It wasn’t the reason the Tigers lost on Sunday night against Florida State, but Maason Smith’s absence certainly played a role as LSU’s defense struggled to slow the Seminoles down in the second half.
Smith was serving a one-game NCAA suspension in the opener, but he’ll be back on the field on Saturday night against Grambling for his first game action since tearing his ACL in last season’s opener.
Coach [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] couldn’t contain his excitement when asked about Smith’s impending return on Tuesday.
“Giddy,” Kelly said. “Is that a good enough word? I’d say gritty but giddy is the best I could come up with in one word. No, I mean, he obviously impacts our defense. You know, he allows us to do different things, he’s a guy that can play the five-technique, he can play the three, he can play the one, the zero. I mean, his flexibility on our defense provides a new dimension that we’re excited about getting him back.”
Still, Kelly isn’t going to rush Smith back into a major workload given that he’s still not quite 100% after recovering from a knee injury.
“I think that we have the be realistic,” Kelly said on Wednesday during the SEC Coaches Teleconference, according to On3. “When you haven’t played in over a year, he’s not going to be able to play the duration of the game. If we can get somewhere near 30 snaps, we’d be really excited about that. Again, he’s practicing for us but it’s going to take a little bit of time. Hopefully, we can get somewhere in that range of quality snaps from him and give him the chance to impact the game.”
[autotag]Mekhi Wingo[/autotag], [autotag]Jacobian Guillory[/autotag] and [autotag]Jordan Jefferson[/autotag] held down the interior on Sunday night, but Smith’s talent and versatility should provide a major boost to this defense going forward.
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