LSU boasted one of the best offenses in school history and arguably the best in the entire nation in 2023.
[autotag]Jayden Daniels[/autotag] won the Heisman Trophy, [autotag]Malik Nabers[/autotag] finished as the nation’s second-leading receiver and a finalist for the Biletnikof Award, and [autotag]Brian Thomas Jr.[/autotag] led the nation in receiving touchdowns.
Despite those pieces, the Tigers finished with three losses and failed to repeat as SEC West champions. The defense was a major reason for that, and the Tigers have retooled nearly the entire staff on that side of the ball, which is now led by new defensive coordinator [autotag]Blake Baker[/autotag] from Missouri.
Josh Pate, host of Late Kick, praised those offseason moves.
“I don’t know that they have the personnel defensively to make it look any better but I think it will look better. I think LSU just made some really sizable defensive moves. [autotag]Kevin Peoples[/autotag], even with [autotag]Bo Davis[/autotag] coming in, even with Blake Baker coming in as the DC, I thought Peoples might be the best pound for pound defensive coach they brought in,” Pate said, per 247Sports.
“All those guys are big time upgrades over what they’ve had. When I say they made moves, that doesn’t mean everybody looks at each other and says ‘alright we’re all on board?’ Everybody has butting of heads in their athletic department. Teams that lose have it, teams that win have it. As long as everyone has the same end goal in mind, disagreement is not the worst thing in the world.”
Pate said that he still questions whether the defense will have the talent in 2024 to compete for an SEC or national championship, but he also said he’s interested to see what the team does in the spring portal window, where it’s likely to add more players with a number of position groups still looking thin.
“They have the sixth best odds to win the college football playoffs this year and that’s with being in the SEC. They have the fourth best odds to win the SEC. They are a top 10 recruiter since Brian Kelly’s been there, they are portaling very well, I don’t that the caliber of defensive personnel this year will be at the level they need it to be to compete for the national title,” Pate said.
“You’ve got the post spring portal window, let’s see what they do but I think the defensive moves they made, will at least have a different effort, a different caliber of LSU defense on the field. They got some really good players there. It is possible to scale performance using the same ingredients that made a meal last year that you didn’t like the taste of at all. You get the right teachers, the right coaches in the room and they took gigantic leaps towards doing that.”
LSU will hope Pate’s optimism is well-founded as the team looks to bounce back from a season that felt like a missed opportunity. It will have to do so without many of the stars from this year’s offense.
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