO transfer.
LSU: Ali Gaye, Edge
What 247Sports Says…
Gaye signed on with LSU out of junior college, and despite not having spring practices and the coaches going through a much different summer workout routine in 2020, the first-year edge rusher exploded onto the college scene in the fall. By the time 10 SEC games and come and gone, Gaye was one of the conference’s best defensive ends, finishing the year with 32 tackles, two sacks, a team-high 9.5 tackles for loss, six passes deflected and one interception.
A big season will be needed from Gaye, Andre Anthony, and BJ Ojulari as they try to fix the defensive failings from last season. Under Bo Pelini, the Tigers defense gave up 34.9 points, 323 passing yards, and 492.1 total yards per game. Pretty abysmal set of numbers. The 34.9 points per game surrendered were the most by an LSU team in over 50 years.
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