Tag: John Emery

UCLA target John Emery Jr. returning to LSU

John Emery returns to LSU…

The UCLA Bruins had high hopes they would be able to nab John Emery, who entered the transfer portal in April.  In late May, Matt Zenitz, a college football reporter for 247Sports had the crystal ball for Emery to UCLA. But, last week Emery announced he would be returning to LSU for another season.

Emery, from Saint Rose Louisiana, had played four seasons with the Tigers. Last season, he was a little banged up and ended with just 23 carries and 121 yards. In his career though, he has 14 touchdowns on the ground, and 2 more via receiving for the Tigers.

LSU finished the season 10-3 last year, and 6-2 in SEC West play.

TJ Harden is set to be the lead running back for the Bruins under first-year head coach DeShaun Foster. Keegan Jones and Deshun Murrell both sit behind Harden on the depth chart as the summer arrives. UCLA starts its season on August 31st against Hawaii.

Transfer Breakdown: What LSU is getting with former Notre Dame RB Logan Diggs

Here’s what LSU fans can expect to see from the new addition to the running back room this fall.

LSU added another piece to its already stellar transfer class.

[autotag]Logan Diggs[/autotag], former Notre Dame running back, committed to reuniting with [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] in Baton Rouge on Tuesday.

Diggs is a former Louisiana product, so this is a homecoming of sorts for the running back. With Diggs, LSU stabilizes a running back room filled with both talent and uncertainty.

[autotag]Armoni Goodwin[/autotag] and [autotag]Josh Williams[/autotag] battled injuries last fall and this spring, [autotag]John Emery Jr.[/autotag] is still away from the team as he tries to get his academics in order, and you don’t know what to expect from a true freshman like [autotag]Trey Holly[/autotag].

Diggs is a guy who has produced at the Power Five level. Let’s take a closer look at what LSU is getting.

LSU State of the Program: Evaluating running back outlook in 2023 and beyond

The Tigers have quite a bit of depth in the backfield entering 2023.

With spring practice set to begin next month, it’s time to start looking at how LSU shapes up at each position group entering 2023. Earlier this week, we took a look at the quarterback room. Now, we move on to the running backs.

Roster construction isn’t just about this year though; coaches also have to build for the future. In these position previews, we’ll be looking at the outlook for each position group for the next several years.

Running back looks good for LSU right now. It’s one of the most experienced rooms on the team and just signed a couple of standout recruits.

Let’s jump right in.

Grading every LSU position group through five games

Here’s how we’d evaluate things approaching the halfway mark of the season.

Five games in, LSU sits at 4-1.

The theme this year has been fresh faces. From [autotag]Jayden Daniels[/autotag] to freshmen starting offensive tackles to a novel group of corners, LSU is breaking in the new.

At 4-1 in a rebuilding year, there aren’t many complaints from an expectations standpoint, but you can still find plenty of areas where this group needs work.

It’s been a mixed bag this far with some inconsistent performances from game to game. Over the last four weeks, it’s been enough for LSU to get the win.

With the schedule getting tougher, starting this week with Tennessee, LSU will need to find some more consistency.

Here’s how each position group grades out five games into the season.

Five players who need to have big games against Mississippi State

LSU will need these guys to have big games on Saturday.

Mississippi State’s air raid offense is unlike anything else LSU will see this year. Every offense in college football probably has some elements of the air raid in it by now, but Mike Leach’s version remains a full-fledged version of the offense.

In 2020, we saw what happens when a defense isn’t prepared for it. In fairness, that 2020 defense wasn’t prepared for much at all, much less the air raid. LSU responded in 2021, heading to Starkville with a much better plan. The Tiger defense consistently dropped eight guys into coverage, only rushing three.

LSU wanted to take away the passing lanes, preventing Will Rogers from making those patented quick throws. The Tigers also did a good job at making open field tackles, not allowing Mississippi State to take advantage of the space that the air raid creates.

The Tigers got that win last year because some players stepped up. Here are five guys who will need to do that on Saturday.

Five key takeaways from LSU’s spring game

Here are the takeaway’s from Brian Kelly’s first spring game in Baton Rouge

For the first time ever, Brian Kelly led LSU down victory hill.

It wasn’t a real game, but one could argue it was the first real moment of Kelly’s tenure.

It can be hard to piece together information from spring games, you still have to keep a holistic view of previous knowledge.

All of the eyes in Baton Rouge today were on the quarterbacks. LSU fans got to see Jayden Daniels and Walker Howard in Tiger Stadium for the first time.

In the case of Daniels, it seems like he has really progressed over the course of the spring as he has continued to get comfortable in Baton Rouge. He made some big-time throws, including big plays to Brian Thomas Jr and Jack Bech.

All four quarterbacks were responsible for at least one touchdown drive.

The wide receivers and defensive linemen flashed their talent today, and those two groups are expected to be the strength heading into the fall.

LSU was without star receiver Kayshon Boutte as he still works to get back after his 2021 was cut short due to injury. Garrett Dellinger and Marlon Martinez were also absent, and they are two guys that could compete for time this fall.

With all that said, here are five key takeaways from LSU’s spring game.

LSU breakout candidates: What can linebacker Mike Jones Jr. be this year?

Jones found his groove down the stretch in 2021. Can he build on that in 2022?

Recently, we took a look at [autotag]Garrett Dellinger[/autotag] and [autotag]John Emery[/autotag], two guys who LSU could be counting on to breakout.

Today, we’ll take a look at linebacker [autotag]Mike Jones Jr.[/autotag], who could also be critical to the Tigers’ efforts in 2022.

Jones transferred to LSU in the summer of 2021, and it seemed like a perfect match. LSU needed help after a dreadful 2020 on defense that saw some of its worst play at safety and linebacker in years. Jones was seen as a guy that could aid the team in both places.

In 2020 at Clemson, he was named to the All-ACC list by Pro Football Focus. As a redshirt freshman in 2020, he saw action in all 15 games, including special teams snaps against LSU in the national championship game.

When Jones only played one snap in the opener against UCLA, many were surprised. The next three games presented more snaps for Jones, but against Auburn, he was back down to just two snaps. A couple of weeks later against Florida, just one again.

It wasn’t until after the bye week, against Alabama, that Jones saw more time. That bye week is also the period in which LSU almost entirely reinvented its defense, resulting in it looking like one of the best units in the country down the stretch.

In that Alabama game, Jones lined up all over the place, much like people thought he would when he first joined LSU. Playing a role in its new blitz packages, Jones recorded three pressures and a sack.

Jones saw a healthy amount of playing time the next week against Arkansas, where LSU held the Razorbacks to just one touchdown all night. Against ULM the next week, Jones added three more pressures.

While he never became a dominant or All-SEC player with LSU in 2021, he found a role, starting the final five games, something that wasn’t close to guaranteed when he was riding the bench against UCLA.

Jones is a former four-star recruit and was ranked as the 210th best player in 2018 on the 247Sports Composite. He’s talented and versatile, a combination defensive coordinators love to see.

With the loss of [autotag]Damone Clark[/autotag], a linebacker whose speed allowed him to have an effect in the passing game, LSU needs Jones to step up. The opportunity is there with a new staff and some open spots on that defense.

In a conference where speed is the name of the game, and a sport where defense is more about making plays than trying to play consistently from drive to drive, someone with Jones’ ability is invaluable.

Will he be one of the best defenders in the SEC? Probably not, but it is on the high end of probabilities. Can he be a real difference-maker for LSU? Yes, and the Tigers probably need him to be.

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Will 2022 finally be LSU running back John Emery’s year?

Emery has all the talent in the world, and 2022 could be the year he finally shows it.

Nobody likes waiting for things — especially in the SEC, where patience is a rare commodity.

For the last few years now, LSU fans have been waiting for running back John Emery to break out. The former five-star and top-15 overall recruit has shown flashes but has yet to cement himself as a difference-maker.

Emery’s time at LSU has been anything but a smooth ride. In early 2020, it was reported that he had an operation done to correct his vision. Emery had been playing legally blind in one eye since his early high school days.

Then came the pandemic, which disrupted life for everyone, but Emery and LSU Football as a whole may have been affected as much as anyone across college sports.

Emery was ruled academically ineligible to compete in 2021. As part of his defense, Emery’s lawyer stated that Emery’s step-father spent a long time in the hospital, largely due to issues from COVID-19 and that in 2020, Emery’s grandmother had passed away.

LSU and Emery applied for a waiver on these grounds to void the academic suspension, but it was upheld and Emery did not see the field in what was supposed to be his breakout year.

Emery is back with the Tigers, and supposedly, he’s ready to go.

He has averaged 4.9 yards on 115 carries to this point. His best game came against Vanderbilt in 2020, in which he ran for 103 yards on just 12 attempts while also catching three passes for 21 yards.

According to Pro Football Focus, Emery was fifth in the SEC in yards after contact per attempt in 2020. Emery did that while also showing breakaway speed. This is a running back that has all the tools necessary. It wouldn’t take one long to realize why Emery was a five-star prospect when watching his highlights.

In his freshman year, Emery was one of the most elusive backs in the conference, granted it was a limited sample size.

When Emery has played, it’s tough to find something to knock him with. Maybe he hasn’t shown himself a ton as a receiver, but he’s never been asked to or been put in an offense meant to emphasize that.

Coach Brian Kelly and offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock are two offensive minds that have put a lot of emphasis on the running back over the years. In 2021 under Denbrock at Cincinnati, Jerome Ford let the American Athletic Conference in rushing. In 2019, Cincinnati back Michael Warren posted a 1,263-yard campaign.

Denbrock’s backs have not been asked to do a lot coming out of the backfield, so how Emery and the other guys in that room are used in the passing game will be something to watch.

In 2020, Emery also did not have the best offensive line in front of him. It’s no sure thing that he will this fall, but it should at least be better.

If Jayden Daniels ends up as the starting quarterback, Emery and his counterparts could also benefit from the defenses having to worry about a run threat at QB.

There are a lot of factors that point to Emery finally having the season that many have been waiting for. Even if it’s not the 1,200-yard, all-conference campaign that has become expected from five-star backs, it could be a season where Emery puts himself firmly in the conversation for the 2023 NFL draft. He is that type of talent.

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Running back John Emery back with LSU heading into spring camp

Emery was academically ineligible in 2021, but he’s back with the team and is working hard, according to the coaching staff.

LSU running back John Emery is back with the team and training hard, according to running back coach Frank Wilson. Emery missed all of last season after being ruled academically ineligible.

“He’s healthy; he’s practicing and improving,” Wilson said on Thursday, according to Sports Illustrated’s Glen West.

The running back tried to get multiple waivers to allow him to play last season, but he was denied every time. Emery was a five-star recruit coming out of high school.

As a freshman in 2019, Emery for 188 yards on 39 carries, he also had four rushing touchdowns. The following year, his numbers went up a little bit. He rushed for 378 yards on five yards per carry. Emery also caught 14 passes for 73 yards.

He was on track for an outstanding junior season but was deemed ineligible. Now, he should be ready to produce in the field for next season. In his two seasons at LSU, Emery showed the ability to be explosive between the tackles. In addition, he can also catch the ball out of the backfield, making him a possibly three-down running back.

Emery will join Penn State transfer Noah Cain, sophomores Corey Kiner and Armoni Goodwin. Both players played well as freshmen and turned heads. With Emery back in the running back room, it gives LSU some added depth and experience.

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